I do quite a lot of research on such 'stuff' in our state capital, and make sure the good guys know what is going on. This is a strictly 'for loss' operation that is paid for by donations and occasional raids of my kids' college fund. This was an idea some on the net had, to send a little substantive 'thanks' to the moderator at Christmas time. I appreciated the sentiment, but deferred accepting any gratuity. My fear was that the state could use that as evidence I was profiting from my use of campus equipment, and hence try to get me punted, one of the few ways a tenured faculty member can get the boot.
Moderators are generally unpaid volunteers who put in time to keep the net working.
The newsletter is still free but has grown a lot. In the fight against this 'smart gun' nonsense here in Maryland, I dropped postcards on 50,000 gunowners focused only in key legislative districts, and we had phones ringing off desks in our capital as a result. This is not an invitation to open up the charter here in the group, only a heads up. Yes, something is spurring this reminder to the group. An AOL user has been trying to post blatant invitations to violate US law, by soliciting cash sale of firearms by mail, no FFL involved, and in particular involving Class III weapons.