Panman,

That was my thought as soon as I read this. It is a shame that a lot of FAOL member open up the "home" page and immediately go to the "forum" and never review the "menu" on the left of the "home" page. If they would, they would come to the "Friends of FAOL" link and could "click" on it and see what that is all about. I feel this feature should remain because it is really "archives". As it is, there would be added costs to the owners for pins and patches and that defeats the purpose of why this "thread" was started. They may still have some pins and patches left which could be dealt with. The following are just thoughts I am having, but, we could create a feature that could be at the top of the Forum page and have a title of "Support of FAOL" and members and visitors could link through it to contribute $10 per year towards the costs of keeping FAOL up and running. I know that we could also move "Friends of FAOL" to the top of the Forum, but, the list of past "Friends" and "Sponsors" is something I feel is important and should remain on the menu as archives on how FAOL got started. I know that I am on the list as "Friends of FAOL" and have contributed the initial $25 member fee and have also contributed the $10 fee in later years, but, I am guilty of not maintaining that $10 member fee over the years and that is a shame and my fault. Maybe with "Support of FAOL" at the top of the Forum it could be a constant reminder to us that have contributed in the past and have become lazy to continue. As far as any left over pins and patches go, we could reserve them for "new" members or those who do not have any until they are depleted. For this to work without any "hic cups", I feel there would have to be a secure and dedicated address for money order/checks so the mail system did not foul the delivery up.

I feel a fee of $10 per year is a very small amount to pay for all that is at your finger tips to research on FAOL. There is a wealth of info on FAOL site and I doubt very much if very many members have actually sat down and searched the archives available at no charge.

The above is just "thinking out loud" and nothing more.