In the past we have embarked on our annual fund raising activities during the months of October to December. We cannot wait. It begins today.

That's the bad news. The good news is that we have a plan to make LymeNet faster and easier to use. We have a plan that will eliminate the unwanted intrusions by Internet Trolls.

The Board has approved the plan outlined below which will both help to quickly resolve our financial problems as well as improve the way Lyme Flash functions. The fee-based registration plan outlined below is designed to prevent people from re-registering over and over, and harassing the vast majority of rule-abiding members. In other words, no more trolls. Here is the plan:

Effective September 1, 2005
1. All current and new registered users of Lyme Flash will automatically be given Bronze Status on Lyme Flash. This Bronze level will allow the user to read all posts, but will not have authorization to reply to a post or to post a new topic.
2. In order to reply to a post or create a new topic, a registered user will have to pay an annual tax-deductible subscription fee. For $25.00 a year you will receive Silver Status which entitles the user to post replies and new topics on all the Flash Discussion boards. A $50.00 or more donation entitles the user to Gold Status, which also entitles the user to post new topics and reply to posts. As a Gold Status registered user, you can be assured that your generosity will enable LymeNet to continue to help the thousands of visitors to our site get the information they need to battle this disease.

In the past, the vast majority of LymeNet users have been able to donate these amounts or more during our annual fund raising campaign. Please consider your subscription payment your annual donation to keep LymeNet up and running. If all our regular users were to participate, we would not have any reason to ask for more money again this year. Some of you have been extremely generous in year's past. We hope you will once again contribute generously. If you have the resources to donate over and above the fees listed above and you know of someone who does not, make the donation in their name by providing a valid e-mail address and their LymeNet user name.

Our goal is to raise $7,500, which will cover our expenses until September 2006.

Donations and Subscription fees can be paid through our PayPal account by clicking the "Make a Donation" on the front page of LymeNet. Checks or money orders may be sent to the address below. Once payment is received, allow two days for your status upgrade to become effective. You will receive a renewal notice by e-mail 60 days prior to your subscription expiration.

The terms of use for Lyme Flash will remain in effect and are posted on the LymeNet site. We have amended the terms of use to include the following:

� A registered user whose actions violate the terms of use will receive one warning to discontinue such actions.
� A second violation will result in the user being permanently banned from posting or replying to posts.

Please send your donation today. We thank you in advance for your help and cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Bill Stolow, President
The Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey, Inc.
[email protected]

PLEASE USE THE DONATION FORM PROVIDED BELOW

TO ACTIVATE YOUR SILVER OF GOLD STATUS, PLEASE BE SURE TO PROVIDE THE SAME E-MAIL ADDRESS THAT YOU USED TO REGISTER ON LYME FLASH

SUBSCRIPTION FORM 2005

Return this form with your SUBSCRIPTION/DONATION payment.

Please make checks payable to:

The Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey
43 Winton Road
East Brunswick, NJ 08816

Donation Amount $___________ LymeNet Tax ID #521755119

Name________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________

E-mail Address ________________________________________

Lyme Flash User Name: ________________________________

I want to see Treepatrol & Tincup's NEWBIE links at the TOP of medical & general support where they belong.

This can be done & needs to be.

Besides the newbie links this could include success stories and the duck doctor post (not sure of the exact title) and there are probably a couple of others to include as well.