[Ansteorra] Electronic publishing

[Michael Tucker]

Greetings from Michael Silverhands:

Sluggy wrote:
>
> Karie Mitchell wrote:
>
> > >One that I personally favor is unbundling the membership from the
> > > >newsletters.  This would entail only one class of member (instead of >the
> > >three we have now) and making the Kingdom newsletter, TI, and all >other
> > >publications subscription based.
> >
> > That does sound like a reasonable idea.
>
> I agree that separating the BlackStar subscription from membership would be a
> great way to solve the problem, especially for the long term. This would allow
> the actual cost of the newsletter to be recovered without depending on
> fundraising. I suspect, however, that SCA corporate might be resistant to such a
> change because the other kingdoms don't seem to have this problem.
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Excuse me, but that isn't true. It isn't even anywhere near true. Virtually
every kingdom faces this same shortfall. It is a matter of much discussion among
the Kingdom Chroniclers how best to solve this problem. A couple of Kingdoms
publish very spare, thin newsletters to get under the 2 oz threshold. Most
Kingdoms have routine fundraisers of some kind. Some Kindgdoms have, as a part
of their tradition, annual events that raise thousands (yes, thousands) of
dollars earmarked for their Kingdom newsletter.

> It would be
> interesting to find out if other kingdom newsletters are indeed facing similar
> shortfalls and if so, what their solutions have been.

I have posted previously that they do. I do so now again.

[snip]

> In short, an electronic version is not for everyone, but I suspect a number of
> people would be quite willing to receive their newsletter electronically and
> every person who did so would help alleviate the financial strain of printing
> and mailing a physical newsletter.
>
> Lord Robert of Slugglen, Chronicler Loch Ruadh
> b.k.a. Sluggy!

I agree that many would gladly receive their newsletter in electronic form.
However, the society is not yet ready to make that change, for a variety of
reasons. This very issue was discussed at exceeding length at a society-wide
meeting recently (ask Pug about it). The short answer is: this isn't going to
happen anytime soon. If you wish to pursue this idea, I encourage you to do so
with the SCA Electronic Publications Manager (listed in the Black Star).

Finally, I disagree that unbundling the newsletter from membership is a good
idea. I am a member of many societies, clubs and organizations. Every one of
them that publishes a newsletter, ties the newsletter to membership. It is a
benefit of membership - in some cases, the only tangible, visible benefit of
membership. How many of you would be members, if you could subscribe to (or
electronically access) the newsletter without being a member?

Yours,
Michael Silverhands
Kingdom Chronicler (interim), Ansteorra