This is a message from Larry Kenney, the President of HOT BOOTS.Some major changes have been made at Hot Boots. You won't see them by viewing the site, as there aren't any changes in content or format. The changes involve the ownership and operation of the site. HOT BOOTS has new owners and operators! As of noon Pacific Daylight Time, May 12, 2010, hotboots.com was transferred from me to the Hot Boots Trustees.
I made the change in ownership to assure that the site continues on for years and years to come. The site is just too important to too many people to risk its loss should we lose one or two key people. While I don't have any immediate plans of leaving, and I hope to be around for a long time to come, I want to make sure that Hot Boots will continue long into the future, with or without me.
For a long time there's been a dedicated group of your fellow bootmen who have been helping me run Hot Boots. We've called them moderators. There have been some who have helped since the group was established, some who helped for a while then decided to leave but are still active users, and there are some who are fairly new to the group. Until now, most of you probably had no idea who these moderators are. Now you do!
On April 12, a HOT BOOTS CONSTITUTION written by my husband, Bill Choisser, was approved by the existing group of moderators at that time, with the provision that once officers were approved, the ownership of the site would be turned over to the new Hot Boots Trustees.
In the new constitution are the guidelines for the operation of the site into the future, including its name and purpose, who operates it, elections, officer duties and more. I encourage you to click on the link above and read it.
Those in the group of moderators at the time the constitution was approved, and who wished to be the Trustees of the site, are your new Trustees. They are: Art (Boots4Art), Chris Elliott, Dale (TNCowboy), myself, Mark (NYBootTop), Mike (Booted Bear) and Rick Willoughby (Turfman). These bootmen are the new owners of Hot Boots!
From this group three members were elected as the new officers. I am now the President of Hot Boots, Rick (Turfman) is Secretary and Chris Elliott is the Treasurer. The three of us, along with the other four Trustees, are responsible for the operation of the site. All continue to be moderators as well.
We also have several moderators who are not Trustees. They are: Bernd, John (Hipstud), Les (CableTVDog), Mark (Markbud), and Ryan.
Bill Choisser has been the sole man handling the technical aspects of the site for the past 13 years, keeping the site running smoothly, writing modifications to the message boards, the software for the Personals and Boot Swap, and lots of other site features. We felt he needed to have some back up, so he has recently been joined by Bernd and Mark (NYBootTop) to form the Hot Boots Tech Crew.
Along with the transfer of ownership will come the need for the users to support the site financially. While the cost is minimal, $24.95 a month for the server, plus the $20 cost of the domain name, we will need approximately $325 a year to keep the site going. Chris, our Treasurer, handles all financial matters and reports that as of this time we have sufficient funds to keep the site going for at least a year. However, if you wish to contribute, please go to http://www.hotboots.com/support.html for information.
Plans for the immediate future now include getting some volunteers to help with site content. We have two who are helping now, and have been for a while. Mark (NYBootTop) keeps an eye on the Personals and Mike (Booted Bear) takes care of the portraits. We're looking for other bootmen who would be interested in taking on and maintaining some of the content pages, like the Events Calendar, the Boot Swap pages, the list of Boot Groups and Bootmen's Websites, the Manufacturers and Merchants links, and so on. If you'd be interested in helping please contact me by email to let me know what areas you're interested in handling. All are welcome to participate. The more helpers we have, the less each will have to do.
So that's the latest news on the changes here at Hot Boots. As I said above, you won't see any changes by looking at the site. It's what's going on behind the scene that's different. We all look forward to Hot Boots continuing for a long time to come, and to your continued use and support.
Larry Kenney
President and Founder of HOT BOOTS