I've started a new charitable fund for BookMooch Angels.

The goal is to give an extra point to reward people who act as Angels, helping books get from one country to another.

I've just given 20 of my personal points to this charity, and another 30 points from my general-purpose BM charitable fund.

If you love what Angels do, please
click here to give some of your points to support them.

Admin Mark had the idea, and I really liked it. Initially, the idea is for Mark to be able to give an extra point to people who act as Angels and who ask for the extra point. Over time, Mark will likely delegate that administrative role to someone else.

One reason for setting up this fund is that in 3 months' time, international mooches will cost 3 points (they cost 2 points today) and so the incentive to be a BM angel will be lower, as an Angel earns two points for each book they ferry onwards (they spend one point to get the book, then get 3 points when they send it, for a net total of 2 points). This is explained in a recent blog entry: Coming: 3 point intl mooches

-john

But the extra points will also mess with our ratios.

A suggestion that the angels could ask for a waiver on the mooch ratio limit, if/when needed.

I get smooches for angeling, but that has also messed with my ratio.

Please consider this.

A suggestion that the angels could ask for a waiver on the mooch ratio limit, if/when needed. I get smooches for angeling, but that has also messed with my ratio. Please consider this.

It's definitely something I'm watching, and Mark and I have discussed possibly adding an admin-override for the mooch ratio of specific users.

I'll continue to watch the situation and think of ways to promote Angeling.

Mooch Angels are definitely in my thoughts!

-john

Michelle

Michelle

She has agreed to help with planning out how points can best be distributed and to help manage the new fund as well.

There are a number of ways to distribute points, one could send a weekly or monthly tally for instance.

My sense is that the generosity of those who support angeling will keep the new fund healthy and that there will plenty of points available to fairly compensate all of those kind enough to act as an angel.

Thank you John for all you do for BM

Also there are certain people that know me and will request directly from me first because of trolling of the forum, and they know I am online. Of course we could retroactively put a post on the forum for the already mooched as an Angel book. I think turn over is the best way to show it is a Angel book.

Also just like you give "Adjustments" for International books in the ratio, maybe you could put a Angel credit adjustment too.

Sorry, but I run my own business and one of the primary functions of my website is the forum. I loathe poorly designed forums.

One way to do it would be to remove all of the existing bookmooch angel listings, and create like 50 new ones that were all the "official" ones. They could be monitored for activity, maybe cross-referenced with the list of official angels.

I have been just reposting the book after I receive it. I would definitely start using "official" angel listings instead for tracking purposes.

the angel system is a wonderful thing, and I have relied on angels a few times to get books I wanted, and have angled my self a couple of times.

I will donate points as soon as I am finished posting here.

But I would like to add my voice to the requests for finding a workable system to distribute these points.

I have done all my angel transactions through LT as well. I usually offer to angel for someone if I see a request, and think that I can afford it. But I do like to select the requests I respond to myself. I am still not sure I would like my name to appear on any list, official or otherwise. This might be a silly personal feeling, and might not make any difference, but I just makes me feel more comfortable with angeling.

I do like the idea of doing this through the angel network listings.

On behalf of Filipino Fallen Angels, thanks for this John.

In other words, the angel's ratio will go down and they will be able to mooch more books for themselves in the long run, more so the more often they act as an angel. And so those who have angeled in this way in the past (as I believe most have), will have lower ratios today based on their past angel mooches sent to other countries.

Michelle will be in charge of point distribution, and I'm sure she has some good ideas on how people should best communicate their tally of points needed. As there are several ways people can act as angels, I'm sure she will find ways to keep track of each way to be sure everyone is fairly compensated.

Sorry, have I missed something here? How can extra points given/smooched/charitied to you affect your ratio, when the ratio is purely the result of the 'ratio points' from books mooched over the 'ratio points' from books sent?

Take a look at my ratio. 1.4:1

But if you look at my actual book to book ratio, it is over 2:1
My international ratio is more like .5:1 or 1:2 very acceptable because I send more internationally than I mooch.

That was possible from extra smooches (yes, I also smooch others, but not in equal numbers). True, not all smooches come from angeling, but most do come because of angeling.

THAT is why I requested that there be an exception for angels if their bookmooch ratios go over 2:1. I've got aways to go, but I don't like the idea of being penalized for being nice & being helpful.

Good Morning!
I HATE posting things before I give things alot of thought - I am really much more of a "lurker" than a "poster" - but I just wanted to assure everyone that the doors are wide open in terms of how this program will work.

There have already been alot of valid points posted on both forums (such as, just off the top of my head, the need to accomodate the different kinds of Angels, the need to help the Angels who need it the most, the suggestion that a message board or forum thread be used for tracking, etc.). There will be a few of us working on this program from the start, and I foresee the need for volunteers for gathering the data, brainstorming, and back-up - so there's a ways to go before things are set in stone.

Ideally, I'd like to rely on a modified "honour system" (we can't check everything), but with some safeguards against fraud. Please keep the ideas coming, and we'll do our best to see that things get underway a.s.a.p., and that there is transparency and fairness regarding point distribution.

Thanks for your enthusiasm and support :)

Michelle

But that's just my opinion.

And as mentioned above, most angels (those who mooch from their own country and then send to another country), will have their ratio improved (lowered) every single time they act as an angel, so will indeed by able to use those nice smooches that come in to get more books for themselves.

The general idea of the fund is to be sure angels do not lose points by angeling as they have been. They are already going to a lot of extra effort, so should at least receive as many points as for a standard international send.

I'm sure some people have chosen not to act as angels as they did not want to lose points from having done so, so there are hopes this will help expand the pool of people willing to act as angels, in part to give those who regularly angel a bit of a break.

To address a couple of points raised from others in parallel discussion on this topic:

While full automation could be implemented, there are some who do not feel the need for being compensated, and, as above, as there are many ways to act as in angel, it would be hard to cover them all through any kind of automated system.

I am confident Michelle and those who help her will be able to distribute points without making people feel uncomfortable about asking for them.

In this way, the angel wouldn't be "asking" for the extra credit, but would be "rewarded" or "thanked" for the angel mooch.

2. Also doing this I noticed the Angel charity is doing very nicely, but the points list says the donors of points have received points from the charity??? Is this a miswording?

3. Please can we demote charities who are being given points but are totally inactive?
If charities were asked to log in physically at least once a month, they could be removed if they then do not log in and fail to respond to an automated email asking them if they are active still. (This could happen with all accounts and those not responding be put on vacation automatically.)
Charities like
Books for Schools last here 828 days ago having 5834 points some given very recently,
The Public Libraries Charity fund USA last here 1211 days ago with 5640 points to date,
I found one charity active and with only ONE point. This seems crazy to me. One or two of us who run charities put a status message when we no longer need points. It seems common courtesy to me for charities not to abuse points given them by leaving them stacking up.

See? It says "received points from charity" rather than "donated points to charity" or "gave points to charity". Odd?

Yes, I am constantly shocked at the number of inactive charities. I have been in toucvh with Mark W. about closing mine down, but a prominent notice (it's just below the angel charity) means people did stop giving points I could not spend. A little HTML goes a long way!
If you want a recommendation for people deserving points I would like to nominate the angels I used, Mary sent boxes and boxes for us 20+ at a time and always gave points back too, Melinda took no points and just sent them a load at a time without them being mooched till I stopped her when one lot got taxed. An ordinary Canadian BMer acted as an angel on occasions too and EdwinBC a few from China. Gill

Thank you marmalade for this suggestion.

My concern: I have Angeled for people here and there that I have "picked up" from the BM forums and I regularly angel for someone in Italy but am not an official BookMooch Angel as I cannot afford to do this for everyone. How would I benefit from this Angel Charity?

I really like the suggestion Marmalade made about the person who receives the Angel package sending a message to the Angel Team Leader to generate a "thank you" credit. I like this because I really don't want to have to ask (or, as I see it "beg") for extra points to make it worth my while to be Angeling for someone.

I've had this problem in the past and this definitely would help us out. Thanks Gill & Mark Tennant for suggesting this. I've given permission to the woman I regularly Angel for in Italy to ask this when she sends her requests out and she puts in the message my user name so they can reserve it for me. It's worked quite well for us and our success rate for the Angel mooches has improved.

That said, I applaud those who participate in the Angel program and am in favor of rewarding them.