in: Cristina; Cristina > 2008-06-01;
| # Posted 2008-06-02 06:19:47 | |
| bbrooke: | Ditch it! What a waste of $$$, especially when the club has such a small budget to begin with. I thought all newsletters had been replaced by the interweb, anyway...
(RMOC stopped sending out a newsletter several years ago.) I kinda think the same thing about the pages in ONA that are devoted to meet results. I'd rather see more articles, since all those results are already on the web. Troy says he likes seeing them in there, though... |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 06:32:23 | |
| Cristina: | I started putting a pdf of the newsletter on the TSN website back in 2003 and advocated for a transition to all-digital. All I got was the option for people to opt-out of receiving the newsletter, which hasn't been advertised or even well executed, as far as I can tell. We still receive TWO copies of the newsletter at our house each month. Now that I see exactly how much money we spend on it I'm going to give it another pitch. Redoing the site this weekend, maybe a more friendly and organized site will help the cause.
As for ONA, I think Donna is all for taking out the results. I think she should just do it an let people get used to it... it's not like anyone's going to fire her. ;-) |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 11:21:45 | |
| jingo6390: | the printed newsletter is a waste, members should have to explicitly request one and pay extra for the service.... or just do away with it altogether... |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 19:36:12 | |
| cedarcreek: | I'm reading a book called "Nudge" (by Thaler and Sunstein) (Review), and it addresses situations very close to this. In this case, they'd probably recommend making electronic delivery the default, but allowing people to opt-in to a paper copy. |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 19:54:30 | |
| Cristina: | Sweet, that's what I thought would be the best approach. Now we have a book backing us up. ;-)
I know there are several long-time members who would never agree to part with their paper snail mail newsletter, so letting them keep it is probably a good idea - they're some of the big volunteers in the club. There is an argument for sending paper to some people, those who've been to maybe just one event and may never check out the TSN website. If they get a postcard saying, "next meet is xx day! check out our website!" then that serves as a little nudge for them. An email would work, too, if we can get people to give us their email address and promise not to abuse it. Hm. |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 22:00:49 | |
| disorienteer: | We went to email only a couple of years ago, after newsletter editor Miki Snell "retired," but we were unable to find someone to take on the job permanently. So there hasn't been one since fall 2006. Print or email. I think it's hurt our membership actually -- it had some perceived value. So I've been considering taking it on, and am looking into doing both email AND print. Pricing it out now. |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 22:33:03 | |
| Bash: | In 5.5 years of orienteering and adventure sports, I've never seen a printed newsletter from any source. I get lots of news, but it's always electronic, and I've never heard anyone suggest that they would like to receive something in the mail. GHO has moved exclusively to online registration for most of our events. If we lose a racer or two, it's worth the trade-off in reducing the burden on volunteers - but as the registrar, I'm not hearing from people who have a problem with it. So many other things in their lives are being managed online now that they are accustomed to it. (Or maybe it's because I didn't provide them with a mailing address! :-) )
If you've got dedicated volunteers who think the newsletter is important, I'd suggest that you share all the budget info with them and ask for their input on how to reduce club costs. You can buy a lot of useful stuff with $1200. They might not realize the impact to the bottom line. |
| # Posted 2008-06-02 22:49:21 | |
| RLShadow: | I won't get into the paper vs electronic argument, but for anyone (like disorienteer) considering paper newsletters, I highly recommend that you check out a printer in Florida called Creative Technology of Sarasota. http://www.creative-technology.com/ Their prices are great (way better than we can get locally), and the service is outstanding. You send them a pdf file of the newsletter along with the membership mailing list, and they do the rest, and have it in the mail literally within hours after you've e-mailed the material. There is no cost penalty for small runs.
I personally think there is some value in people receiving a hard copy of something in their US mailbox -- maybe not so much for the hard-core club members, but more for the casual orienteers who come out a few times a year, to keep orienteering on their radar screen. But again, my purpose isn't to argue one way or the other, just to make people aware of this low-cost, low-labor process if paper newsletters are desired. |
| # Posted 2008-06-03 01:01:58 | |
| barb: | I think it would make sense to use something like Creative Technology and have people who want the paper version pay the extra cost. That way you save money, and people who still want paper can get it. |
| # Posted 2008-06-03 08:18:53 | |
| Spike: | You could do an experiment. Randomly assign new members to either (a) get a paper newsletter or (b) get an email newsletter. Then see which group is more likely to come to events. (I'm assuming that the point of the newsletter is to get people to go orienteering). Of course, you probably don't get enough new members to really draw any conclusions, but it might be interesting anyways. |
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