Ron, As a former member of the Gulls and a helper putting the newsletter together, I think I pretty well know what you are going through. An evening each month with 2 or 3 people meeting at a fast food place downtown to correlate, staple, place postage and address labels, fold then take to the P.O. Our club recently, when I was the editor, changed over to PDF format, that is sent to all members with e-mail addresses. You can get the converter to PDF from most any word processor format for free. We are using MS Publisher. We are using Fine Print PDF Factory and or Fine Print 2000, check their web site for d/l's at www.fineprint.com . When we started we had one member not with a computer. Today he has one available at work, and has one at home, so we saved lots of postage plus the time to print and stamp, address and mail out.
Jerry Miller SOSS-Medford, OR -----Original Message----- From: tony estep [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 23, 2004 11:15 AM To: Ron Scharck; 'RCSE' 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.
