If I am going to have to print my own copy of the Texas Caver, why should I
pay to be a member of the TSA? I think most TSA members, who after all are
also mostly grotto members and don't need the TSA for caving contacts and
companions, are members in the feeble hope of receiving the Texas Caver in
the mail. If the TSA is having trouble keeping members, the TC is the
problem. Certainly the only other major thing it does, the spring
conventions, have been as well organized as ever lately.
I would be happy with lower production quality, though. Nothing wrong
with photocopying or laser printing (which are the same technology now)
these days. If the TSA had to pay 7 cents a page, six 24-page issues a year
would cost $10 a member to print that way. (Some exchange copies, copies for
libraries, etc., would increase the cost somewhat, of course.) Mailing might
add, what, $1.50? And going to Xerox would eliminate the difficult problem
for the editor of having to fill a multiple of four pages each time.
I had always assumed that the main problem with the TC was having to
deal with cavers all over the state (and elsewhere) to beg for material. But
we are assured that material is not the problem. Well, publishing the Caver
is _not_ that big a deal. I suppose I should just keep my mouth shut,
because I'm not offering to become its editor, but I used to edit, print,
and mail the bimonthly Windy City Speleonews in a week of elapsed time. This
included typing it all on a typewriter, proofing and correcting the galleys
with razor blade and Scotch tape, laying it out with scissors and rubber
cement, shooting the negatives, retouching the negs and stripping them in,
printing 350 copies of the 15 to 20 pages on a cranky old offset duplicator
that had been factory rebuilt in 1946, collating and stapling, labeling,
sorting, bundling, and mailing. Admittedly, I didn't do much else with my
free time during that week, and grotto members helped with the printing and
often the collating and stapling. I did it more or less that way for 16
years. Has modern computer technology and paying for printing made it more
difficult, or what?
Anyway, switching to electronic distribution would eliminate only a
small part of the workload--just sending the issue to the printer, picking
it up, and then a couple of hours' work preparing the mailing. All the
difficulties of getting material, editing it, and laying it out would
remain, and perhaps get even more difficult if people started expecting
fancier issues (color, etc.) because there were no printing costs.
I _will_ help an editor with copy editing on request, because lousy
grammar and punctuation in caving publications, including the NSS News, is a
pet peeve of mine, and I'm a ferocious copy editor. If layout is a hangup, I
could help with that, too, but I suspect coordinating that would be more
work for the editor than just doing it himself. -- Bill Mixon
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