International Spaceflight Museum

A week after the ISM Board of Directors’ decision to sell Spaceport Bravo, leaving the region behind when the SciLands moved, a generous donor committed to paying the entire monthly tier/rent cost of our second island/region for the indefinite future.  Spaceport Bravo joined the rest of the SciLands four days after their move

To this person, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, we offer the heartfelt thanks of the Board, all the volunteer staffers, and the 3000-4000 monthly visitors to the International Spaceflight Museum!  A rescuer of ISM, encouraging likewise efforts by others someday, and giving hope.

-Paradox Olbers,

ISM President & head of operations

I reported at the weekly Wednesday 4 pm PDT/SLT meeting that we had a matching donor for the next month – if a person makes a donation, he’ll match it.  But I wasn’t telling the truth; the donor is me, and the staff can’t keep supporting Bravo by ourselves. 

Here’s our true situation:  Most of our donations come from the volunteer staff, a few large contributions (U$10 to U$50) each month and we can’t keep it up since we have to cover at least half of Spaceport Alpha’s rent/tier too.  So I’ll match all public [not staff] contributions up to one month’s rent for Bravo – U$195 – made before Sept 20th.  I apologize for trying to drum up contributions by using this tactic and then redefining the offer.

I’ve changed my original offer that didn’t put a cap on the matching because we’ve just got some outstanding publicity in RL  and possibly a big staffer donation too, which could lead to public contributions that would exceed my ability to match.  The new publicity that gave me renewed hope for a large increase?

*On Thursday, Hamlet Au’s New World Notes, one of the largest five sources of SL news, gave us a great post asking people to help.  [Clarification - my original offer was to cover this month's rent/tier, NOT indefinitely until the 501c3 came through.]  http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/08/save-spaceport-bravo.html 

*Earlier today (Friday), Rik Riel also gave us a supportive post as well at Betterverse.org.  http://www.betterverse.org/2009/08/the-second-life-spaceflight-museum-needs-help.html

Thanks to you both for getting our situation out to many avatars who have never heard of the International Spaceflight Museum before!

-Paradox Olbers, President of ISM and head of operations

[Update, March - all five items drew sponsorship/gift bids, raising a total of U$78 for ISM. Thanks to all the bidders!]====================================
International Spaceflight Museum
Exhibit Sponsorship Program auctions
February, 2008
====================================

Five exhibits are up for auction this month.

To submit a bid on eBay:
1. Go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZism_exhibits
   OR
   a. Go to www.eBay.com .
   b. Click on “Advanced Search” near the top.
   c. In the Search panel on the left, choose “Items by Seller”.
   d. In the “Enter seller’s User ID” field, type “ism_exhibits” and click Search.
2. Go to the exhibit you’d like to sponsor, enter a maximum bid amount and click Place Bid.

Auctions will end on February 27, 2008 around 8pm SLT.

Sponsorships will begin on March 1, 2009 and end on August 31, 2009.

Lunar Roving Vehicle (Item # 120381271015)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Bravo/39/96/23/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-LunarRovingVehicle

Mars Pathfinder (Sagan Memorial Station) (Item # 120381271268)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/223/236/634/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-MarsPathfinder

Pluto New Horizons (Item # 120381271488)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/184/216/751/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-PlutoNewHorizons

Mercury 4 (Item # 120381271718)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/124/97/34/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-Mercury4

Minuteman II (Item # 120381271862)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/153/101/34/
http://ism-exhibits.wikidot.com/ism-MinutemanII

The application for federal tax-exempt status — non-profit, or 501(c)(3) — has been filed with the US Internal Revenue Service on behalf of the ISM Corporation. This corporation is the Real Life organization that manages the financial affairs of the International Spaceflight Museum. Now we wait to hear from them.

Assuming the application is approved, we can then petition Linden Lab to lower our “land use fees” (server costs) to the level charged other non-profit organizations, which would cut our costs drastically. Since buying our first island we have paid full retail for our space-space, with current costs running nearly US$400 per month. But in the meanwhile, again assuming the application is approved, anyone who has made a financial donation to the museum and who pays US income taxes can include those donations in their itemized charitable deductions back to the corporation’s founding in October 2006. This is possible because we submitted the application (just barely) within twenty-seven months of incorporating.

In the meantime, thank you for your past support, and please don’t stop! We need your contributions to keep the museum running, so visit our donation page, or just click this button to send a gift to the ISM now.

How else could Santa deliver gifts so fast?  ;D

Start the new year by sponsoring one of Santa’s “reindeer” this holiday season.  We have six up on auction until Dec 27, including the N-1 rocket, the Magellan, AND…

… the Gemini V Titan II which is the ONLY rideable rocket at the ISM!  Yup, that’s the rocket that transports people to the Low Earth Orbit platform!  How cool is that!

To submit a bid on eBay:
1. Go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZism_exhibits
OR
a. Go to www.eBay.com .
b. Click on “Advanced Search” near the top.
c. In the Search panel on the left, choose “Items by Seller”.
d. In the “Enter seller’s User ID” field, type “ism_exhibits” and click Search.
2. Go to the exhibit you’d like to sponsor, enter a maximum bid amount and click Place Bid.

Auctions will end on December 27, 2008 around 7pm.

Sponsorships will begin on January 1, 2009 and end on June 30, 2009.

N-1 (Item # 120351885237) – One of the ISM’s biggest rockets on exhibit.
SLURL wiki

Gemini V Titan II (Item # 120351886208) – Yes, this is the one you ride to get to the Low Earth Orbit platform.
SLURL wiki

Magellan (Item # 120351886659)
SLURL wiki

Jupiter-C / Juno I (Item # 120351887168)
SLURL wiki

Jupiter / Juno II (Item # 120351887404)
SLURL wiki

Jupiter AM-18 (Item # 120351887700)
SLURL wiki

What do the ATV, the Mars Exploration Rover, and the F-1 Engine have in common?

They’re all at the ISM, and sponsorships are on auction this week.  Well, those three and the Nearest Stars to 10 Parsecs exhibit, which is hidden high above the giftshop annex inside the VAB.  These are four of our newest exhibits, never before sponsored.

Auctions end on October 27. Sponsorships will begin on November 1, 2008 and end on April 30, 2009.

* Automated Transfer Vehicle (Item # 120321473572)  SLURL / info
* F-1 Engine (Item # 120321475345)  SLURL / info
* Mars Exploration Rover (Item # 120321476292)  SLURL / info
* Nearby Stars to 10Parsecs (Item # 120321477371)  SLURL / info

To submit a bid on eBay:
1. Go to http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZism_exhibits
OR
a. Go to www.eBay.com .
b. Click on “Advanced Search” near the top.
c. In the Search panel on the left, choose “Items by Seller”.
d. In the “Enter seller’s User ID” field, type “ism_exhibits” and click Search.
2. Go to the exhibit you’d like to sponsor, enter a maximum bid amount and click Place Bid.