Kat, not to discourage you from trying, but what are we going to tell the liberal press? Nothing's happened here yet but some threatening noises from some lawyers. Lawyers making threatening noises is not news. They do that in their sleep. Until charges are filed or a case is pending or some action is taken, what are we going to say, that they hurt our feelings?

And while the Boy Scout case is instructive, I wouldn't put much stock in its applicability to our situation. Scouting has been and is a significant part of the childhood of millions, and it is something into which people still put great stock. They have, built in, a large, passionate, highly sympathetic support group. All they had to do was couch the issue in the right terms to inflame that support group, stand back and watch the fur fly. "ASCAP TRYING TO STOP THE BOY SCOUTS FROM SINGING CAMPFIRE SONGS!" ASCAP may have had a case, but it also never had a chance. Without that kind of backing, we won't get the same kind of response.

In the end, we're probably stuck with the following.

1. Make sure we are in compliance with the law, and have full documentary proof of that fact. That's our best defense. Putting that proof together is going to take a tremendous amount of work on our part. But in the end, were not only going to have to be on the right side of the law to survive, were going to have to be able to prove it.

2. We have to find a way to get lawyers working for our side. And believe me that's going to take more money than we are likely to raise. We may even get enough to get started and to get an initial plan together, but unless we get some pro bono assistance or link up with other groups in some kind of defense coalition its not going to be enough.

3. We will have to take a long view. We might have to suffer through early retreats, or change the way we operate, but if were going to win in the long haul, we're going to have to have two objectives, a) Protect Max & Dick, and b) Keep the group/community intact.