<VV> Email the Communique!

[Thesuperscribe at cs.com]

People who complain about a $15 a year dues increase are such cheapskates 
that maybe we'd be better off without them. However, as at least one of them has 
correctly suggested, CORSA  could save a bunch of money by converting the 
printed Communique -- the source of a lot of expense -- to an on-line version, 
either by posting it on the website or by emailing it as a pdf file. 

We in the Mid-Ohio Vair Force have done this with our Vair Voice newsletter 
for a year now; so has the San Diego club with its Vairmail (which I edited for 
five years and I can tell you that preparing a printed version is a LOT of 
work). The emailed Vair Voice works well, saving us maybe $15 a month in 
postage. That's not a lot of money, but we can spend that on other things. And we get 
color pics that we'd otherwise not be able to afford in a printed version. 
We'd also save printing and paper costs, but two long-time members who run a 
printing business have done this gratis, and still do for the handful of members 
who don't have email access. 

CORSA could do the same thing -- mail out a printed version of the Communique 
to members who request it, and charge them an extra fee for it. Those with 
email addresses can take it electronically and use their printers to put a 
physical version in their hands, if that's what they want (I do this with the Vair 
Voice and Vairmail). Keep the format simple so it's easy to produce and read.

And forgo competing for the awards -- who cares, anyway? (Magazines I write 
for enter and win awards, some with my name on them, but this is done mostly to 
impress potential advertisers and massage our own egos, IMO.)

How much would CORSA save it the Communique converted to a simple emailed 
format? Probably enough to avoid a dues increase, and maybe enough to cut the 
dues (except for those who insist on a printed version). But I'd happily pay an 
increase in dues to keep the organization going. 

--Tom Berg