by Jim Ross
I’d like to respond to a note by an ally of our opposition on a Quadomain Facebook site. The note states,
My Response:
What you call “distorting the truth” we call stating facts that you don’t want to hear or believe. Please allow me to answer your questions on behalf of QuadProTeam about the cost of our campaign.
First of all, we are running for the Tower I & IV Board, a volunteer position, because we care about our homes, our property, and our community. And we believe that as professionals we will exert a much-needed positive influence on the Board. That’s it.
As far as the expenses my teammates and I have shared to run a tough campaign against an incumbent with resources that we don’t have, such as private emails of all owners, here you go:
Our Million Dollar Website
You’re right, our website didn’t cost $100. It cost $35.76. Here’s the receipt from Bluehost, our website hosting provider:
The Bluehost website hosting service includes most of the things you mention: content management, the hosting platform itself, including a Production and a Staging environment, the Domain name, and security features, e.g., SSL. The content itself is based on WordPress, the most popular website coding system, which, as I’m sure you know, is open source, i.e., free to use. Plug-ins? We run a pretty light system, so we chose basic, free open source plug-ins, including WP Migration, Google Analytics, Jetpack, Webmail SMPT support, and WordPress Forms. Again, as you must know, basic WordPress plug-ins are free because their developers hope to sell additional features as the needs of the website grow. Ours haven’t, yet.
Of course we needed a website developer. Because I have a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and spent my career in information technology, I was the obvious candidate, so I volunteered to give it a go. Before around December 27 of last year, I had no experience developing a website. Certainly I had experience managing projects that used or developed web technologies, but I had no experience with the details of website programming. But … I’ve never been defeated by any technology I’ve wanted to learn, so, using my project management rule that the best way to finish a project is: “Get Started!” I got started learning how to do it. The team developed some amazing content (including the Q.U.A.D.O.M.A.I.N. list of professional commitments), and we launched our website on January 12.
You don’t know this about me, but it turns out I have an uncanny ability to absorb information quickly and produce high quality results based on what I learn. That’s why I succeeded as a professional consultant. And that’s why I’ll be a great member of the Board. So thank you for the compliment, because I agree: our website does indeed look like a million dollars. It cost $35.76 out of pocket plus our time, which admittedly at our professional billing rates would be pretty expensive, but we donated our time to a good cause. (By the way, our logo, which is really cool don’t you think?, was designed by AI for free on a marketing services site.)
Our Professional Business Cards
You’re right, too, that our business cards look great and professionally printed. But we produced them with business card stock purchased at Office Max and Amazon (around $100 for 1,000 cards), and we printed them on my ink jet printer (maybe $5 worth of ink?). I personally designed them with input from the team; we work really well together and produce amazing results. We’ll do the same when we’re elected to the Board. So, again, thank you for the compliment — our business cards look like a million bucks, don’t they?
Campaign Mailing
Mailing to Canada is indeed relatively expensive, around $1.50 per envelope. You can do the math: just multiply $1.50 x the number of Canadian owners (many of whom are seasonal residents, but full-time owners!). We chose old-fashioned mailing as the best way to counter the unfair advantage that Marlem and her crew have because they can access (despite claiming that they don’t) the latest owner email list.
In Conclusion
Of course the most expensive campaign expense by far was food and beverage purchases to cater our Meet and Greets, which is an expense our opponents also bore, apparently without questions about their motivation for doing so.
That about covers it. I appreciate the opportunity to answer your questions. Next time, before spreading innuendo and baseless accusations, just check with me. I’m available and willing to explain the facts. That will save both of us some time and trouble.