SunMt internet media is up 24/7
... Never sleeps.....................
Does not evaporate after the 6 oclock news...
Is non-profit, commercial free...
Does not allow crucial issues like — war deaths, war $$$, election frauds, exploited workers,
and green solutions — to be swept under the banality rug of super bowls and celebrity sex.
Join the SunMt monthly tax-deductible donation club.
Call toll free: 888.303.0103 or via our web site offering options in $5 multiples. Or send old fashioned paper checks to SunMt, Box 314, Prather, CA 93651
SunMt needs $565 increase in monthly donations to break even. See details below
Our server tallies a daily average of3,000+ hits on our web site - including international. These hits have risen by about 1,000 daily in the past year.
Many hits on our extensive archives are a great community resource for students, teachers
and organizers.
Every web report we have uploaded since we started in April 1998 is cross-indexed for easy
long term access. Teachers tell us they regularly refer students to our web archives, the only
source of lively, comprehensive, in depth facts & inspiration on vital Valley actions such as:
• almost every action of PeaceFresno’s 5+ years since 9-11.
• graphic details of the GAP sweatshop protests, arrests, court case.
• gutsy docu-poems of home care worker organizing.
• 7 years of Fresno cop abuses
• immigrant rights actions for past 8 years.
• expanding our educational podcasts.
• SunMt’s quarter century dance with Big Mama. And here.
AND much more.
We have a contract with the universe to do this dance with Big Mama and you folks in pressing issues
of our times. We have been skipping along this way for decades, in good times and bad. With $$$ and
without. We will stop only when all our energies pass.
But dancing with this modern media takes more $$ than the old mimeo machine. $Vote for our dance to continue longer & louder with some of your tax deductible $upport.
Options are outlined here. SunMt 2006-2007 financial report FINANCES NOW: facing spiraling building costs in 2006, SunMt Board voted to abort the straw bale project, and to use the $30,000 remainder of the building fund to:
1. pay for repairs on the existing SunHouse,
2. support SunMt organizing-educational video production.
VIDEO PRODUCTION NEEDS:
January 2007 SunMt spent $12,000 to upgrade computer-camera and video editing software
which had been needed for 3 years. The SUN HOUSE repairs to date: $8,000:
repainting roof, replacing solar system batteries, relocating solar panels, replacing one
wood stove with a gas stove. 2007 NEEDED SUN HOUSE REPAIRS:
replacing rotting deck and stairs, replacing greenhouse glazing, and repairing windows
Estimated costs: $4,000??? 2006 Total Building fund remainder: $30,000
Expenses subtracted from building fund: $22,000 Estimated Building Fund remainder = $6,000
+ SunMt General Fund 2007 : $10,000 6/2007 Current Cash Balance = $16,000
less SunMt Debt: -$149,000.
Net Balance = - $133,000.
The SunMt debt is an internal debt owed to Maia and Elfie, for unpaid reimbursements
and direct loans accumulated since 1983. It is secured by no interest notes with no due dates.
We need financial support from our community to maintain and expand SunMt media service to our community.
$5-$30 Monthly Automatic tax deductible charges on your credit cards are easy
and our most reliable support. A few of you are now donating this way, but SunMt multimedia needs many more doing the same to support our high quality docu-poems. Join the SunMt monthly donation club or buy our fine art and DVDs.
Call toll free: 888.303.0103 or via our web site for options in $5 multiples. Or send your check to SunMt, Box 314, Prather, CA 93651
Purchase SunMt media on the above web page.
Every $ is important, so give til it feels good.
Each $5 donation buys 8 blank printable DVD discs.
Each $25 donation buys 7 blank digital DV recording tapes.
Each $100 donation buys assortment of ink cassettes for DVD disc and jacket printer.
$1,000 donation supports our web fees for a year.
FINANCIAL REALITIES: The building fund was created mainly by Maia’s $27.000 inheritance from her mother, sales of
Maia’s paintings and Elfie’s photos. The UFW gave $5,000 and there were many smaller
donors over 12 years of the project. We gave the UFW our $10,000 in straw bale building plans.
SunMt monthly financials:
excluding computer eqipment and professional repairs 2006-2007 operation costs average................ $1,415
monthly income average................. $850 monthly deficit..................................$565
SunMt 2007 monthly income averages about............... $850 regular monthly donations................................................... $150
sales of Elfie’s archival photos & video docu-poems...... $500
sales of Maia’s paintings....................................................... $100
sales of posters, books.............................................................. $50
fees from Free Speech TV..................................................$0 - $50
SunMt 2007 monthly expenses averages about.......... $1,415 property taxes ............................................................................$150
sales taxes.......................................................................................$20
travel.............................................................................................$200
(SunMt pays 30 cents/mile about 60% of the going rate)
energy.............................................................................................$70
(propane $20; wood, $10; PGE, $40) phone, internet............................................................................$150
food, supplements, medicine....................................................$400 (Ballises now pay about half of this) computer maintenance...............................................................$100
supplies.........................................................................................$100
maintenance ...................................................................$225 SunMt is a 40 acre land trust owned by People, Food & Land Foundation. Maia and George Elfie Ballis are full time+, unpaid volunteers. They do all the SunMt media work and maintenance with help from occasional volunteer work parties
and some hired repair & maintenance.
All income from sales of their personal creative work goes directly to SunMt: Elfie’s new and vintage
photography and films, and Maia’s paintings. Under their agreement with the SunMt Board of Directors,
their SunMt expenses were to be paid by the organization. But since 1984, SunMt has operated at a continual loss;
so the Ballises have used their personal resources to cover unreimbursed organizational expenses.
Their personal expenses are covered by their social security benefits which in 2007 total $1,300 monthly.
For health care, the Ballises rely on preventative medicine, Elfie gets some medical support from the Vetrans Admin.
and Maia gets medical support from Dr. Marc Lasher and Channah Cossman, CNM, NP.
The organization covers costs as it can afford to, but owes Maia and Elfie $133,000 in unpaid reimbursements,
recorded as no interest loans since 1984 with no due date.
Income would significantly increase if the people who are downloading
material from SunMt web site would help $upport the Source.
FUTURE:
• continuing repair and upgrade of SunMt’s 23-year-old demonstration “SunHouse” and gardens
• continuing our environmental research, reporting and advocacy
• continuing our multimedia by all you exta/ordinary people at the grassroots level
and production of docu-poems for Free Speech TV’s Newsreal on DISH TV For last year about a dozen SunMt segments on local actions were broadcast into 11 million U.S. households
• maintaining and expanding our web archives of these docu-poems for community access.
SeeArchives of our high quality exclusive video docu-poems.
Join the SunMt monthly tax-deductible donation club.
Call toll free: 888.303.0103 or via our web site offering options in $5 multiples. Or send your check to SunMt, Box 314, Prather, CA 93651
If you value the SunMt contribution to our community, help create a significant increase
in $upport from our community. Ideas¿? Or commitments¿? Email us.
