Dear SETI@home Volunteer: SETI@home has been running for over a decade, harnessing the power of millions of computers around the world in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. We've observed for thousands of hours on some of the world's largest telescopes. Volunteers like you have donated immense amounts of computing time. And many of you have also donated money, or donated your time to help other users on our online forums. Yet we've found nothing. Zip. Not a peep from ET in all those terabytes of data. So why bother? Because we've probed a volume of our galaxy that's only a drop in the bucket compared to what's left to investigate. Because the explosion in the number of planets found in the last decade means that there are far more potential places for life to arise than we dared dream. Because with your help we've built one of the largest citizen science projects on the planet; it continues to push boundaries in innovation, and to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. And because we believe that we have a real chance of answering, definitively, within our lifetimes, a question that humans have asked since the dawn of time: Are we alone? What a privilege to be a part of such an endeavor! The SETI@home engineers and scientists are in awe of the support that we've received from folks like you who want to be a part of this adventure. The experiment we're conducting is of such broad interest that our own Dan Werthimer was asked to appear at a Congressional hearing this year. But despite that we're still a small team working on a tight budget, and most of our financial support comes from people like you. Limited funding not only constrains our ability to try new experiments, to look for new kinds of signals in the data, and to keep our machines up and running, but it makes it hard to free up enough time for our team members to keep in touch with you about what we are working on. This year we're planning to do a better job of that, and we'll be regularly updating Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website with news and with profiles of our team at the Berkeley SETI Research Center. Contact with ET could happen tomorrow, next month, next year, or further in the future. But one thing is sure. If we don't redouble our efforts, the signal could come while we're off the air, or it could be in a form that we've not yet developed algorithms to recognize. Sure, SETI@home has been going for a while. But the search is just beginning. Your tax deductible donations pay for our computers, train our graduate students, and help us travel to our telescopes. We couldn't do this without you! Every contribution, large or small, is welcome. Will you help us continue the search for the answer to one of humanity's deepest questions? With gratitude, Dr. Steve Croft, Astronomer

On behalf the scientists, engineers, and students at the Berkeley SETI Research Center P.S.: We're also auctioning off some unique SETI@home memorabilia!