{those uninterested in history can delete...}
A long time ago in a universe far far away, a magazine called Australian
Gliding (AG) was created by a keen group of glider pilots. It was a
private venture, not an official magazine published by the GFA. It was
not compulsory, and to the best of my knowledge neither Hugh Hefner nor
Ita Buttrose were involved :)
Some time later, in the early 1960's, AG became the official magazine of
the GFA but continued to be published and sold separately - a situation
that continued for 20 years. Bob Muller was the chairman of the
committee that published the magazine in those days - among the longer
serving editors in that period were Alan Ash and Martin Simons.
Throughout that time, the magazine was administratively and financially
at arms length from the GFA, in that it retained editorial independence
and was not compulsory, though it carried quite a bit of official GFA
information. A large percentage (>80%) of GFA members subscribed, and
in addition there were quite a few non-GFA subscribers including
overseas subscribers. The magazine was also carried by a few specialist
bookshops. It was at that time financially self-supporting.
My involvement started in about 1977 when I agreed to write the first
computerised mailing system for the magazine.
As Terry says, in the early 1980's with GFA Incorporation it was legally
necessary for GFA to have a means of communicating with all members, and
it was decided (against the wishes of the then AG Committee including
myself) that the magazine would become compulsory for GFA members. I
think one reason for not folding the subscription into the membership
fee at the time was that the finances were still being administered
separately to the general revenue of GFA.
At that time I extended the AG mailing list to become the first
computerised GFA membership system, since it was in effect covering all
GFA members by then. I subsequently was responsible for every GFA
membership system until about 2000 when commercial systems were introduced.
At some time in the late 1980's the GFA decided to take over
administrative and financial control of Australian Gliding. The AG
Committee ceased to have control over the finances and the funds were
transferred into general revenue. At about the same time, though not
for that reason, my involvement with AG ceased.
The above are the facts as I recall them. If Bob Thomas is reading this
he may be able to add something to the history lessons because he was
heavily involved in the same period.
Because I haven't been involved for many years I cannot say why the
magazine is still charged for separately. I think that it is not
compulsory for temporary and short term members and if that remains true
then perhaps it is easier to administer that way. I imagine that it is
also still sold to non-members and perhaps through bookshops, so there
will not be an exact match between the GFA Membership and the magazine
subscription list.
I also don't know why it continues as a paper based magazine - there may
still be legal reasons. In any event I am happy to continue to receive
it in on paper.
Cheers
/Tim/
/tra dire e fare c'รจ mezzo il mare/
On 3/07/2011 4:41, Terry Neumann wrote:
On 3/07/2011 9:21 AM, JR wrote:
The magazine is not free to us, you pay for it in your membership
<History lesson>
The original reason for it being compulsory came about in the early
1980's when the first GFA Incorporation was being negotiated. In the
original arrangement and under the ACT Companies Act, the
organisation had a legal obligation to communicate to its members
notices of meetings and certain financial reports etc.
The magazine was seen to an existing effective (and legal) means of
doing this and since AG was (if I recall correctly - it was last
century) already receiving a fairly wide support base; the decision to
make it a compulsory part of the GFA membership fee seemed a logical
least cost option. It was a tad messy to implement - Tim would
probably remember why, but thanks to his and the then AG committee's
efforts it was workable and legal.
<Lesson endeth>
Whether that notification requirement is still valid today is not
clear - probably not, since we receive nothing official from GFA in
that sense any more and the workings and detail of GFA machine seems
somehow to be as remote as ever, notwithstanding serious and largely
effective efforts in the past to keep us in the picture. Not that
I'm complaining mind you, I probably know as much about the workings
of GFA these days as most of my own club members would have years back
when I filled in whole weekends of great gliding weather in the
meeting rooms at Essendon.
The problem with an electronic mag option is that it would almost
certainly lead to increases in the cost of the printed version. As
the progressives dumped the paper version in favour of the electronic
option, ever decreasing numbers would be printed and the cost per unit
would have to increase - probably to the degree that it would price
itself out of existence.
Personally I would prefer the hard copy, all the more so since the new
version offers much promise with it's first appearance. Others in
my family will happily browse through the paper edition of the
magazine - there is way that this would be the case with an online
version. Besides our breakfast fable is not equipped with online
browsing equipment, nor is the really serious reading room at the
other end of the house.
The new mag looks good - well done to all concerned. It was never
going to be easy picking up the inertia lost when the original AG
committee was somewhat ungraciously discarded by an earlier
administration. I wish the new group well in their endeavours; it's
been a great comeback.
Regards
Terry
(honorary OFITH)
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