FAH Donor Business Cards - We Can Do This!

[jcoffland]

FYI, you can get really awesome business cards for not much $$ at moo.com.

Also, what if your business card had a team specific link that would automatically join those who installed F@H by following your link to your team?

[Napoleon]

A brief high performance installation followed by a disgruntled donor who [un?]installs after a week provides less science than a lower performance option that keeps folding forever.

Whether CPU or GPU, I'd think the hardest part of the endeavour is to somehow explain the fact that despite best efforts folding simply isn't "embarrassingly parallel" work, and the deadlines for Work Units are very important. Once you've successfully communicated that a downloaded WU should be completed ASAP but taking breaks between WUs poses no problem whatsoever for the science, you've already done a great job in educating a potential donor.

You've been a naughty boy (or girl), so daddy won't give your laptop back until this WU is finished!

[Alan C. Lawhon]

FYI, you can get really awesome business cards for not much $$ at moo.com.

Also, what if your business card had a team specific link that would automatically join those who installed F@H by following your link to your team?

Mr. jcoffland: (I hope you're not a woman - although there's nothing wrong with that ...)

Now that is an idea!! I would really like to retain my "Lawhonac" UserID and continue folding [on my own machine] under that moniker until December 11, 2013 as I have a personal goal of surpassing 1,000,000 points in my first year of folding. I live in a town full of real live rocket scientists - most of whom pride themselves on their technical prowess - so forming a team of "Huntsville Rockets" might take off and go to the moon. (Ha! Ha! Pun intended.)

I wonder if it would be possible for bruce to set up a special "code number" (or some kind of distinguishing code) that I could have printed on my business card? Then, during registration and software download, if a new donor I have recruited wants to join (and fold) as part of the "Huntsville Rockets" team, they can enter that code and they'll automatically be added to the team.

Thanks for the lead to the moo.com web site. (I'll definitely check "moo" out.) I'm waiting for an up or down ("Yes" or "No") decision from either the Pande Group (or somebody at Stanford) concerning whether I may use the Stanford FAH logo [graphic] before I have business cards printed. There's no big rush on this as I figure most people are busy with the holidays and other distractions, but I'm not printing business cards until I definitely know whether or not I can use the FAH logo. Hopefully somebody can set up a special "team code" for joining the Huntsville Rockets while I await a decision on the logo. Then, when I'm talking with a new [prospective] folder, I can give them the option of either folding under their own UserID or joining the team. Great idea! (I like the way you think.)

I recruited two new folders today without the benefit of a business card. Having the option of allowing rocket scientists and engineers to join the "Huntsville Rockets" folding team might go over great.

[art_l_j_PlanetAMD64]

Hello Alan,

Here is another idea I had, while I was writing my suggestion for your new topic "Catchy New Ways To Describe FAH to Potential New Donors". You can read that suggestion by clicking on this link:
http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f ... 41#p232541

My idea is that instead of a business card (or in addition to a business card), there could be a larger card printed, that had enough information on it for the potential new folder to:
1) get enough information (including links) about FAH so they would want to join the project, and
2) give them the link to download and install the FAH software on their computer.

The idea is that instead of giving them a business card and then having to explain enough about FAH to get them to want to join, as well as them having to jot down other links if they wanted to read more about FAH, the larger card could have enough information on it to be self-contained and self-explanatory. You could still give them some more information and "selling points" during your conversation, but they would not have to write anything down (unless they wanted to). And they could write down any notes they wanted, on the back of the larger card. No having to scrounge around for paper or napkins to write on!

First of all, here is a link to the Staples web page that has "Index Cards" on it:
http://www.staples.com/Staples-White-Un ... _SS1038142
The cards are available in 3 sizes, 3"x5", 4"x6", and 5"x8" (click on "Select an item" on the right side of the page, to see the 3 available sizes).
These Index Cards are very inexpensive, a box of 500 blank cards costs:
3"x5" = $3.49
4"x6" = $5.99
5"x8" = $9.99

Here is one suggestion for the text that could be on this larger card:

The Folding@Home project (FAH) allows you to use your computer to help Stanford University study the causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many cancers. The general idea is that by studying 'protein misfolding' (see below), the scientists and doctors can design drugs and therapies to combat those illnesses. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can help the FAH project, by going to the FAH website http://folding.stanford.edu/English/HomePage, and downloading and installing the FAH software.

To get an "expert's explanation" of what "protein folding and misfolding" is, and how studying it can help to design drugs and therapies, you can go to websites such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home and http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-Diseases. Or you can search Google for "Folding@Home".

As I said above, this card contains all of the core information that the potential new folder would need to join the project. It is not intended to replace your conversation with the new folder, and "you" (in the general sense) can go into as much detail as either of you want, on the topics of protein folding/misfolding, etc., for example:

I tell people I crunch numbers for science. That almost always results in a "What?", so I expand with a few more details. I still keep it simple, but I tell them about Stanford, Pande Group, basic folding concept, breaking simulations into little pieces, how we crunch the numbers, how they put them back together, and the papers that come out of it.

These are just my ideas about what text to put on the card, I'm sure others here will make other suggestions/improvements until we have a really slick product!

[mmonnin]

Years ago Short-Media/Icrontc made business cards. Scroll down for pics.
http://icrontic.com/discussion/31266/fo ... s-cards/p1

[Alan C. Lawhon]

Years ago Short-Media/Icrontc made business cards. Scroll down for pics.
http://icrontic.com/discussion/31266/fo ... s-cards/p1

mmonnin:

Thanks! This is perfect!! Folder "prime suspect" included a link to the http://www.gotprint.net web site. This site specializes in very slick business cards at very reasonable prices. They have a graphic on their site of a couple of sample color business cards. You can get 5,000 cards for just under $50.00 - plus shipping. (I got a price quote of just under $30.00 for 1,000 cards - and that includes [cheap] ground shipping to your residential address.) These prices are perfect. (I feared I would have to pay between $100.00 and $200.00 for 1,000 cards from a local printer.)

They have a staff of professional graphic artists who will be happy to help you with your design - which I love since I'm not that good at doing this kind of thing myself. (I think their on-staff graphic artist can definitely help with getting the FAH logo on the card.) Once your card design is finalized, they send you a proof (either an electronic proof or an actual physical card to your home address) which you can review before giving your consent to proceed with the full print run. (This is wonderful!!!)

I'll probably start off with an initial order of 1,000 cards. If I pass all those out fairly quickly, I can order an additional 1,000 or 2,000 cards. (If I wind up spreading several thousand cards around my neighborhood, who knows how many new folders FAH will wind up with!? This could turn into one of those "good problems" Vijay likes to think about ...)

Thanks for posting this mmonnin.

[mmonnin]

No problem. I used to have some of those cards.

Check out vistaprint.com as well. I see their commercials all the time. Front page shows 250 for $10. Not as good of a deal as 1k for $30 but maybe something to check out if you want fewer cards to start with.