DONATE TO PEDOMETRICS!

Dear Pedometricians,

The Pedometrics Commission is a part of the International Union of Soil Science. As such our activities must be fully open to members of national soil science societies affiliated with IUSS, and we charge no membership fee.

The Commission can obtain funds from IUSS from time to time. For example, the initial costs to establish our website were met from Division 1 of IUSS (Soils in Space and Time) to which we belong. However, I would like us to have more resources to use for promoting Pedometrics internationally, and the current activities of the Commission do incur costs. Events like the Pedometrics meeting are expected to return any surplus funds to the Commission for its activities. However, this is a relatively infrequent and unpredictable source of income, and the Commission has no funds at all at the moment. My hope is that the Commission can become financially sustainable so that, among other things, we can:

• provide a regular bursary for students to attend the Pedometrics conference
• expand and maintain our website
• provide pump-priming funds to set up workshops in new areas of pedometrics or interfaces with other areas of soil science
• respond positively to new ideas proposed by commission members that require some financial outlay (e.g. to produce a publication)

For this reason we have set up an account for the Commission which is managed by Budiman Minasny in Sydney. Please contact Budiman (b.minasny@usyd.edu.au) for details. I hope that you, individually or from your institution, will consider donating to our account.

We will provide annual accounts of how the money is used which will be publicized on the Pedometrics Commission website (www.pedometrics.org). We will list donors in a page on the website (unless anonymity is requested). My hope is that we can build up modest funds to meet our requirements from such donations. We are not looking for large-scale commercial sponsorship, which might appear to compromise our scientific independence.

We also have set up a Paypal account which can accept online credit card payments. This account is managed by Budiman Minasny, ViceChair of the Pedometrics commission. If you do decide to donate then click the "Make a Donation" Button below, and please email Budiman (b.minasny@usyd.edu.au) to let him know.

With thanks, and best wishes for your work in Pedometrics.