Fighting the Derail: Some Possibilities

ETA: see fight_derailing for further discussion.

So, elsewhere on LJ, one proposal for fighting the derail [*] was setting up a fundraiser to send awesome fans of color to Wiscon. I started thinking about logistics of this, which are behind the cut, but one side-track of my thought was:

Would a community be useful? I see a lot of good suggestions around for fighting the derail, but not really centrally pulled out. I can create one—umm, actually, I seem to have created fight_derailing by accident, I thought I was only testing it. Well, I could get rid of its ads and put actual content in it, if people think it would be useful.

[*] Of anti-racism conversations into All About the Hurt Feelings and Bad Behavior of White Folk; I'm in a hurry tonight, see prior posts under these tags and rydra_wong for details.

Here are my thoughts on a Wiscon fundraiser. These are only possibilities, and I welcome suggestions or improvements.

(I'm thinking of this on a DonorsChoose model, if that helps.)

First, there's the question of identifying fans of color who want to go to Wiscon. My thought was a post where people simply volunteer themselves and state, "This is what I'd need to be able to go to Wiscon"—money, floor space, whatever. Other people could also respond by saying, "Yes, I'd like so-and-so to come to Wiscon," in case of f'locked journals, to vouch for their trustworthiness, etc.

(I'm resistant to the idea of people doing mission statements or such, because it feels like a popularity contest.)

Second, after the deadline, a post listing each potential attendee as the start of a comment thread. All subsequent comments would be screened; people would comment to each attendee pledging money or services, or to a general pot of money. I'd post updates every so often so people knew who was close to being funded. If services like floorspace are offered, I'd check with the fan first to make sure they were acceptable.

After the deadline, I'd e-mail everyone who pledged in support of fully-funded fans and have them send me the pledged money, which I would then send to the fans in question.

The way I got to "maybe we should have a comm" is that I also thought people could offer goods/services in return for pledges to the fundraiser, like livelongnmarry, but then it would be easier if people could post those separately . . . However, I'm not sure that people would feel strongly enough about the Wiscon fundraiser idea to commit the amount of fandom goodwill that something like livelongnmarry could generate; of course, it could also be for the Carl Brandon Society or microloans to women in developing nations or whatever else people feel appropriate, it doesn't have to be just for this.

Right. I'm rushing to beat SteelyKid's inevitable waking up (she's teething, poor thing), so what am I missing, what do you all think? Also, what deadlines would be realistic for the Wiscon part—I'm thinking mid-March for fans and then mid-April for funding, or earlier than that?

Edit: to clarify based on comments: yes, my conception was that the potential attendees would be fans who already really want to go to Wiscon but aren't able to, and that they would just be expected to go and be their awesome selves. Wiscon because it's small, people are already expressing desire to go, and it's got a nucleus of committed anti-racist fans and awareness of the issue. Anticipation is further away, bigger, and something we can deal with later.