Fellow Texas Cavers-- This is about history and it is about the future. It is about hard-headedness and it is about common sense. It is about the practical and the impractical. It is about what the The TEXAS CAVER is and it is about what The TEXAS CAVER definitely is not.
HISTORY The TEXAS CAVER has not always been a publication of the TSA; it began as a UTG publication and spread almost immediately to an independent publication to benefit Texas cavers in particular and Texas caving in general. It was designed and intended to be a vehicle to bring Texas cavers together in their pursuit of a common goal--caving--and the education of cavers regarding the specialities of equipment and techniques peculiar to our sport. Those were noble and perfectly reachable goals. But, before I go any further, I must ask you to consider if those still seem like reasonable goals for The TEXAS CAVER and, if not, what you think those goals should be. What is the purpose of The TEXAS CAVER? Whatever it is, I think most of you reading this will agree that its purpose is not being met. Neither the timeliness nor the content are serving The CAVER's purposes or our (the cavers of Texas') requirements. (I am not trying to fix any blame here, not currently or over the past 30 years; I'm only trying to get everybody into a mind set to actually try to get The CAVER back to being a useful publication.) Frankly, I'm wondering why I'm still wasting my time trying to explain the obvious. The fact that the TSA membership (and the resultant TEXAS CAVER subscribers) has dwindled to the point where we can barely maintain our bulk mailing permit needs to be made obvious to everybody. There is an underlying reason for that--nay, there is an overwhelmingly blatant reason for that: very few Texas cavers are interested in the TSA or The TEXAS CAVER. To those few die-hard Texas cavers still committed to the cause who continue to maintain their TSA allegiance and membership despite years of abuse and ineffective goals, I offer my personal sincere thanks and acknowledgement. You are truly dedicated. To the rest of you I offer my deepest understanding. Neither the TSA nor The TEXAS CAVER have lived up to even a small portion of their commitment to Texas caving that most of us think they should have. As both past TSA Chairman and TEXAS CAVER editor, I will accept responsibility for some of that lack. But that was then; this is now. I will reiterate, for what must be the 2nd or 3rd time in 10 years, that neither the TSA nor The TEXAS CAVER are providing much service to the majority of Texas cavers. As originally conceived, The TEXAS CAVER should be serving as a central information dispersal vehicle for Texas cavers. It isn't doing that. As currently managed, it cannot, mostly because we can't afford it, but also because of time constraints on editors and production assistants. Printing and mailing are BIG hassles--but they are hassles that can be nearly completely dispensed with. If it is felt, in fact, that the TSA ought to get on with its business of providing a useful point around which the cavers of Texas can gather for both their personal and the common good, then we ought to get our heads out of our collective butts and use them to find a workable solution to serving all those Texas cavers out there. We will each, individually and collectively, benefit from such an effort, as will the TSA as an organization and The TEXAS CAVER as a publication, both in usefulness and in quality--and, I'll be willing to bet, quantity. For some reason--call it tradition if you will--there seems to be a stogy adherence to maintaining production of The TEXAS CAVER more or less along the lines of the past. It doesn't take an overly bright dolt to see that that system has failed--time and time again. In the mean time, newer, easier, and more effective production methods have become available and passed us by--or been repeatedly ignored by those committed to an ungainly but traditional and outdated system. I'm suggesting that the time has come--nay, it is far passed--to move into the modern world with The TEXAS CAVER--make it quick; make it easy; make it timely; make it effective; and make it available, free of charge to EVERY Texas caver. And all that, simply by putting it on the inter-net. How easy does it get? But "what about the TSA?" you ask. Yeah, what about it? All of a sudden it can be in contact with every Texas caver on a monthly basis--at least every caver who wants to know what's going on, something which is not even remotely available now (except as the TSA ANL is being revived). At the same time nearly all of the hassles and expenses of printing and mailing will be eliminated--in a flash. The TSA, on the other hand, will then have monthly access to literally several hundred more Texas cavers than it does now--by their personal choice--who can, for, say 5 or 10 bucks, become TSA members, both supporting that organization and personally benefiting from it. Instead of eking by economically, the TSA will be rather more flush with the resources to fund other projects. Both T he CAVER and the Spring Convention will have a greater base to draw from for writers and speakers and the membership will swell because they are finally getting something for their time and money. It's a one-hand-washing-the-other sorta really simple solution. Few changes or activities are without some pain, so let me now offer a short list of the pros and cons of this all too obvious fix. PROS 1. Printing and mailing costs are almost eliminated (their will be a few exceptions, see below) 2. The TEXAS CAVER will become available free of any charge (except for their paper and ink costs) to any and all cavers in Texas who will undoubtedly benefit personally in their caving pursuits and many will reward the TSA by becoming members and supporters at a reasonable rate--to everyone's eventual advantage. (Even out-of-state cavers and non-cavers can access it if they know where to look, creating more interest in Texas caving and from an enlightened and caver-directed point of view.) 3. Color can be used throughout the publication for photos and textual highlighting, the final quality determined by the paper and quality of the print and printer that the caver chooses to use. 4. More pages can be included in The CAVER at no additional production cost. More pages means more information and more interest by the cavers that the publication is intended for. Now we're talking about quality and quantity of service to our members. 5. With a timely and quality publication in their hands, cavers will be inspired to write and submit articles to appear in The CAVER and ultimately rewarded to see them there--and in a quality format. 6. The TSA, as an organization, will become more effective and respected among Texas cavers. That in itself should be sufficient reason to proceed with this proposal. And by becoming more effective, the TSA will be returning to its roots of being a central core around which the cavers of Texas can gather--for fun, knowledge, and problem solving--as was originally intended by cavers with similar needs over 50 years ago. CONS 1. There are, still, within our numbers cavers who have slow or even no inter-net access. Expect that they, though few in numbers, will raise a major hue-and-cry regarding such a modern change. There are ways to deal with them. Most of those affected have friends or neighbors in the caving community who are not so handicapped technologically. I'm willing to bet that they could request their friend to print them out a copy--and even with that delay they would have a full-color inkjet copy of The TEXAS CAVER in their grubby paws well before they would have a mere slick black-and-white offset copy of the same delivered to their doorsteps by the USPS--several weeks sooner by nearly anyone's reconing. For those who absolutely want a hard copy printed and delivered by the TSA, an inkjet copy could be printed and mailed in a plain envelop for whatever the cost of that service might be. That would probably constitute the limited hassles alluded to above. 2. As opposed to a publication which has been quality offset printed on large, coated stock press sheets, folded, spine stitched, and knife trimmed, a home or office printed inkjet copy of The TEXAS CAVER on 8-1/2 x 11 paper, stapled on the left face may be less appealing to some purists. Still, I would point out that an overall better quality publication will result in spite of a few shortcomings in the binding. I think most folks don't care about that anyway. And before the cry is raised that double sided copies cannot be made, dispel them--they can and will be. Just manipulate your printer. For those more interested in content than in quality, a quick, low quality print should satisfy their needs. 3. Some time and effort will be required by the individual caver to download, print, and assemble their otherwise free, quality publication. Yes, that is a sacrifice which will have to be made. Some may choose to not go to the effort and for the loss of those cavers we should be sorry. EDITORS Thirty or more years ago the editor (or a designated representative) had to type the entire issue twice (at least) on a standard typewriter (some of you have seen them in museums), develop film and prints in darkrooms, cut and paste copy using real paper (scissors, glue, whiteout, blue pencils, etc) and then deliver all that to a printer, return a few days later, collate all the pages into a publication by walking around a table sticking in one page at a time, staple, fold, label, stamp, and sort by ZIP code all the copies (something like 400 at one time), and then deliver them to the central PO and wait around to get processed and mailed. They did it every month--12 times a year. Today we have computer programs that make fancy layouts , insert color pictures downloaded within minutes of being taken, add text blocks and side bars, colored text and blotches here and there, emailed text in damned near real time that can be cut and pasted to one's heart's content, all in just several hours' time. Yet we can't seem to get the issues out. One further advantage to an electronic TEXAS CAVER is that a crew of editors and assistants can be working on several issues at one time. If all works even marginally as planned, cavers will submit trip reports, articles, photos, and other items of interest to the editors directly and in near real time by email. An editor can plug along all month long, 5 or 10 or 20 minutes at a time, laying out or adding to his issue as his time permits. Assistant editors can be laying out their assigned pages as well--say News & Notes, Trip Reports, Photo Gallery, or whatever--independently of whatever the editor is doing. Then all can be combined on publication day and the damned thing uploaded to the TSA website ready to be downloaded by the anxious cavers. The cycle is complete. All in all we get a whole lot better publication for a whole lot less effort and money--and hopefully a doggone way ahead of time. And we will reach a whole lot more Texas cavers in the doing of it. I can't find a stinking thing that's wrong with that. If anybody can I welcome them to present a better way of doing it--remembering that the present method hasn't and still won't work. I suggest a couple of test issues to see how the system works, remembering that we won't yet have the attention of the entire herd of Texas cavers--it'll take a while to spread the word. Grotto officers take note and poke up your people to get their copies printed. I remain, --Ediger _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list Texascavers@texascavers.com http://texascavers.com/mailman/listinfo/texascavers_texascavers.com
