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Here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about us. What is ORIB and how did it come about? ORIB is short for the Oakland Raiders Internet Boosters club. It all began in 1995 as the dream of several dozen members of the Raiders Fans Mail List. As interest in forming the club persisted and grew over the course of the '95 season, much brainstorming was undertaken. To facilitate this, a new discussion list was set up as a free form roundtable for club planning. 38 people joined that list and contributed a tremendous amount of effort, sweat and emotion in hammering out the framework of the club—our Constitution. Once the Constitution was close to completion, the discussion group turned to the next pressing issue—electing a first set of officers. After a lively campaign amongst the 38 list members, a lucky seven were elected to serve as the club's first Executive Board. (Since that election, three further Board members have been added, bringing the total to ten.) While many of ORIB's officers live in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Board as a whole reflects the geographical diversity of our membership, with two members from the East Coast and an International Regional Director living in Scotland. ORIB is unique among Oakland Raiders booster clubs in that it isn't geographically based. Instead, it is comprised of members from around the world, who meet regularly on the Internet to celebrate the Raiders. ORIB is recognized by the Oakland Raiders organization as an official booster club. A requirement for achieving official recognition as a booster club by the Oakland Raiders is the designation of a charitable cause for the club. ORIB is organized as a non-profit, voluntary association, and all funds not used for club operating expenses are earmarked for worthy charities. What is an ORIB Founding Member? A Founding Member is one of the 38 original ORIB members. This group of people wrote the Constitution, developed a vision for the club, made voluntary donations to a startup fund so we could open our doors, and elected ORIB's first Board. Without the dedication and perseverance of the Founding Members, ORIB would never have come to pass! What is a Charter Member? Charter Members are those who joined during the club's first year of existence. The cutoff date for this status was July 4, 1997, and Charter Memberships are no longer available. Their member products show the words "Charter Member 1996" in addition to the ORIB logo. This designation will not appear on future member products. How does ORIB hold meetings? Twice a year the club holds a General Membership Meeting using our mailing list, which we call the Townhall. Because our membership is literally spread out across many countries and time zones, our meetings last one week at a minimum to allow all members a chance to comment and otherwise participate. Voting is done by means of secret ballot cast by e-mail. What kinds of charitable things does ORIB do? For a look at what we have done in the past, take a look at our Charity News page. How do I get more information, or how do I contact ORIB? A list of all our e-mail addresses, as well as several autoresponders which we maintain to send out information automatically, is posted on this site at http://orib.org/addresses.html. (Look for the "E-mail addresses" link on the main page.) If you don't have Web access, you can get the list of addresses by sending an e-mail to info@orib.org; it will be mailed automatically to the address from which you sent the request.
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