I have had similar experience and have been doing email Newsletters for 5 years. Whether the member reads them is always a question but hard quantify. I then did a short stint of web page only but that was obviously not enough. Have you read the LSF Newsletter lately? I have even suggested to members to make the web site their home page but that did not seem to help.
Now I email and do the web page. I am still not sure it is being read. Newsletters have important information but our lives are busy. A mailed Newsletter does get opened and read I do believe. I have asked members did you read the newsletter and some even months after finally told me they did not have the software to read the download or didn't know how to do it. Mailing costs stamps, ink, time, and that is hard to give up easily. League newsletters seem to be read more. I think the people I send to are more involved with soaring in the league. Cal Posthuma President of West Michigan Soaring Society Michigan Soaring League Secretary LSF Coordinator for WMSS AMA LSFV LSF 2997, 6718, 7740 LSF VV+III AMA Leader Member and Contest Director AMA District 7 Web Page: www.ALTELCO.NET/~calplsf/index.html Web Page Club: www.rcsoaring.org Web Page MSL: www.rcsoaring.org/msl Phone: 616-997-1905 Cell: 616-240-3972 ----- Original Message ----- From: "tony estep" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ron Scharck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'RCSE'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 2:15 PM Subject: Re: [RCSE] Club Newsletter Editors/Webmasters Only > --- Ron Scharck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Editor and/or Webmaster: > > If your club publishes an > > electronic version of your newsletter, via e-mail or website... > > > Our club is in the process of making this transition. Needless to > > say, there has been a bit of "discussion" regarding the pros and > > cons.... > > Ron, our club (Mississippi Valley Soaring Association) has about 40 > members. For many years we sent out printed newsletters, but a couple > of years ago we went to posting them only on the website. This was not > the best decision, but it was made partly to save costs and partly to > accommodate me. I'm the editor. I have time to make a newsletter, but > not to print and mail them. So we put them on the club site > (www.mvsaclub.com) and I made them nice and pretty. > > At the end of last year, we concluded that the lack of hard-copy > letters appearing in members' mailboxes was causing some of our > less-active members to lose interest in the club. We found a volunteer > to print and mail them. I compose and edit, then email to him and he > produces the physical letters. To save costs, we reduced the size of > the letter and simplified the format, so today's letter doesn't look as > spiffy as the older ones (you can see both kinds on the website). > However, it does get mailed out, and people like it. > > I believe that the arrival of a hard-copy letter just before a meeting > or a club fly-in increases attendance. Not all of our members are > Internet users, and of those who are, many use dial-up connections. > > We have been sending out printed letters again for only 3 months, so I > can't tell you whether or not it has sparked new member interest. But I > believe it will. > > Let us hear about your experience as you change over, if that's the > direction you decide to go. > > Good luck! > Tony Estep > MVSA > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. > http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
