Hi Sithy
Hope you don’t mind if I comment regarding the the charging for the database as I know it’s a bit of a hot-button for some… understandably. I agree with you in part, I think charging for investigations or consultations for clients that are usually scared out of their wits is no bueno! Too many thrill-seekers, self proclaimed "professionals" and sharks would muddy up ANY kind of legitimacy our field has fought hard for and would send it down the low road that psychic/mediumship has been largely traveling on for 1000's of years with little success (if ANY) of bringing a professional perspective to it. For the most part (but not all) those practitioners just see a payday out of bilking desperate souls by peddling easy answers they want to hear. I definitely would NOT want to see parapsychology go down that almost irreparable path.

The SPARC team has had some healthy debate on this very topic and tried to look at it from as many angles as we could. We looked at the pros and cons of public opinion, investigator utilization, the scientific communities’ perspective, moral obligations and also from a realistic lens as well. The reasons we eventually decided on setting a nominal fee (and we do mean nominal, like "babysitter salary" nominal) at some point in the undetermined future were these:

1) We viewed the database as a tool for the investigator, a constantly evolving, growing and "sharpening" tool utilized by those requiring reliable research data, field work support or test theory scrutiny and data to test those theories. This is not a service that a client or victim would rely on for relief or help… that would go against our mission statement and personal values. However, there was positive discussion of the database being a proxy referral service as we ARE building a network of linked investigation teams at the same time and THAT of course would be free to any client in need as long as we have participants in their area. But for the investigator this would be like any other tool that has been developed and maintained like our equipment, software, paranormal periodicals and books for example. While I believe some of the equip we use are questionable as to their viability in the field, most of them took hundreds of man hours for development, testing, promotion and production. It’s our choice whether to believe they work and spend the money for them… the end result being whether we feel they will ultimately help the client. And that’s all that matters. Software is the same, large $ for R&D and they have been INDISPENSABLE.

2) Sure there is the small cost of administration and maintenance to an ever-growing database (I know, it’s what I've done as a career for non-profit organizations for many years now… hence where the idea came from), as well as the funds needed to promote and keep this tool available for the masses. However, we did not want to charge such an exorbitant fee as to place it out of reach for just about ANYONE who has internet access. We want to be altruistic, fair AND reasonable with a philanthropic umbrella over EVERY aspect of our projects and unfortunately any good 501(c)(3) has to have a productive fiscal model to do that and stay alive. Sure, non-profits can get greedy and veer off path… and it doesn’t take long before those fiscally based initiatives becomes their downfall through lack of community support. SPARC wants to be able to improve upon the database as we go, give it more functionality and possibly offer other types of resources as well that may be equally important or useful to the investigator.

3) While our main goal is to help those in need by finding answers to a GIGANTIC field that is largely unknown and under-researched, those efforts cannot move forward without funding. It’s how our world turns and unfortunately is how serious attention is garnered for a shared problem. Now that might seem like we're lazily jumping on a band-wagon as a good excuse to stuff our coffers but the truth is that even cancer research requires MILLIONS (perhaps billions) of dollars annually to maintain the work and attention required to find better treatments or possibly even a cure. Just good faith and volunteer work would NEVER see that come to fruition. Substantial investment brings more serious and deliberate attention to a prolonged problem, and with more serious, deliberate attention comes more TALENT from an ever growing community who wants to offer their expertise and knowledge. I might even venture to say that a completely volunteer paranormal community MAY BE one of the largest inhibiting factors to parapsychology being relegated to largely enthusiasts and hobby "ghost" hunters and left virtually untouched by the professional scientific establishment.

4) And playing off that last point a little is the seriousness of the investigators and participants themselves who wish to align themselves with this project. A completely free database open to anybody who desired access and who had no vested interest in its data integrity and intrinsic value to the community, could EASILY become polluted with care-free and erroneous data therefore destroying the entire viability of its intended purpose and diluting what could have conceivably been a very potent repository of usable data. We felt that there was too much at stake to allow the data to be subject to casual look-e-loos and vandals as well as unintentional non-ownership type practices. When someone pays into a project with time and money, they want to see it succeed. Philanthropy alone doesn’t drive innovation unfortunately. I worked for Goodwill for years and there was always a certain section of the population that criticized them by saying, "Hey… you claim to want to help people (which is what Goodwill does..we helped those with disabilities)… why don’t you GIVE AWAY all those donations in your stores to people who need them instead of charging for them!?"I think most people see the ridiculous logic in that… no money, no stores, no payroll, no employees and no 91% of revenue used to help people with disabilities. They've been around for over a century doing what they do for a reason.

There were other lesser factors as well with many of the concerns focused around the perception of what we we are trying to do and the possibility of being misunderstood. There will always be nay-sayers and critics in ANY move you make but we felt in order to be a responsible steward of a potentially profound tool for the community, we needed to provide some safeguards and approach this as you would any other successful non-profit business model including the fiduciary responsibilities that come along with it. Trust me, for the few dollars a month we are talking about here, we aren’t running off to the Bahamas any time soon.

But please, feel free to comment as we appreciate ALL feedback on this topic as well any other suggestions and critiques.
Cameron Ellis
SPARC Team