In a message dated 12/31/2004 7:50:58 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
On the other hand, newsletters are often the reason people pay dues to belong, and can be the only contact many members have with a Guild. If the Guilds do not have adequate paid memberships - they will become beset with difficulties staying afloat. In a group I belong to, the dues are set at pretty much exactly the amount that it costs to produce and mail the newsletter. Workshops are supposed to pay for themselves. Fund raisers go to enhance the treasury from which incidental expenses are paid, ie. memorial tributes. If one produced the newsletter electronically, there would be no need to have dues at all. (However many members don't have the internet, so this would be impossible). In fact, the dues in my group, a modest $10 and the formal "joining" of the group seemed to present an insurmountable barrier to many people who would say to me, "I don't want to join your group, I just want to know what they are doing in case there is anything I want to do." Then they would ask me to let them know if there was going to be a class or lace day that they might be interested in. So, I would try to remember to do this, and it amounted to me producing sort of a parallel newsletter, which was costly and time consuming. After a while, I just told people that paying the dues amounted to nothing more than an agreement to receive notification of what the group was doing. (However, many people don't believe it and think it will result in some obligation to bake cakes and belong to committees.) In the far future, if newsletters are ever entirely electronic, there may be even more participation in the group's activities, such as lace days, that actually lead to revenue, as people can receive painless and anonymous notice of them. In addition you could eliminate the problems that we often encountered, ie. the inclusion of a color page, or the inclusion of a 5th page resulting in a rise in postage which resulted in a rise in dues, making even more people decide not to rejoin the group. Although I have not studied the IOLI budget, I believe that the lion's share of it goes to Debra Jenny for the IOLI Bulletin. I have often begged and implored her to put in more pages, but the increments have to be done in 8 page lots. An additional 8 pages boosts you into the next postal category and this results in financial ruination. An increase in the member dues to pay the increment for a longer Bulletin is considered to be a straw that will break the back of many good members and result in fewer members and *higher per magazine cost* thus driving the Bulletin closer to financial ruin. Just think, we could leave all that behind! (However, then we would be asking museums and contributors for electronic rights, so we could plunge into that maelstrom.) I think the major thing that would be lost if it all went electronic would be that you wouldn't have a physical reminder on your hall table of the meeting. This might result in less attendance. All this is beside the point, though because Tess and the Prof are thinking of past newsletters, I am sure. Devon - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
