OPN New Equipment Fund Drive     ______20000
                                  | |           
                 Pledges          | |   OPN       
                 From Local       | |   MEMBERS 
                 Businesses       | |   
                 ______15000     _| |__15000
                 _|$|__14000      | |
                 _|$|__13000      | |
                 _|$|__12000      | |              We're trying to raise
                 _|$|__11000      | |              $40,000 so we can grow
                 _|$|__10000     _| |__10000       to over 100 phone lines
                 _|$|__9000       | |              and serve 5000+ members.
  OPN BOARD      _|$|__8000       | |
  & VOLUNTRS     _|$|__7000       | |              Our plan is to raise
                 _|$|__6000       | |              half from OPN members 
  ______5000     _|$|__5000      _| |__5000        like yourself and then
  _| |__4000     _|$|__4000       | |              match your contributions
  _| |__3000     _|$|__3000       | |              with funds from business
  _|$|__2000     _|$|__2000       |$|              sponsors and volunteers.
  _|$|__1000     _|$|__1000       |$|              
  _|$|__0        _|$|__0         _|$|__0           Please Pitch In!
  /$$$\          /$$$\           /$$$\
  \OPN/          \OPN/           \OPN/


CLIF COX NAMED COOL TECHNO-PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR!

The National Public Telecomputing Network says that starting a Free-Net
has never been successfully done by a single person and that it always
requires a group of several people to successfully get started.  We beg
to differ.  For those of you who don't already know, Clif Cox started
the original EFN service in a small closet under the stairs in his
home.  It grew there to 22 phone lines.

Since the Eugene Free Community Network and Lane Online joined forces
last year, many of us have been wondering if or how we could ever repay
Clif for his $35,000 of equipment, software and sweat equity he
invested to get the original EFN system up and running.

In December, Clif sold all the original equipment to OPN for $1 and
donated the remaining $34,999 on the condition that OPN continue to
keep the current free services free.  It was an outstanding and
inspiring individual contribution to the whole greater
Eugene-Springfield area.  We hope you'll share our feelings of
gratitude toward Clif, for he really is a jolly good fellow, that
nobody can deny.


NEW EQUIPMENT FUNDRAISING: HALF-FULL OR HALF-EMPTY?

As you can see from the above chart, we're making progress toward our
goal for new equipment, but there's still a long way to go.  Those of
you who have been members for a few months already know how lucky you
are to live in Eugene and have access to OPN.  Unfortunately, there are
still a lot of people left out in the cold because we don't have enough
computing equipment power to support all the people who would like to
come on-line.  

We need your help, once again.  Even though we've added 20 phone lines
and 32Mb of RAM since the LCC move, the system is already showing signs
of being overloaded again.  We're almost up to 2100 members now and
we're hearing that busy signal more often.  We need to grow the system
again and we hope that your contributions will allow OPN to do that
sooner rather than later and avoid the frustration of an overcrowded
system.

Consider for a few moments how much you've used OPN's system since you
came on-line and how hard OPN's volunteers have worked to make that
possible.  Can we go beyond individual heroism to being a community of
heroes and heroines?  We've already benefited from the generous works
of others.  What legacy can we collectively offer to our City?  We
still need to raise about $17,000 from OPN members such as yourself to
make the next quantum leap in serving the information needs of the
Greater Emerald City.  I hope you'll add your own contribution to
this cause.

Please take a moment and mail a check today (payable to "Oregon Public
Networking" or "OPN") to:

            OPN, Attn: New Equipment Fund
            PO Box 1914
            Eugene OR 97440-1914

Remember to write your user-id (login name) and "New Equipment Fund" on
the check in the "memo" or "for" space in the lower left.  Thanks for
your support.

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      Oregon Public Networking  -- "Connect Globally; Dial Locally"
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