New Milepoint Lending Team [general info]

This is amazing, and I am lost for words.
Thank you all, once again.
You should all be proud of yourselves.

New goals?
- 1000 loans by May 28, 2011
- 10 loans in average per team member (not possible to set as goal, but shows up in stats)

... is $40k realistic by May 28?

That is soo nice to see, but we still have three more days in March so we can do more.

BTW, it is not too early to plan. What shall we set as goals for April?

there are 26,410 mp members now;
There were about 4,000 when the month began.

If we in April can grow milepointers on Kiva as much as milepoint grew in March, we will grow by 6.6 times.

That would mean at the end of April we would have:
323 members
2,824 loans
$132,000 in loans

I show those metric just to remind us that milepoint is growing very rapidly so we need to grow rapidly with it. Please make your opinions known.

Just for me, this has been a very satisfying and exciting month. I'm looking to have many more of them with all of you.

As little as I have helped out, only $25 towards the first 20k, I can probably wing another $25 in May towards that.

You have helped out very much. Every loan helps. We make our goals by joining forces. Thanks for being here.

We should make more than these by the end of April IMO. Just remember how quickly milepoint is growing. We are in a very dynamic environment so expand our horizons, IMO. As Tenmoc says, another $25 in April will give him $50. If our members grow in April at the rate mp did in March, our average loans per member drop by half, to 4.35 and all make the minimum $25 per loan, we will still have about $35,000 in new loans in April, giving us a balance of more than $50,000.

make your own calculations before we decide, but remember how many milepointers there are now. All we need is a good recruitment plan and execute it!

If Randy gives out $5000 in Kiva gift certificates to 200 people in April, our membership will grow exponentially in
April, as jbcarioca suggested. I don't believe he has yet decided whether to give all to new team members or some to existing members. Either way, that will give the team a big boost.

OK - just added loan #9. I am in for $275 and before month end will push it to $300.

And we have member #50 - Chadi. Welcome wherever you are.

Thanks. You seem to be becoming addicted. Great! Welcome to Chadi too.

Well Done everyone! I'm not as optimistic as you guys are on how we will continue to grow as a Kiva lending group ... but then again I'm amazed at how much was lent in the first couple months. As Miles n Smiles said, if Randy does the donation giveaway, then I can definitely see a big bump again. Overall, though, I think MilePoint's growth had alot to do with the free iPad and word of mouth on other boards to see the new site ... A certain number aren't going to be sticking around (and content isn't growing nearly as fast as the number of people signing up). How many people were in the Kiva group on the other board vs the total number of members on that board?

They have only 229 members now and $107,600 in loans. people estimate about 25,000 active posters there, but it appears nobody really knows for certain. OTOH, we have far greater enthusiasm and active support, and we are clearly a very social BB. IMO that speaks to the more ambitious targets we need to have.

I admit it, I am biased.

Since MP Kiva team started last month, we have grown to 50 members and $20,000 lent. In the same time period the much larger FT team has lent about $8,000. So, both teams are growing, but the MP team much faster (and I feel we are having much more fun over here).
I don't see how the end of the Ipad giveaway will affect this team at all. The Kiva giveaway will have a big effect, for sure.
I don't know how many on the MP team are also on the FT team. Quite a few, but I haven't counted.

OK, so what will be our goals for April? I am reluctant to suggest anything...
Remember that there will also be a slew from alpinesoccer as soon as he reappears from his whirlwind tour.

Good points Jbcarioca and MilesSmiles .... And that is why I'll let you guys decide on a new goal!

Oh, we need your views too. IMO we should debate this a little precisely because we have such a fluid situation. We should stretch, but should also manage to deliver on our goals. Do you agree?

Indeed I do ... I'm a cynic by nature and I think you and Miles and Smiles are optimists. Maybe it's a good combo.

As you mentioned earlier, maybe wait until we get alpinesoccer input too?

Please take this as an observation for input, and not as pessimistic as it sounds.

While our efforts have been admirable in attaining the $20K goal, that goal was only met through the matching of jbcarioca, alpinesoccer, and some others through their generous matching gifts. When setting the new goal, we need to be realistic on what we can do not relying on those matches. In reality, we loaned somewhat less than $10K, so in increase of $10K may be the realistic goal.

Good point, however, who says matching gifts are a onetime thing. We can recruit people to do that again and more. Maybe even people who have done it before will do it again? I agree with your observations, if we do nothing. Nobody has asked anybody to match anything in April. Who knows what might happen if we do that again?

and my point is that we can't rely on it, and shouldn't set goals based on an assumption that it will occur. Now, if we have people that are going to match, we should have that input before we set our April goal so that the goal is still a stretch.

Since goal setting is so fluid, we should at least wait until we know when Randy intends to give the $5000 in Kiva gift certificates. This will attract many new people, many new loans, publicity for the team, etc. He did say April, but not a specific date, and his plans may change, too.
And yes, we don't know who/what else will come forward in the month ahead.

And now we have member #51, Dr. B. E., and his/her three new loans added to the rapidly growing team. Welcome to the team!

Welcome Dr. B. E.

Just a heads up that signing up to join through the MP team link doesn't make you a MP team member. I did it wrong and had to contact them by email to have it fixed and have my loans credited to MP.

Also, it seems to be possible to give your MP username as your first name, so that this shows for kiva. You'll have a chance later to enter the first name as on your credit card (which must match the card, of course).

Both good information.
Maybe we should edit that link or explain it better. I think nine is the only one who can do that.