MilePointers team goals

Goals are important. Number of loans is least important, members a little more important and dollars loaned a biggie but not the most important. The most important team stat is loans outstanding and Kiva doesn't post it for teams, just for individuals. For example,say someone (not me) loaned $3,500 but because many were short term loans their loans outstanding are only $2,800. Now every loan helped someone, repaid or not, so dollars loaned counts. However, to keep the work going it is loans outstanding that tell how much skin we have in the game. Every month I try to add some new skin.

Seems we have to adjust to $250,000 for September

Current total amount is $219,725

Well said, miles and smiles!

Wow! That is very impressive! Wonderful, should we have revised August goals We are really doing well. Thanks everyone!

I agree. 250-260k

I vote for $250,000.

Wow, what a spurt in amounts loaned.

I'm not bothered about members, number of loans as I don't feel as if we are in competition with anyone. I'm like smiles, I'm doing it because I like the satisfaction of that feeling of being involved and knowing where my money is going.

I do like the goals as it does motivate to keep loaning as I am guilty sometimes of forgetting to check for repayments. Like Ky I'm going to try and keep putting some fresh skin in the game every month.

Wonder when we will hit our millionth dollar loaned?

Nime01 has been thinking we need to have a milepoint Kiva DO to celebrate the millionth dollar loaned. I think that is a really good idea. What do you think? It will allow us some time to plan.

Honestly I would bet it is March 1, 2012.

I think that would be an excellent idea. Something certainly worthy of celebrating.

I've not really thought of when I would expect that millionth $ to be loaned but it does seem to be coming round faster than I would have thought.

We are now the 51st largest team on Kiva. Within a few weeks we could be in the top 50. And all the teams ahead of us are much older than our team. So, we are growing rapidly.

Trickiest question about a DO is where. We are worldwide. Jbcarioca, you once suggested San Francisco, because that is where Kiva's headquarters is. But SF is not easy to reach by our European members. So, no consensus developed on the idea........
Kiva has a branch in Detroit now. Maybe Kiva will be having branches in other cities, soon.

Although there are alternatives I suspect we are becoming important enough to Kiva that they'd pull out the stops to brief us on whatever we wish. I think that would be worth some travel inconvenience. I also suspect we might be able to get an airline or two to help us with fares, maybe get a decent deal on hotels too.

Maybe we might even decide to do this at $500,000 or even when we make it in the top 25 teams. What should we do?

This is awesome.

There are some we'll never pass at the very top,but it is nice to see it growing.

Anything US and east I can make in a weekend. Ideally the DO would be on a weekend. These Mega Dos being mid week are a no go for me.

Never??! That is a long time. I would not take that bet. It will be a long tiem, but why should we not get there?

I don't think we can catch the top team. They out lend us every month by a long time.

That they do, today. However we are growing from a tiny new base, so all we need to do is maintain our growth rate. It is the same story as high PE's on stock markets. We ave a better story to tell. Of course, it will take time before we challenge the giant teams. I just don't think it is necessarily 'never'.

I had never really looked at other teams and what they were doing. However on status we are 51st in terms of amount loaned. However, we should soon start overtaking many of those above us as it has taken them since the inception of the team concept in Aug 2008 to loan what they have.

What would be a cool DO would be to fly around and meet the various groups we have loaned to. Probably no Hyatt or Hilton to stay in, but I am certain it would probably motivate us to lend even more.

If we do a DO I agree with the weekend concept because lots of peeps have pesky jobs that require them to show up on Monday. SF obviously works for me as I can get in the car and drive. If we do East Coast all I ask is can we make sure the weather is not too cold as I don't do snow.

How does springtime in San Francisco sound?
And no, I am not suggesting song titles.

I like that.

Works for me.

SFO works for me, and it's not that hard for our European friends to get to their; there are direct flights from CDG, LHR, MUC, ZRH and FRA.

It's better AFTER March, so April or early May would be good. March is still the rainy season in northern California.

I'll be quite happy with April or May. Question: how many members, how many loans and how much will we have lent by then? We might ask Randy to help us with Kiva contacts, just to make it formal. Then we probably need a DO thread to refine logistics, goals, etc. I am becoming excited!