ANSTHRLD - External submission statistics

Timothy A. McDaniel tmcd at crl.com
Thu May 21 22:28:47 PDT 1998


On some distant uncharted world, some Heart once pregnant
with celestial Fire, Hands that the Rod of Empire might have
sway'd, or wak'd to Extacy the living Lyre, might be
interested in the following statistics for Ansteorran
external submissions for the first four months of this year.
Doesn't seem likely, tho.

Thursday I mailed the client and herald notification letters
for the January thru April Laurel meetings.  I *still*
haven't done last August thru December ... sigh ...  I hope
most people already know their results ...

The original, single-sided, I send to the client.  I copy
each letter twice.   One I mail to the branch thru which the
client submitted, for the branch files.  One I give to
Asterisk for the kingdom files, so 1) they're stored where
they can be found and 2) I don't have to file them.

TERMS:
- ------
sheet: a piece of paper.
page: text on one side of a sheet.  Thus a sheet may have
      one or two pages.  The three-page letter was on two sheets.
action: a thing submitted: a name, a device, a transfer, ...
numbered item: an action or pair of actions (name + device)
               that get lumped together with a single item
               number on an Letter of Intent.

FIGURES:
- --------
Actions: 89.  (Average 22.3 per month.)
    Paid actions: 81 (91%)
    Unpaid actions: 8 (9%)
Numbered items: 68.  (Average 17 per month.)
Average actions per numbered item: 1.31.  (That is, 30% of
    the numbered items going to Laurel are name-and-device.)
Actions returned: 9.  (90% success.)

50 1-page letters.
 5 2-page letters.
 1 3-page letter.  (One page of text, two pages of Pict Dict.)
 1 letter omitted by recipient request (hi, Obelisk!).
The two-page letters were all returns.
7 clients had a return (thus, 2 clients had a single-page return.)

For 4 actions, the client had an action previously in the
period, so I was able to put the two actions into one
letter.  A less lazy herald would not have this advantage.

58 envelopes.
Average actions per envelope: 1.53.
Average numbered items per envelope: 1.17. -- but these
averages are misleading, because lots of items went in a few
pursuivants' envelopes.

The recipient breakdown is as follows -- numbers of
envelopes that had each type:
    C 36
    P 9
    C+C 4
    CP 4
    C+CP 2
    CP+G 1
    P+G 1
    C+P 1
Explanation: I consolidated mailings to the same address.
They're shewn above using "+".
    C: plain client, one action.
    P: plain pursuivant, one or more actions.
    CP: the client was also the pursuivant for their branch, one action.
    G: group submission, one action.
It's a bit dismaying that 7 of the 56 letters, or 1/8th,
were for client-pursuivants.  That's far higher than for the
populace at large.  Thesis: the College of Heralds is mostly
a heraldic circle jerk, and about as productive.  Discuss.

18 branches were represented.  Number of pursuivant-copy
sheets per:

   Bjornsborg  6 ########################
   Bryn Gwlad  4 ################
 Locha Ruaidh  1 ####
 Eldern Hills  1 ####
       Elfsea  2 ########
 Emerald Keep  1 ####
   Lindenwood  3 ############
Loch Soilleir  4 ################
   Mendersham  1 ####
    Northkeep  2 ########
 Raven's Fort  3 ############
    Rivertree  3 ############
    Rosenfeld  1 ####
     Stargate  4 ################
      Steppes 11 ############################################
       Tempio  7 ############################
     Westgate  1 ####
  Wiesenfeuer  2 ########

Copying:
104 single-page sheets @ .045 ea.: $4.68
 10 double-page sheets @ .070 ea.:   .70
Total copying cost: $5.38

Postage:
Only pursuivant letters were over one ounce.
Steppes: 3 ounces.  (Borek, you curve-buster.  --- You got a
         9"*12" envelope.  I didn't even TRY to fold them.)
Rivertree, Loch Soilleir, Bjornsborg, and Tempio: 2 ounces.
So:
    53 1-ouncers @ .32            : $16.96
     1 3-ouncers @ .32 + .23 + .23:    .78
     4 2-ouncers @ .32 + .23      :   2.20
Total postage: $19.94

Total cost: $25.32
Average cost per action: 28.4 cents.

ANALYSIS:
- ---------
Damifino.  I just tried to quantify everything I could in
case I decided later it was useful.  I was tired.

A 90% success rate is OK.  We don't want to aim for too high
a rate, because then we'd be returning things that Laurel
would register.

#1 cost is postage.  I like to copy useful commentary to all
clients, which in practice usually means excerpting Talan's
name commentary.  If it's useful, I don't want it to be a
Gem of purest Ray serene, that dark unfathom'd Caves of
Ocean bear: a Flower that's born to blush unseen, to waste
its Sweetness on the desert Air.

Wendy Erisman (Gwenllian ferch Maredudd, Asterisk) thought
of this idea: If all you want to do is tell them who (name),
what (action), and when (Laurel date), you could do
postcards for the acceptances.  4 up on a sheet of 8.5"*11"
paper (each 4" high by 5.5" wide) of 80-100 pound card
stock.  Multiple sheets or cards you stick into an envelope.
4" high means you don't have to fold 'em to fit 'em into a
standard number 10 envelope (4.125"), and the cards are
machineable by the USPS.

I don't have exact figures -- shoulda noted sheets per
envelope for pursuivants -- but postage savings about
   36 single-address clients + 5 pursuivants that only had one
       action = 41 envelopes that drop to .20 postcards
       apiece = saving $4.92
   1 3-ouncer becomes 1 1-ouncer = saving $0.46
   4 2-ouncers become 4 1-ouncers = saving $0.92
and some copy cost savings, call it 48 1-pager letters
becoming 12 (now 4 postcards per), saving $1.62 --

total postcard savings $7.92, resulting total cost $17.40,
average cost per action 19.6 cents; 30% less.

In my March report, I estimated 73.7 cents cost per action.
As I noted, I actually came in at 28.4 cents, and could get
it down to 19.6 cents.

Batching up branch herald copies for group mailing is good,
if you sync it with reporting cycles.

Danielis "The little Tyrant of his Fields" de Lindo
- -- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; 
if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com is my work address.
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