SDSP - Social Development Systems Project updated 10-15-2006
10-15-2006 update from Dennis on the program
Ber's
commentary - please read this thoroughly first before funding this
program. I am still receiving a large number of complaints about non payments,
including some large amounts due not being paid, late
payments, no referral payments, no promissory note ever sent, lack of
communication, etc. from this program. I also received
several emails this week that payments were made and caught up and communication
was made. I have been paid both my monthly payment as
well as some referral money recently. My personal account is not behind in monthly
payments. It is not possible to know what you really have coming with this
program referral wise. There are no records we are privy to that would tell us
this. He doesn't tell you who the referral payment comes from
or how much it should be like I do with PTE. I had a recent email from Dennis explaining why payments
were late and that he felt he would be caught back up soon. At the same time I
am still continuing to receive complaint emails. I also had a
long phone conversation with a gentleman who recently sat down with Dennis face
to face to discuss all that is going on with this program. The program is legit in that Dennis does take
some of your money, set up people who are disabled, and when that person gets off the
government rolls the government pays Dennis money for
that . Dennis also receives money from the state of Texas for working with these
kinds of people. But it also appears Dennis is investing loaned money into internet hyips
and surfing programs and is using this
money to both front the disabled people he is teaching to get off government
rolls, as well as pay back the loans to us with. I also suspect he may be using
newbie money to pay older loans with although I can't prove that. Dennis is not talking about which
specific internet hyips he is investing in. I have asked him to be specific about
that part so I could better determine our risk in this, but he is not willing to
divulge that information.
Dennis is teaching the disabled people, some of them,
some are being set up in their own businesses, to also invest in internet hyips
and surfing programs. To me this is highly risky and should only be done with
extra money, AFTER you have established an income in long running low pay
programs like PTE, (your bank wouldn't consider them low
pay but in the hyip arena where you have 30%/mo to 50%/mo programs - even though
they are here today and gone tomorrow - these 8%/mo gems are considered low pay
by many in this arena).
A
high percentage of internet programs that pay more than 10%/mo are simply scams,
ponzi's or just badly managed and will not last. You have to know when to join
and when to bail out before the crash with these kinds of programs. The point
is, it appears a large percentage of investor money is being placed in these
kinds of programs and some of them, maybe many of them, are going to fail; just look at
the get paid to surf industry over the past year. When failures exceed what he
needs to make payments every month, you will simply not get your payment
somewhere downstream. I feel he is doing a juggling act right now to appease
those complaining the most. I leave the program information below as money
does go towards helping the disabled. But this paragraph is a warning that it
appears he may be paying more than he can collect from all resources and sometime downstream there is a high likelihood he may not be able to cover his
loans. And as of today, October 3rd, I am still receiving emails about payments
not received, some for large amounts, promissory notes not received, and emails not answered.
This paragraph represents my opinion only, but I for one have to sit back and
watch to see how this all settles out before I invest any more of my money here.
What this program is about
Teaching the disabled to make money on the net like we do.
You will be directly responsible for getting a person with a disability off of
government assistance programs and able to sustain themselves for the rest of
their lives through the methods that you and I already use.
You fund the program, Dennis does the work, the disabled person through
Dennis learns how to make a net income to get off welfare, the government pays
Dennis for this, and Dennis pays you.
Two programs
a. $100 or multiples of $100 = 8%/mo ($16.67/mo per $100) return for 1
year;
b. $2500 yields 15%/mo ($416.67/mo) return for 60 payments or 5 years.
If you fund this please use my referrer ID
of berry@detailshere.com, or use
"refBer" if there isn't space in the memo box left.
This is not a new program. Dennis has been doing this now going on five years,
and has been in the industry for ten years. This was flagged to me by a person on my listserve who joined Dennis' program
and has been getting paid from Dennis for some time now. In a nut shell, Dennis
gets paid by the government to teach the disabled how to make a living using
computers so they don't have to subsist off of government funds. And he gets
paid well. It is explained below just how this works. The more stations he sets
up the more people are helped and the more money is available to share. You get
paid well (how does 15%/mo sound) he gets more government money to work with to
set up more stations to teach more disabled people to get free with.
What's in it for you??
Two plans to participate in.
Plan A - 8.33%/mo net profit. 1 year loans under $2500.
Spend $100 (or multiples of $100 up to $2499.99) and receive $16.67/mo back (for
each $100 loaned) for 12 months. There is no return of principal so $100 ÷ 12 =
$8.33 of that is your own money and $8.33 of that is profit. So in essence Plan
A is an 8.33%/mo net profit program. There is nothing wrong with a solid
8.33%/mo program. Payments start 30 days after you submit your funds. Many
options to submit funds as noted below.
Plan B - 15%/mo net profit. 5 year loans over $2500.
And this is where you can make serious money. Any
amount over $2,500 would be repaid 10x over, paid out over 60 equal monthly
payments. For example a $2,500 loan would be repaid at 10 x $2,500, or
$25,000, repaid over 60 months at $416.67 per month. Again, there is no
principal return at the end so $2500 ÷ 60 = $41.67 of that $416.67 is your own
principal coming back each month and $375/mo is net profit interest. $375 ÷
$2500 = 15% net profit interest per month, almost twice that of plan A.
Dennis has a different way of looking at that , as he considers the first year
as payback of principal (each month's payment is $208.33 interest and $208.33
principal so your first years' interest rate is only 8.33%/mo) and then it is
pure profit from that point on which changes the figures considerably. So the
actual profit from the 12 month plan is 100%, and the profit from the 60 month
plan is 900% over five years or 180%/year (which is the same as 15%/mo in my
calculations above).
Each funding is
considered a separate loan; your loans are not cumulative, but you can take out
as many as you wish.
How it works - from the man himself (see contact info below)
Thanks for your interest in the Social Development Systems Project. This
is an ongoing project that will be around for years to come. I've been
doing Vocational "Rehab" (VR) work for over ten years helping people
with disabilities go to work and/or start their own businesses, and have a
really good grasp of that niche. I've been a consumer of deaf/blind
services myself, a vendor contracting with the local State Commission for the
Blind, and an employee of the state as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor.
So, since I have also had my back up against the wall a few times, I've
been on all four sides the VR desk, so to speak. This intimate knowledge
of the status quo in the VR system, has lead me to seek a better way of doing
things
I
started seeking alternate funding methods to support my private VR business and
quickly decided that not only were HYIP's, other Internet programs, and both
online and offline investment opportunities, the solution for my personal needs,
but could also solve a lot of the problems inherent within the VR system. At
this point my ability to take a person from where they are, to making a
significant monthly income is only limited by the amount of money that I have up
front to "prime the pump." With the investment opportunities out
there, it is easily doable to get people off of the government subsidies,
guarantee a substantial repayment schedule, to our supporters, and still make a
nice profit to keep going ourselves.
In order to participate in the SDS Project,
all you have to do is let me know when you are ready, and I will give you the
e-currency, or other account information, to send the funds to (see below)
and your payments will begin 30 days from the date of your loan initiation to
us, and continue for the duration of your particular levels repayment schedule
(i.e. 12 months <$2,500, or 60 months >$2,500). You can start with
any amount over $100, since less than that would not really pay to track and
monitor the payments. So, just to keep it simple, if you send $100, you
would start getting monthly payments of $16.67 in 30 days, and for every 30 days
thereafter for 12 months, which would equal $200, total.
Not exciting, but a stable return.
The really exciting returns come from the
loans over $2,500, because not only would you get double your money back the
first year including principle, but you would also continue getting double that
amount for the next four years, after that, paid out every month just as shown
above. For $2,500, you will get $416.67 per month for 60 consecutive
months. And to top it off, you will be directly responsible for getting a
person with a disability off of government assistance programs and able to
sustain themselves for the rest of their lives through the methods that you and
I already use.
One of the people that I approached, for
traditional funding stated that, "If people could earn 1-2% per day or
more, on their money, then everyone would be doing it. My response was,
"Well people are doing it every day, and pretty much everyone who knows
how, is doing it." We'd be crazy not to. So, with adequate
coaching and guidance, and some funds to start the process rolling, there's no
reason why we can't make this work better than anything else out there, for a
group of people who are usually encouraged to settle for working at minimum wage
jobs, and expected to count themselves as fortunate for being able to do that.
Together, we can provide a much more promising outlook for this folks and
get a handsome repayment for doing so. Its
the best of all worlds, doing well, for doing good.
I read a quote recently that stated “If more people could do well while
doing good, more good would get done well.”
I totally agree with that statement, and we are doing everything we can,
to bridge that gap, by assisting people who have funds to loan, to put those
funds to work doing good, while receiving an excellent return on their funds for
themselves.
I
am in negotiations with the state of Texas to reinstate me as a vendor (after
having had to take a year off due being a state employee) with the state VR
organization, these contracts pay $20-$23 per hour for most activities covered,
so we can create jobs for people with disabilities
(PWD) to train the other PWD to do investment projects and Internet
Marketing. I actually have two friends who each run separate nonprofit
agencies that have computer-refurbishing programs providing low cost refurbished
computers to PWD. One of these friends has a computer-refurbishing site
set up within a local church. We just set up a workstation arrangement
that will enable us to have ten computer workstations wired with DSL. We
are going to expand the free-to-join-affiliate-feeder project by hiring some PWD,
and training them to market online in these same programs that our other clients
from all over the country are in.
Okay, so here's where we start doing some
figures. I can get paid by the state to train these individuals for up to
200 hours at the above rates of pay. So, we are talking $4000-$4600 per
person, for about five weeks worth of work, minus the trainees salary of about
$8.50-$10 per hour. Now this pay is on a one-to-one basis.
So, for each new site I would train one person for five weeks.
I then hire two more people, and I would train one while the
first trainee trains the other. For five weeks. And this process can
repeat itself until we get as many people as the site feels comfortable
employing. It could go on indefinitely as long as we have the resources to
handle the staff being hired. I hope you're still with me, because this is
where it gets really cool. You see, this is just Texas, and I can expand
this to all of the other states as well. Once
we reach a maximum level of employees, then we just operate these sites as
customer support centers and use Church and other nonprofit programs to utilize
their volunteers to duplicate this program as a fund-raiser for their
organization. All of this will of
course have the back end benefit of creating a huge opt-in list of people to
follow us into any money making programs which we find that will benefit them,
which will of course broaden our own resources as well.
This is actually just a small part of the
scenario. You see, there is a whole group of PWD out there that are not
getting much help from their local state VR agencies. Many of these people
are Social Security recipients, which means they are eligible for the Ticket To
Work (TTW) program. Under this program, the Social Security Administration
will contract with me directly to assist these people to get an income
sufficient for them to get off of SSDI/SSI. Now get this, they will pay me
as much as $20,000 per person once the person is off of their benefits, paid in
60 equal monthly payments over a five year period.
Okay let's do some math. I can get
paid $4,000 for five weeks training the first trainee from the state, minus
let's say $2000 for salary and benefits. I invest the remainder.
I can then train several more people over the next few weeks for the same
results. Investing the profits again. So,
this is basically free labor, due to the up front costs being covered by the
state compensation, and the ongoing salaries being covered by the ROI on the
investments, and profits generated from the work being done.
The states fees cover all employee costs for as long as we want to keep
doubling the staff. This would be at least four months of totally
reimbursed labor, with additional profits that are being invested to secure the
program, which would result in a well trained group of Internet marketers, who
would in turn, be the contact points or "customer support" for our SSA/TTW
clients all over the country. By training this core group in both
traditional marketing programs and HYIP's they could be an invaluable resource
for our future referrals.
We also offer loans to the people from the
TTW program, for the money to invest in the HYIP's with the stipulation that
they only have repay us out of profits. We mentor them and give them the
funds to get started, and once they've gotten the hang of it, and have repaid
us, then they are probably going to be set for life, since they will have
learned a way to make a living that does not require them to compete with people
who do not have the same challenges. In fact they will become the local
experts on Internet investing, and as all of their acquaintances who knew their
previous plight, see their new found success, they will want to know how they
are doing it, and that will be the perfect opportunity to recruit them into the
programs, which will benefit the individual while creating an ever larger opt-in
list for them, and us. This means
that our warm market for sharing new income opportunities just keeps growing,
which also means that our revenues will keep growing, insuring our ability to
both, sustain/expand the project, and repay our lenders.
Okay, so now these folks start being
successful and earning money throughout the various projects, and they repay us
the original amount interest free. We now have the money to benefactor
another person into the system without the need to raise additional funds.
But, we are now going to be eligible to receive the $20,000 from SSA for
getting these fine folks off of SSDI/SSI, and the really cool thing is, that
there are ways for them to even keep their medical benefits if they need to.
This backend money is really gravy, because we are already self-funded at
this point between the state fees, commissions from the Internet programs, and
the ROI coming in.
This additional funding will allow me to
offer these same services to yet another group. Those unfortunate enough
to have a truly disabling condition, but who were unable to get a doctor to sign
the SSA's letter saying that the person was "totally" disabled and
could not do "any" type of work. Now, in my opinion, this is
where our program might have the greatest humanitarian impact, because this
group of people are currently slipping through the cracks and aren't getting
needed services. If we can channel the excess funds from the state VR
program, the TTW program, and the ROI, into helping this group, then we will
have accomplished something phenomenal in the social services arena, and that is
to create a funding stream to address a previously unfunded yet very needy
segment of our nations sons and daughters, and we can do all of this through
mentoring, and interest free loans to them, which only have to be repaid out of
profits, so that the money keeps circulating to help more and more people?
Okay, I know, at this point I've totally
blown my attempt to be brief, but I hope you do understand better what we will
be doing with the funds provided to us. At this point, I need to clarify
something. I have come to the conclusion, that in order to avoid getting
cross with the SEC and other authorities, it would be best to consider the
monies provided to us as "Personal Loans," rather than investments, or
"spends" or anything that might give the government reason to assume
that we are a ponzi or other illegal operation. Which we are not, because
our sustainability will not depend on an ever increasing number of
"Loans" to keep going since we will have all of the other streams of
income to keep us growing for years to come. In fact, I will probably
limit the number of "Lenders" that we will accept at some point.
I do not have a number in my head or anything, we will just need to
monitor everything to see when it might be feasible to seek less expensive
money, or to just survive off of our other sources of income without the need
for additional "loans."
Okay, I think I'm about done, but I do need
to quickly readdress the repayment of the "Loans" since there seems to
be a little confusion there sometimes. First of all, while $2,500 is the
amount that I've determined to be adequate as a per person average to get people
to the level of income needed to get off of SSDI/SSI quickly, it is not the only
level of participation. I will accept loans for any amount over $100
repayable at double the amount of the loan repaid over 12 equal monthly
payments, up to $2,499.99. For example, $100 repaid double would be $200,
repaid over 12 equal payments would be $16.67 per month for 12 months. However,
as I said before, what's really exciting about what we can do comes from the
larger amounts, since this is what it will take to get the project going strong,
so any amount over $2,500 would be repaid 10x over, paid out over 60 equal
monthly payments. For example a $2,500 loan would be repaid at 10 x
$2,500, or $25,000, repaid over 60 months at $416.67 per month. So, if a
person or organization had a certain annual income that they were striving for,
all they would need to do, would be to divide the amount they sought by two, and
then loan us that amount. Assuming
that this amount is over $2,500, we would then repay them double the amount each
year for five years. Given the size
of the market, and the need for what we are doing, I do not currently see the
need to impose a maximum loan amount, but may wish to implement that at a later
time if it becomes apparent that to do so would be advisable.
I hope that I have adequately explained
this, especially since you were gracious enough to have read down this far.
I also hope that you can see the value and profitability in what I've
proposed. I also want to make it evident that I am not seeking to create
the next great HYIP that storms the Internet. I just seek to work with a
small group of loyal initial "Lenders" who want substantial repayment
terms for their money, and to support a humane and compassionate, yet innovative
and profitable social entrepreneurial project that has the potential to
eventually assist thousands of people in need, to achieve a more gratifying,
self directed, and equitable existence.
How
to join this program
Step 1 - do your spend
Loans
may be submitted via:
e-bullion
account # B98710 Dennis W Gerron
e-gold account #1976226
You CAN submit funds in one ecurrency and request to be paid out via a
different ecurrency he says.
In the memo box of the spends please be sure and put :
"SDS, your email addy, and "ref berry@detailshere.com
"
If it won't all fit just put "refber" at the end
Cashiers
Checks, Money Orders, Western Union Wires, Money Grams, and Bank Wire
Transfers, may be made payable to Dennis Gerron, as this is what makes the
Promissory Notes binding, that the loans are considered personal loans to me,
and sent to:
Dennis
Gerron
Community Development Specialist
Social Development Systems
11311 Lippitt Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75218
(214) 321-0752
degerro@aol.com
Step
2 - send in your personal information so he knows you did your spend
Send an email to degerro@aol.com
and in the subject box put
"SDSP program spend, your name, and email addy"
In
the body of that email state that
a. you have done a spend to his program,
b. how much you have spent,
c. the mechanism you used to fund the program (egold , ebullion etc)
d. your egold AND ebullion account name and account number
No matter which method you use to fund , your records are filed by your
egold number. He needs that to find you in the system. If that becomes your
ebullion number later, then he has both to start with.
e. your full name
f. your mailing address
g. your phone number
h. your email address
he
will acknowledge your spend with a quick reply to your email that he received
it.
Step 3:
Upon
receipt of your funds a welcome letter, statement and pre-promissory note will
be emailed to you within a couple days. The real promissory note loan agreement signed by Dennis will be sent to you
snail mail within a couple weeks
10-15-2006 update from Dennis on the program
Greetings
Everyone,
My
SDS Loan project evolved out of my desire to help people with disabilities to
earn a living from home, using their computers, and to help my family and
friends to benefit from my online investments. I had researched MLM and
other types of Home based businesses for many years seeking to find the right
formula to assist people with disabilities, who were unable to find traditional
employment, to earn a living from home. My search eventually, lead me to
the online, MLM income arena, HYIP's, and paid-to-surf, programs.
The presence of the Internet seemed to solve many of the obstacles inherent in
the offline counterparts, which required the recruiting of family and friends,
which most people with disabilities are not going to excel at.
After
researching the online income arena, and developing my skills at DD and a strategy
of diversification, and retrieving principle quickly, I started doing very
well. Several of my family members started asking me about what I was
doing, and wanting to know if I could show them how to do it also.
However, I had learned from my recruiting efforts to earn referral fees, that
it's not wise to put one's reputation on the line by constantly recommending
programs in this arena, due to the fluidity of the environment. So, I
offered to accept personal loans from them, where I would guarantee them a
certain return on their money, and would therefore have more control over the
outcome.
I
offered to pay them 200% per year, paid out in 12 equal payments, for loans
under $2,500, and 200% per year for five years, paid out in 60 equal monthly
payments, for loans over $2,500. I used the $2,500 benchmark because I had
determined that this was the amount I needed, on average, to help people with
disabilities to become self-sufficient.
Many
of my online colleagues who were actually placing their money in a lot of the
same places I was, were not getting the same results, due to not exercising the
discipline to diversify, and retrieve principle quickly. After Pinnacle
Holdings and some other HYIP’s stopped paying, about a year and half ago,
several of them came to me to see what I recommended as a replacement. I
told them the same thing I had told my family, and made them the same offer.
And thus the SDS Loan project was born. So, unlike many programs, this
really was started with the lenders best interests in mind, because the original
lenders it was created for, were my family and friends. I didn't
change anything when I offered it to my online acquaintances, except adding the
referral fee system, because some of them didn't have the funds to do the $2,500
level, and wanted a way to earn enough to get there. The project has grown
to approximately 300 lenders over the course of 18 months exclusively through
word of mouth. I have never promoted it, but several of the lenders who
had websites, and followers of their own, have.
Okay,
as for the mechanics of how it works; when I receive a loan, I invest that money
into any number of potential income earning activities, some online, and
others not. I then use the profits from these investments, to both repay
the loans, and help people with disabilities to get started making money from
home. I will loan these people seed money, and recommend a strategy based
on what's working at the time, plus teach them to do due diligence, and plug
them into the knowledge base which exists online. I don't mind making
recommendations to this group, because they are using money provided by me in
the first place. This is much different than recommending others to put
their money into something.
Since
the money loaned is from profits, there is no pressure on these people to repay
the loans. I am in this to help them, not put them further in debt.
I actually try to identify projects to invest in that have a referral system, so
that the program will repay me through referral fees. That way, I get the
best of both worlds. I am not putting pressure on the people I'm helping
to repay, but yet, I am getting repaid. This also helps them retain
some self-respect, because they feel better knowing I'm getting my money back,
in this way.
For
many of the people I help, either the state government, or the federal
government will pay me for helping them, which adds another source of revenue,
for the same efforts. And keep in
mind, that this was funded through profits. I also do other types of work
with people with disabilities, such as helping them to find work in traditional
employment, or start businesses. I also get paid from these activities,
which does not pull funds from the loans or the investment profits. So,
this income acts as a back up, to insure that the loans are covered, as well as
providing additional funds to fuel investments. So, everything works
together synergistically.
Okay,
at this point, you're probably asking if this all works so well, then why am I
currently having problems? This is a valid question, and one that will
take a bit to explain. There are, as I stated earlier, several
compounding issues adding to the current payment delays, some business
related, and others personal.
Much
of the activity previously recommended to the people I am working with revolved
around the auto-surf industry. This required them to do something for
the money, but it was easy enough that most had no problem completing the
required tasks. Again this adds to their self-esteem by giving them a
sense of “earning” the money. It started with the success of 12 Daily
Pro, and a few others, last year. Then, several people whom
I had come to know decided to start their own surf programs, and HYIP's.
So, I put a lot of funds into these programs directly, and provided funds for
the people I am working with to do the same.
Unfortunately, all of the above eventually failed.
What
made these failures so disheartening was that I was already hurt by previous
events, and was counting on these admins, whom I considered reliable, to help me
turn that around. You see, I am still paying people who submitted their
loans via INTGold, Stormpay, and EMO, even though most of those funds are
no longer accessible, to varying degrees. As most of you know, most
programs either stopped paying on those accounts funded through these resources,
or shut down altogether when those accounts were frozen.
But I am taking the high road here, and honoring my commitments.
In fact, my promissory notes do not give me any leverage to do otherwise,
and I wrote them that way on purpose.
Stormpay
was the biggest hit, financially speaking. However, both, the INTGold
and EMO closures, significantly disrupted my system for moving money around, as
well as depleting available funds directly. I live within an hour drive of
INTGold's offices, so when I started all of this, I could take them any
amount of cash, and have it deposited into my account for a $1 fee, and then
move it around into other e-currencies as needed. So, there closure not
only took a chunk of my change, but it also disrupted my methods for moving
money around, which increased my workload.
This wasn’t devastating, but definitely a major inconvenience, and
expense.
This
all took place very shortly after I had been told I had prostate cancer, and
both were during the holiday season, of last year.
So, I really didn’t even pay much attention to the cancer diagnosis,
since I was going to wait until after the holidays to deal with it.
Then In December, they closed INTGold, so January got off to a rickety
start as it was, and then, the Stormpay fiasco hit at the first of February,
taking $25,000-$30,000, in actually funds, and an enormous amount of
earning potential, with it. That really hurt, because not only did it take
my funds, but also the money of the people I was helping, since most of them
were making the lions share of their earnings from 12 Daily Pro at that time.
This meant that all of the gains I had made in helping people for the previous
six or seven months was wiped out, almost instantly. So, I had to step in
to assist them to get back on their feet again, resulting in more drained funds,
not to mention the time and energy it took to reassess the whole online
income arena after the initial auto-surf crash.
This raised the amount of funds being provided to these people from the
initial estimate of $2,500, to an average of $5,000-$10,000, due to the recovery
process.
In
the mean time, I had learned to use EMO as a replacement for moving funds around
between E-gold and E-bullion, and sending money orders. It was working
very well for this purpose, after some initial adjustment time. But, of
course we know what happened there. Another $4,000, or so, was directly lost
in that mess, as well as another disruption to my cash-flow management methods,
and more funds that were tied up in various programs invested into via EMO
funds. And again, not just for
myself, but for the people I was helping as well.
So,
I came to people I knew, to help me recoup those losses. Up to that point,
those bumps in the road were major inconveniences, and expenses, but were
not devastating, as I still had money to invest, without it affecting my ability
to make payments. However, when these newer programs, all stopped paying,
pretty much simultaneously, along with some others, it made a bigger
impact than I initially realized. So, for about four months
between March and June, we were regrouping, and trying to get things recovered
that had been lost in the payment processor messes. I forget exactly where
in there EMO was closed, but it was during this time as well.
Then
came July, which got off to a rocky start from the beginning, as I had planned a
4th of July vacation, months in advance, which I was unable to go on
the first part of, due to waiting on some much needed funds to arrive, which did
not come before time for me to leave. Even
though the person sending them was well aware of my planned departure date, they
did not bother to spend the extra few dollars to insure prompt delivery.
Once the funds did come, I was able to join my wife and daughter for the
second half of the vacation, but I did not have time, or enough funds on hand,
to pay everyone up in advance for the time I was going to be away.
So, when I returned, I was behind immediately.
Then,
several other programs stopped paying, which dealt a severe blow. I
still had/have other more stable, long-term investments, but they pay less than
I do (16.67% per month), and the amount I have invested in them is not equal to
the sum of my loans. So they cannot keep the payments flowing for my
outstanding loans. I was able to make it through July on those smaller
payments, my reserves, personal credit sources, and offline business
payments. I was still struggling to
get caught up from being gone, when a personal crisis hit, which totally
devastated me emotionally, making it impossible to think clearly, much less to
focus on the intricate financial dealings needed to get things caught up.
Just to give you an idea of how devastating this event was; I still had
not even gone back to the doctor about the cancer, because I was too wrapped up
in dealing with SDS. So as you can
see, I’m not devastated, or distracted from SDS, easily.
August
rolled around, with me pretty much in a daze, and not being able to focus much
on work at all. As a result,
I had to rely almost solely on the smaller payments, and new loans to make
payments. I also made a few large investments in projects without doing my
usual legwork, due to being too disassociated with the whole process at the
time, to give the attention it requires. I
lost a bundle, and missed several lucrative opportunities at the same time.
Of course, this was/is very upsetting to me, as this project was never
set up to operate that way. But I
looked at it as necessary bridges to get over the hump, until I can get my focus
back, and deal with the hard work of keeping the earnings flowing as they had
been, and get the investments built back up again.
Unfortunately, the bad decisions made at a time I shouldn’t have been
making them, had catastrophic results.
I didn't
even realize how bad it was until after the end of July, because initially, I
was just playing catch up from taking a vacation, and then I was just in a daze
for weeks. But as the month of
August wore on, I started realizing that the money was running out much too soon
for me to keep things moving smoothly, as is. But I was still not
thinking very clearly due to the crisis situation, which had really blindsided
me. I know the system will work,
without being dependent on new loans, as it has for over a year. And, keep
in mind, I took a few days off at the beginning of July, so I started the month
out behind as it was, and then several of my remaining programs, which were
paying, stopped as well.
In
addition to these issues, around the end of July, or beginning of August,
Western Union decided that I send too much money to people through their system,
so they banned me from using their services any more, after charging my credit
card for a large sum which I was sending to a lender due to a bank wire fiasco
that left their payment several days late. It took days of debating with
them over this to just get the funds put back on my card, which of course
resulted in more time and energy wasted, at a time when I had neither to spare.
I never did get them to realize what they were requiring from me was
unrealistic. They wanted me to have the people receiving the WU payments
from me, to send them an itemized budget, complete with receipts, documenting
that they were using the money I was sending them, for rent, groceries,
utilities, etc… I tried,
unsuccessfully, to convince them that this was not only excessive, and
ridiculous, but also impossible. I
mean, how are people going to provide receipts for how they spent money, or are
going to spend it, before they receive it?
Due to the expense of their system, I only used it in emergency
situations, to begin with. And
people in crisis, shouldn’t be subjected to the type of intrusion of privacy
they were demanding. Money Gram was
the only beneficiary of that ordeal.
This
was yet, another disruption in the cash flow system, but this affects the people
in crisis more than the lenders and their payments, except for the fact that
there is only so much of me, and so many hours in the day, and this was a major
drain of on my limited mental reserves, and time, which were, at that moment, at
a minimum already. You probably can’t imagine much of the
hassles that created, but that was just one transaction of many which were
affected. So again, you can see if one transaction took up that much time
and energy, and I have 300 people to pay each month, how disruptive the whole
thing was/is. Not to mention the folks coming to me for help, and all of
those transactions, which had be reassessed, and alternate methods of payments
devised, all at a time that most of my attention was forced elsewhere.
In
addition to everything else, the bank really messed up on several bank wires for
the second month in a row. I think it had to be something to do with
additional reporting of my activity, due to the large number of bank wires I
send, or something. There's not much else which can explain the recent
problems I'm having there. They did hire some new staff, and originally
cited that as the issue, but they've now informed me that due to the amount of
activity on my account, and the number of bank wires I send, they are closing my
account, because they “no longer feel they are the best financial institution
for my needs.” After the last few
months, I have to agree with them. LOL
So,
as you can see, among other issues, the Patriot Act was causing havoc in
multiple ways, with moving money around, at a time that I was very distracted.
Plus, the money doesn't just fall into my lap to begin with.
I have to really work to produce 17% per month on $250K, and being so
distracted with the family crisis, caused me to miss lots of income
producing opportunities, some of which could have gotten payments caught up
all around.
One
of the additional factors causing everything to temporarily get to this
point is that the later part of July, August, and September, are sort of
"Lame Duck" months in the state/federal VR system in Texas.
Which is just as well, since I would not have been functionally capable
of doing much within the VR realm of things during this time anyway. The federal
fiscal year starts on August 1st, and our state fiscal year begins September
1st. So, everything starts winding down in July as these agencies have
spent most of their budgets for the year, because if they don't spend all of the
money they had allocated for this year, they can't justify asking for more next
year. LOL Anyway, for
Texas, they get their new allocation from the feds on August 1st, but they are
still operating from the last state fiscal year's budget, and legislation.
When the new federal fiscal year comes out, so do some new rules for how the
states can spend the money, which brings about adjustments, which often takes
until the middle or end of September to get ironed out, and everyone (state
employees and vendors) comfortable with how to proceed.
This
year is a particularly unique one in this respect, as Texas merged several
agencies in 2003, and each fiscal year change since, has included additional
steps toward a joint approach for these agencies in the way they operate,
culminating with a massive merger of their budgets, as well as other sweeping
changes, this year. And since none of this took affect until September
1st, the employees aren't even comfortable with it yet.
Now that they have it all figured out, they will start issuing
"vouchers" again, which is the promise to pay us vendors for our
services, as soon as the new contracts are signed.
I hope to have this accomplished in the very near future, so that
vouchers will be forthcoming soon. These vouchers give the vendors
assurance that when we provide a specific service, for a specific client, or
consumer as they are called in VR these days, we will be paid a certain amount.
Of course, we still have to provide the service, then bill for it, and
then wait for the payment to come, before the vouchers translate into cash in
hand.
I
do feel you all deserve to know the whole situation, but the family crisis
was just too personal to share the details with the masses. And this
is really what caused me to be distracted, which let some of the other issues
swell, rather than being nipped in the bud. Had I not had this situation,
I probably would have been focused enough to rebound in time to avoid the
current delays. I am only telling
you all this much, because of the amount of faith you all have put in me, in
order to provide the loans you have. I feel you deserve an explanation of
what has had me so distracted, that things got to this point. If not for
being temporarily devastated by this revelation, some of the movement of funds,
which were affected, could have been resolved sooner, as well.
As you can tell from the above descriptions, I needed my full focus during this
time to deal with SDS, and suddenly, it was no longer even the priority, which
of course did not help me get things reeled in, and dealt with, which needed
dealing with.
So,
what all of this adds up to, is both of my major income streams being
reduced by a significant amount, temporarily, but simultaneously, and at
a time when I had major personal demands on my time, and emotional reserves, not
allowing me the time, or energy, to spend, which was needed to get caught up as
quickly as everyone would like.
As
many of you know, I am working on raising $100K-$150K, which is what I need to
get everything caught up, and back on track. I actually need to get the
higher end of that range at this point, because every day that goes by, more
payments become due, and I'm further behind.
I
have tentative commitments for most of this, I just don't have the cash in hand,
and as we all know, you can't count on anything, until you have the money in
your possession. Once I do have the funds, it will still require me
getting much of it into e-currencies to be used for most people's payments, and
rebuild the investment portfolio, in order to get the investments back to a
position of self-sustainability.
Some
people are flexible, and can accept wires, cash, and/or checks, which helps
tremendously right now. I prefer using e-currencies whenever they are
self sufficient, but as they are right now, having the ability to send payments
via other means really helps. That's why some people are getting paid
before others, who may be before them in the chronological scheme of things. Given
all of this, there are also, some folks who are just slipping through the cracks
as a result of the chaotic and urgent nature of the recent situation.
Whenever we try to do too much, with too little time and/or other resources,
things get missed.
Add
to all of this, the fact that the people in crisis are still coming to me
needing help, and now I am having to make decisions as to whether to pay lenders
who fully deserve to be paid the funds promised, or to save a family from
eviction, and other similar hardships, on a daily basis, and you can hopefully
sense the strain all of this is causing. If not for my faith in God, and
my knowledge that this is what He wants me doing, I would have thrown in the
towel long ago. There were days when I didn't even want to open my
emails, because the lenders, and people in need were wondering what is
going on with me, at a time I didn't want to talk to the world about what was
going on with me and my family. It's sort of a minor dose of what
celebrities go through, I guess. I never envisioned the level of interest
people would have in what's going on with my life, just as I never envisioned
the urgent sense of a need for privacy as I have right now.
I
knew it would be very difficult to explain to everyone the current state of
affairs without setting off a large scale public debate about the situation,
which might result in the needed funds being withheld, thus sabotaging the whole
thing. Plus, it is very uncomfortable even telling as much as I have about
the crisis situation, to this many people, when it is such a personal and
private matter, knowing that there will be speculation, and murmuring.
But I know that without that piece of the puzzle, the rest really
wouldn’t make sense, and every day which goes by, draws more concern and
scrutiny. That's why I am working
as hard as I can, to get the needed funds, without causing unnecessary panic
among the ranks. If I can get these funds in the next few days, then I can
get everyone caught up, investments replenished, and get back to normal, just in
time for the VR funds to start flowing again next month, as well.
Then we can all hopefully relax a bit for the holidays.
The Lord knows I’m, ready.
People,
who have only participated in programs as investors, or lenders, can't really
understand all of the little things that can happen, good and bad, which affect
a project of this nature. Some people are making thoughtless, critical,
inflammatory, and often just plan false, posts in public forums and blogs, but
what they don't realize is, that some of the people who are considering helping
me raise the funds needed to turn this around, are members of these groups and
forums as well. And that those
posts cause them quite a bit of concern, which has ultimately delayed, and in
some cases, prevented the funds from coming, making the negative posts self
defeating behavior.
People
have the right to post when they are not paid, especially if their emails are
not being responded to. But many people are making more of an effort to
post negative comments in the forums, than they are to communicate with me.
Plus, it’s sort of like the pedestrian having the right of way at an
intersection. Just because the
pedestrian has the right of way, doesn’t mean it’s always advisable to
exercise it. In the end, if a car
squashes you, it doesn’t matter who was in the right.
The same is true for this arena. If
the negative posts cause or contribute to the demise of an honest program, it
doesn’t matter that you had the right to make the posts. If the end result is
needed funds are withheld, and payments stop, everyone loses.
This
is a minority of the people. And, I
acknowledge that some emails have slipped through the cracks, not intentionally,
but they have. But given the above
circumstances, hopefully more of you can now understand why.
I mean put yourself in my situation.
Try to imagine paying 17% per month on $250K, to over 300 people, and
have life sucker punch you with the one of the most devastating things you can
think of happening to your family, and think about how long it would take for
you to get behind on payments, and let other things slip.
I am human, and I had an emotionally devastating experience, which
knocked me on my tail for a while. Fortunately,
God and time, heals all wounds, and I am now getting back in the swing of
things.
I
knew that given the current state of affairs that others would likely jump on
the bandwagon, once this got started. It is actually quite a nice
testimony to the maturity of the majority of the SDS participants that more
didn't, since there are other members who had much more cause for concern than
some of those who are posting. On the whole, I think most of the members
know that I will come through. Of course the newer participants have more
reason to be concerned, as they don't know me as well. That's why it's
frustrating when older participants, who have been getting paid for many months,
unnecessarily sound an alarm. And of course in this arena, each day
that goes by without all payments getting current, is a time bomb waiting to
explode, as more members will likely start complaining on the forums, which
could squash any remaining potential for raising the needed funds in a lump
sum.
While
some of these sources are still reportedly in various stages of sending me
funds, I am still pursuing others, just in case something doesn't go as planned
with the existing options. And again, all of this is going on at a time when
money was not the foremost concern in my life. And this is obviously not
something I will be sharing the details of, with the lenders at large. So,
as you can all hopefully see, an acceptable explanation of the current situation
could not be easily presented. Especially when different people are at
different levels of being current, or behind.
Payments, and payments alone, will silence the murmurs. So,
this is where my attention is focused.
Many
people are offering some constructive advice.
And I do appreciate it. Others
have just criticized, and called me unprofessional, among other things.
LOL Well, actually, you will never see a claim from me to be a
professional program admin, or anything else.
I am considered to be a Rehabilitation Professional by my peers, as that
is what my degree is in, and what I have had journal articles published about.
But as far as I am concerned, I am just a guy who went through the
deaf/blind vocational rehabilitation process as a client, and didn’t like what
I saw, so I went to school to become a part of the solution, only to find that
many of the problems are so deeply systemic, that the only way to really create
change, is to implement a new privately funded system.
So, I set out to do just that, with God’s guidance.
And through Divine guidance, was shown a way to create a system where
everyone wins. Governments, and all
of their professionals, have been trying for centuries to create self-funding
social services. The SDS loan
project has accomplished this, with your help.
Had it not been for me driving a program while under the influence of
delirium, we would still be fine today. In
terms of income programs, I can’t even remember the names of all of the failed
programs reportedly run by professional traders, and such.
So please, keep in mind that the Titanic was built by professionals, but
the Ark was built by one man and his family, with God’s guidance.
Which boat would you have rather been on?
It’s
easy with the advantage of hindsight to sit back and pass judgment on my
decisions, as some are doing. I
cringe when in think of some of the choices I’ve made myself.
But how many of us, one year ago, could have predicted the turmoil in the
payment processor arena, and the aftermath it has caused?
None of us could. If
we had been able to predict this outcome, then Stormpay would not be sitting on
so much money right now, would they? So,
like any new innovation, my project has had to be tweaked, and refined, and
probably always will. But the
concept is solid, and it has worked for well over a year, despite the turmoil.
So, when you read reviews talking about how risky my project is, and how
it is doomed to fail, take into consideration, that I am one of the only people
I know of still paying people from loans made with INTGold, Stormpay, and EMO.
I am also the only one I know of willing to sign a personal promissory
note for the loans received, rather than hiding behind an escape clause buried
in the fine print of some complicated TOS.
I know that many people have not received theirs yet.
I am working to get this resolved. But
hopefully, after having read this far, it is easier to understand why they have
fallen through the cracks. Everything
had to be prioritized, and from the very beginning, making the payments and
helping people in need were the priorities.
With
the low number of other honest programs out there, to recover from
this, will most likely set us up head and shoulders above most of the rest.
Which in turn would benefit everyone involved by restoring the solid foundation
we once enjoyed. There aren't any
programs that I can think of paying more than I do, for as long as I have been
paying. I may be missing some, but I can't think of any. So, that is
where my attention is focused.
I
am still looking for individuals/organizations who can see the value in the
services I provide to both the lenders, and the people in need, and will be
drawn to the opportunity to receive a nice return on their money, while helping
me to help many people in the process.
We need new money coming in to replenish the investments, to help me get
this turned around. Therefore, I am
going to announce a few changes coming to the project, which I hope will
facilitate an increase in participation, by both current and new lenders.
First
and foremost, as of November the 1st, all future loans will be for 12
months only. This will not affect
current loans, or any that come in before the 1st.
The recent events lead me to realize the need for an amicable exit
strategy, which will allow me to discontinue committing myself for five years
out. I love this program, and what
it has allowed us together, to do for people in need.
But I also need to reel in the time frame of the commitments, in order to
give myself the flexibility of gradually getting to the point of only committing
myself from year to year. This will
also have the added benefit to the program of requiring people to resubmit loans
each year if they want to keep receiving the payments.
This will put us on much more solid ground in the coming years.
There
will still be an advantage to providing the larger loans, in that they will now
pay 20% per month for 12 months, while the smaller ones will stay the same.
In order to cover this extra 3% per month, I am also doing away with
referral fees as of November 1st.
They have been a headache to keep up with, from the very beginning, and I
need to streamline the process as much as possible.
With that in mind, change number four, is that all new loans as of
11/1/06 will need to be made via either e-gold, or e-bullion.
I have been absorbing the cost, and the time to exchange cash/check
payments into e-currencies, and that has to stop.
There may be exceptions to this, but they will be the exceptions, not the
rule.
The
bottom line is, that we need to get more money coming in, if I am going to be
able to pull this out of the hole. So,
unfortunately, there really isn't any option other than to keep accepting new
loans right now, if I want to pull this thing out of the hole. The
situation now is that I need to raise additional funds to get things turned
around. This is sort of a microcosm, of economics in general.
When
people perceive that there is an economic problem, they tend to stop spending,
which creates economic problems. When people perceive there is a strong
economy, they circulate money, creating a strong economy. So, the
challenge I'm facing is how to get people to look beyond the current problems,
and see the benefits of circulating money through SDS again.
An
example of how well the circulation of new money can kick start an economy or
company out of the ruts, can be seen in the not so distant past. After
9/11 everyone in the US stopped spending money. People were stuck.
They just sat at home in a daze, watching replays of the attacks. This
went on for two weeks. Finally, someone who deserves a lot more
credit than they've been given, at GM, came up with the bright idea of offering
0% interest on new cars. And BAM! People suddenly got a ray of hope.
"Why not get a new car now, because I won't get a better offer than
this," they started thinking. People were getting approved for new
car loans who never would have had a chance before. The next thing you
know, dealerships are selling cars again. That put money in the
salespeople’s pockets, got the assembly lines rolling again, and sent people
to the gas stations. So all of
these folks had money to spend again, and when they spent it, someone else had
money to spend again, and so on, and so on. The point is, that once the
big-ticket items started moving again, so did everything else. Sure, it
took a while, but it got moving.
Now
don’t get me wrong. I’m not
talking about using new money to pay existing loans.
I’m talking about new money to invest with, in order to have money to
help people with disabilities, in order to generate the government payments, and
to have profits to pay the loans back with. I'm
hoping that my 16 months of making timely payments, will provide some
leverage, and evidence of my ability to pull this out of the current situation.
If I do not find an amicable solution quickly, it is very possible that
one or more of you will complain to my local DA, and even though I am operating
perfectly within the law, I could be shut down immediately, and questions
asked later. Then, it’s possible that nobody gets any more payments.
I obviously do not want this, as I’m sure none of you do. That is why I
am working so hard to get this turned around. There is much more at stake
than any one person's livelihood. There are literally dozens, if not
hundreds of people counting on me to make this work.
My
heart is broken by the emails I get each day asking for help, which I have to
turn away right now, because all funds are going to making payments, not to
mention the people depending on their monthly payments. I am doing the
best I can under the circumstance, and will get you all paid as quickly as is
humanly possible. But you can help.
Take out new loans, and refer others, so that we can get this moving
again.
I
appreciate your time that it took to read this far, and would certainly be most
appreciative of any assistance, guidance, or resources, which you might be able
to provide, or direct me to. Take
care, and God bless.
Thanks,
Dennis