Calendar on the WWW

[Lenny Zimmermann]

On Mon, 23 Sep 1996 18:19:22 -0500, you wrote:

>Heilsa, All!
>
>        This is my personal opinion, so please, no flames in return.  I have
>always felt that the Kingdom Calendar belonged in the Black Star.

I do think that the calendar available on the WWW is simply the kind
of calendar you would find on the back page of the Black Star which
shows when an event will happen and where. The Black Star is still
exceptionally useful for finding out news the officers wish to express
as well as the specifics about any of the events that might be
interesting. I know that's what I usually use the Black Star for,
finding the little ads that tell me the exact theme of an event and,
more importantly, how to get to the site. (I'm still to "young" in the
SCA to know where everything is just by the name of an event *shrug*).

At any rate, how much of the production cost for the Black Star gets
back to the Kingdom to pay for other things? (This is a legitimate
question, I really do not know the answer and would like to.) If it is
to put more money in the Kingdom coffers, then I could agree that we
need the Black Star to be the main point for all of that information
and it should stay there, unless we found some other way to make money
for the Kingdom for operational expenses. But if the cost only really
covers the cost of production, reducing the number of subscriptions by
making the Black Star available on line might be a viable alternative
to reducing some of the costs associated with creating the newsletter.


>  I have
>been strongly against re-publishing  it in local newsletters or, in this
>case, on the Net.  If the calendar is available outside our official
>publication, where is the incentive to become a paid member?  Are we not
>doing the organization as a whole a disservice? 

This where I do not have the experience to make any arguments. I think
we could be doing a great service by making information we would
normally receive easier to retrieve. The incentive to be a member,
however, is an issue I'm not sure I can address. Personally I think
that to reap the benefits of just having an SCA is worth paying for, I
just don't know what the percentage of people is who would lose that
incentive if they could get information form someplace other then in a
Kingdom newsletter.

BTW, the information could be made electronically available for a fee.
Give the option at renewel/subscription time to receive the paper or
electronic copy and either make it available through a Web site with
password requirements or, easier and less expensive, through a mailing
list such as this. Just a thought, but I'm probably way off base.

Honos Servio,
Lionardo Acquistapace, Bjornsborg
(mka Lenny Zimmermann, San Antonio)
zarlor at acm.org