Editorial
Comments
By Bob McDougall
Nov. 99 Leading Edge
..As you know, this will be the last issue of The Leading Edge for 1999. There have been some significant changes in the way we disseminate information about the Club, most notably the establishment of our TCRCM web site by Steve Sterling. As a follow-on, we recently began posting each month’s Newsletter on the web site in .PDF format, so that members could access a copy of The Leading Edge that would appear, both on-screen and on any PC printer, exactly like the issue that I mail each month. This has resulted in (so far) a savings of roughly $20/month to the Club, which could be increased if more members who already have online access would sign up for the "virtual newsletter only".
I guess the big question now is: Where do we go from here with the Newsletter? Think about this:
Each month an exact copy is posted to the web site. When you think about it, that is a very inefficient way of disseminating Club information. For example, why should the online version waste nearly an entire page of space just to show the mailing cover and return address, which are totally unnecessary for the online version? And why bother to list Club Officers and planned events for the year, when that info is readily available elsewhere on the same web site?
What I’m getting at is this: I foresee some drastic changes in the online version of the Newsletter, perhaps even a total disappearance in its present form. We’ve already proved that we can pass along information important to the members quickly, easily, and at less cost to the Club, by simply posting it on the web site AS AN INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION ITEM as soon as that info is ready. Think about it: why should it be necessary to waste time formatting an online newsletter at all? Nearly everything published in the printed version either already is, or can easily be made, readily available via the web site itself.
And the NEXT obvious question is this: How many of you have missed a meeting or important event because you didn’t read your PAPER newsletter thes last few months? Or, to ask the same question in a more controversial way, how many of you really NEED a paper newsletter? (Consider also that the Newsletter, even with its recently reduced costs, is still the single biggest recurring expense for this Club.
It’s time to think it over, guys. Do we really need the copying and mailing costs, when as far as I can see, the real core of the membership of this Club has already accepted the online approach?
Think about it. Let me know how you feel.
This page last updated 11/18/99 20:02