MOTM

To say 2006 was a strange, wild and frantic year would be an understatement :)

My first thought goes out to Paul Haneberg, who was instrumental in providing 
1000s of kits for basically free and never once complained about all the 
pressure I placed on him. How very sad that his health has not allowed him to 
participate at the level he wanted to. Let's not forget him just because he is 
silent on the list. If he did not volunteer to assist me back in 2005, many kits 
would have never shipped. Please take the time to drop him a card:

Paul Haneberg
G.C. Fuller Mfg. Co
1 Shurlite Dr.
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025

And of course the entire GC Fuller staff (Paul's cousin, nephew and 
sister-in-law) for allowing me to badger them into shipping 8 months past the 
time any other group of folks ever would. Again, basically for about $4/hour. 
How many of you would use up your free time for $4/hr?

Turning back to me: I was sick last week so I will plan to ship all of this week 
(up until Friday) to make up for the down-time. I also plan to finish the first 
pass through the SQL updates, which for US people will be after-the-fact 
starting tomorrow. I suspect a few foreign shipments will arrive this week if 
not held up in customs (Germany is the worse).

Fuller is in the process of boxing up and shipping back all the MOTM stuff. I'm 
just going to pile it up in the garage :) After the break, I will unpack it and 
ship all of the leftovers I can. I still have to get front panels from my 
supplier, he is supposed to ship this week. So, if you did not get a shipment 
before the break, you will get it when I start shipping again, sometime between 
Jan 5th and Jan 10th when I reorganize what has come back from Fuller.

People have been asking about 'kit leftovers' and such. What I will have to sell 
off will be put up on the website Feb. 1st. This will give me time to see what 
makes sense and to figure out the pricing. I will make more 960/910s in Jan. as 
well. Jan is the month I catch up with assembled module orders. What I will be 
doing all of Jan is upgrading the website (to be "turned on" Feb 1st) and 
working on the assembled module backlog.

I also sift through 100s of old emails to make sure something didn't fall into a 
crack (as it always does).

Even though over 700 modules have shipped in the last 6 months, that is far from 
all of them. If your modules are those not shipped, I'm sorry that time ran out 
(as it always does). But remember back to the *main reason* I exited the kits: I 
want to STOP operating at a constant backlog demand, and instead be able to ship 
*any order*, big or small, in 2 weeks or less. I will still have DIY 'stuff', 
but the exciting "resistor hunting" will just shift over to the end user :)

MOTM was *never envisioned or set up* to ship 8,000 modules out of a spare 
bedroom. But that is what has happened over the last 8 years (well, 9 years next 
Feb). I never planned to go for 8 years (well, I never expected the interest to 
last 9 years). Had I know that in advance, I could have planned better. But by 
April/May of 2007, I *WILL BE CAUGHT UP*, the focus will shift from logistics 
nightmare to R&D of new modules. In a strange way, I too will miss the kits, 
because my electronics career started by building Radio Shack and PAiA kits in 
high school. I am glad other folks like Oakley and Ken Stone will still allow 
that level of activity. I personally am looking forward to more high-end designs 
based on AudioEngine and other technologies.

Thanks to all 640+ MOTM customers in 17 countries. See you next year!

Paul Schreiber
Synthesis Technology