Wow...it's 2009 already! Happy New Year! We are excited about making 2009 another great year for The Stamp Shack. We have several announcements about some upcoming updates and games for the community.


Shack Plus Membership:
We have been listening to Shack members feedback and reviewing forum posts and it seems clear to us that most members prefer the benefits and privacy of having a Shack Plus membership to support the site and keep advertising to a minimum. We are exploring creative ways to keep The Stamp Shack financially healthy for you without the aggressive advertising that has “ruined” other sites. In order to help accomplish this we will be changing the Shack Plus membership to $12.00 a year effective February 1, 2009. We have really struggled with this decision, but feel this minimal increase is needed to keep The Shack running the way you expect it to. We realize that some members may be upset by this change, but we hope that you will agree that this minimal increase of 17 cents a month is still a great value for all that The Stamp Shack makes available.

We are also speaking with several stamping manufacturers and supply companies to see if we can provide Shack members a way to shop for their supplies and support The Shack at the same time. We'll see how it goes and as always we will continue to adjust any plans based on your feedback.


Bingo:
It's time for another game of Bingo! This time we recognize Gina K. Designs as the sponsor who is providing a $25 gift certificate for the winner. Registration is now open until January 31st for all Shack Plus members. The first round of numbers will be announced on February 2nd . Click here to join in the fun.


Shack Plus Raffle:
We’re going to try a new contest to recognize new and renewing Shack Plus members. This event is sponsored by Gina K. Designs and features a $25 gift certificate to the winner. Between now and the end of February each new Shack Plus member and each renewing Shack Plus member will automatically be entered into a raffle for the prize. At the end of February we will randomly draw one of the qualifying Shack Plus members as the winner. We think this will be a fun way to encourage junior members to enjoy the benefits of a Shack Plus membership and help support the site. We would like to have a new drawing each month if this first one is well received.

We have created a new forum for this contest here. Let us know what you think about this new raffle contest.


The Shack Deals & Discounts Forum:
We have received multiple requests for a place where members can share great stamping deals and promotions they have found that other members may want to know about. Based on these requests we have created a new forum called “The Shack Deals & Discounts” that will be part of our Stamp Talk section. The forum is available to Shack Plus members to share great new stamping deals, special offers and coupon codes they have found. We hope you will find this a fun and money saving place to be.

***We do need to point out that the Shack Guidelines on Business Advertising have not changed. These guidelines specifically prohibit self-promotion of products that you sell or profit from in any way. Sarah (loobylou), will be the primary moderator for this forum, along with support from the entire moderator team, and will remove any posts that violate these guidelines. If you wish to promote your own products please PM us to consider a sponsoring opportunity.***


Shack Maintenance:
A significant update to the main software that The Stamp Shack runs on has been released. We will be reviewing the new release and scheduling an upgrade soon. During this time the site will be unavailable for several hours. We will perform the upgrade during the Eastern time zone late night hours to minimize the number of members impacted. We will announce a specific date and time prior so that you have advanced notice of when the upgrade will take place.


Finally, a very specially thank you to our Shack Moderators, Sarah, Christie, Barb and Lidia. They do an incredible job keeping our site clean of spam and making sure our discussion boards follow the Shack Guidelines that keep this the friendliest stamping place on the net. We all owe them a big thank you for their dedication to the Shack.

We hope 2009 brings you much fun and friendship. Thanks for making this such a great community to call home.