New Milepoint Lending Team [general info]

Sorry for the long time since last update.... first post is updated

Team stats as of today at ca 0600 GMT:
Number of Team Members: 778
Number of Loans: 48,157
Number of Loans per Member: 61.9
Total Amount Loaned: $2,660,475
Total Amount Loaned so far in May: $77,875

1) who is going to take the lead to get cooperation from Mp and Kiva for the promotions/inducements we have in mind? We might need a Conversation or two to enhance (y)our ideas.
2) Please opine regarding team goals:
http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/milepointers-team-goals.11403/page-26

Let's make June our major drive for new members. We can together design a very successful recruitment plan, IMO.

I think what we need to do is increase the number of active new participants. Is there some way to set up a loan joining/matching for new members that also post here?

For example I pledge to make 10 loans (1 each) for the first 10 new members in June that loan and post about it here? (details not confirmed, but this is what i have in mind)

That way we're not asking current members to give away money to new people who may only be in it for the money. We're increasing loans all around and we're also getting more people into the flow of these threads which has been known to cause more loans.

I like the idea of using June as a member drive. I just don't so much know how to go about it.

Ten, I think this is a wonderful idea!

Is there a way to incorporate the summer solstice into the recruiting drive?

Longest day.....shortest night......light of hope .....darkness of poverty.....

....just thinking out loud.

*runs off to make a new id to join in june to not get that pic*

I'm glad to have stopped by the lounge whilst eating lunch. I will have to make up the lost calories later in the day. Are you performing a Pavlovian experiment on the gag reflex?

fcj, you may want to reconsider your offer. Please bear in mind that in my culture the visual image of this Brazilian Bombshell in the buff is disturbing. However, in many primitive cultures on our planet jbc is considered an icon of Kate Upton magnitude.

Search "Juliana Paes Playboy" for what you'll be missing. It was not me but my neighbor you had in mind.

So you don't look like Juliana Paes? I'm .

jbc is better looking.

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Could you be mine?"

So I just saw Matt post about an annual letter:
http://t.co/ZGa8hh2M

interesting format, a bit hard to read

Anyone that looked at the annual report notice that we are a speckled leopard of a color?

Team stats as of today at ca 0845 GMT:
Number of Team Members: 778
Number of Loans: 48,196
Number of Loans per Member: 61.9
Total Amount Loaned: $2,663,125
Total Amount Loaned so far in May: $80,525

Top Lender is Good Dogg, a member of our team!

Wow, 4,975 loans on the board right now. Only a short time before it hits 5000!

The question is, can the lenders keep pace with this dramatic increase in the number or will many more (100s, 1000) expire!

I am of the opinion here, some need to be allowed to expire, honestly there needs to be some restraint and limit on what is coming into kiva, and from the MFIs as well, the unfiltered loan masses right now are a mess and really don't look well vetted in some cases.

Over 5000 now. I had lunch with one of the Kiva staff yesterday and voiced my concern about the open market loan placement. Matt and Premal are committed to this new format as it will keep pace with new lenders coming in, but I asked them to do some datamining - in particular, what is the $$ amount increase in loans and what is the $$ amount in lending; what is the $$ amount of money held up in expiring loans (and would this money be better utilized to help fund a moderate growth pace. Finally, what is the pace of lending of new lenders.

This is one impetus for the open marketplace -- to offer variety and ensure a continual supply of loans, but I would argue new lenders need time to increase lending and having so many loans inundates them -- its like looking at a 10 page menu at a restaurant, most people only need 2 pages and the extra 8 just tend to confuse and distract the customer!

I also offered a suggestion that they really need to implement a split column front page for the Lend tab - one half for Popular, one half for expiring loans.

This is a trial period and they did predict many expirations, but from the lender perspective, esp the new ones, its frustrating. I also mentioned that it is possible the trial loans end up going back to Kiva or original donor and not to the lender to try to relend, so their first loan truly is a dismal experience.

I will let everyone know if I hear anything else on the matter.

I just received this from Kiva:

Hello Michael,

Thanks so much for your reply. I appreciate your concern about expiring loans and how they negatively impact everyone involved. I want you to know that we are working hard to address concerns like yours.

We've recently made a few changes to our website to help loans not expire while basketed:

The first change is that site sessions will now be disconnected from basket sessions. Previously, when sessions were kept alive through data being requested from the server, baskets were also kept alive and loans remained held in a basket. Our site has become much more dynamic with requests to the server happening in the background without a user actually being "active" (other than just leaving a page open in their browser and walking off) and this was unintentionally keeping loans held indefinitely. With this change, basket sessions will be timed separately from site sessions.

The second change is that we have decided to decrease the amount of time that loans will stay held in a lenders basket when they are near expiration. If the basket is not modified (new loans added, quantity changes, loan removals, etc) then the loans in it will be dropped after 60 minutes. For loans that have 6 hours or less remaining until expiration, loans will be dropped after only 15 minutes, so that they can be funded by other lenders.

The final change is that we now allow the last $25 of a loan to be added to two different lender baskets. If both lenders proceed through the checkout process to pay for the loan, the person who completes their loan purchase first will actually the loan, while the other one's fund will be added to their account as Kiva Credit, which they can use to support another borrower.

Our hope is that the combination of these three changes will help give loans in danger of expiration a better chance of being completely funded by Kiva lenders. We'll continue to monitor the situation and make additional changes if necessary.

In addition, we know that lenders have different preferences for who they want to loan money to through Kiva. For this reason we encourage lenders to direct their funds toward loans where they feel their money is making the most impact.

I hope this information has helped to allay some of your concerns. We are constantly working to update and improve the website in every regard, and we always appreciate the feedback we get from lenders.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Best wishes,

Kelly Friedman

Community Support Intern

I like these changes, particularly the last one. I am not sure I would restrict it to the last $100. At the 12 hour mark, I'd allow unlimited duplication on a first to fund wins basis.



Keep writing Kiva on this. It is a real problem and needs more attention. I liked Canucklehead's split screen idea.

RE: API
This person put together a nice how to use google docs to pull Kiva stats into a spreadsheet:
http://en.freedonne.org/kiva-team-k...h-statistics/how-was-the-statistics-page-made
I'm sure some of you will enjoy it...

but that excludes half the world

Thank you.

Good point.

perhaps two slogans

In the North, it is "Longest day.....shortest night......light of hope .....darkness of poverty....."
In the South, it is "tomorrow the light shines longer with Kiva"

then in Dec, we switch the slogans!