the (book) re-triever

over the past 3 years i have made a habit of avoiding the bookstore at all costs. for one reason or another their merchandise is obscenely overpriced and in light of that fact most people (justifiably) moan and groan. as a junior in the fall of 06 i got into the habit of trading text books with my friends in order to save money. since then the loft idea of making a website with the tag line 'book swap' or 'college supply trader' has often crossed my mind.

this afternoon steelwolf and i were conversing about the student activities fee increase and whether it should be voted on by the student body in this upcoming election. my stance in the conversation was that the average joe will not support the increase because he does not feel the first hand effects of this increase and really doesnt grasp what the sga, seb, etc. does for him (pardon the sexism in the sentence). i asked ssw, 'what will the average, uninvolved person say when asked 'what does the sga do for you?'' he responded with the expected answer, 'hell probably say 'i dont know' or 'nothing.''

then it hit me. my ambitious and seemingly impossible thought could be applied to a local community such as umbc when a team of sga members and oit personnel became involved. 'what a way for the sga to work for students' i thought. 'if we can get 100 people to each swap one book a piece, we have saved 15,000 dollars for a group of students!' (i did some gwbush math and calculated an average savings of 150 dollars when using this system). ssw and i brainstormed for another 30 minutes, presented the idea to jay lagorio and david hoffman and were pointed to the ever positive and tech savvy collier jones.

though this project is in the first trimester, i am ever excited that it may make a huge difference in the lives of students to come.

i keep on thinking about the numbers- 100 books traded- save students 15,000 dollars; 1,000 books traded- save students 150,000 dollars. i know i probably wont see it get to that level before my graduation in may, but boy this could be awesome...