Re: July Bulletin


Very few decisions should be cast in stone. How many of you carried cell phones 15 years ago? How many of you had an email account 15 years ago? More importantly, how many of you even considered that you may some day carry a cell phone or have an email account?

One of the most offered reasons for doing something a certain way is because "that is the way we have always done it." That happens to also be one of the worst reasons to do something a certain way. How about doing it because it makes sense?

This organization should not settle for anything because it was "good enough". The goal should be excellence.

Off my soap box and back in a hole.

Dennis Hager

----- Original Message ----- From: <MORRISJE1@aol.com>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:32 PM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] July Bulletin


In a message dated 7/30/2009 1:54:52 P.M. Central Standard Time,
terry@flowerfantasy.net writes:

Hi  All
I love these comments! Been there, done that, but we could do it  again?
"Wrong size". This was brought up 15 years ago when I first became editor.
At that time, it would have allowed us to add pages to the  bulletin
(content) without adding the cost of PERFECT BIND (It is more  expensive).
The idea was not well received - then. We went to perfect bind  which does
make a nicer book with the edge binding issue info. And offers  unlimited
pages. We were at the limit with "staple stitching". So we went to perfect
bind and increased the page count to 128 from about  96.
Put me in the same camp with Terry and Clarence on this one.  89 years
(wow) with our format is good enough for me.


From  another perspective, I also belong to the Orchid Society ($60.00 per
year). They went to the "coffee table" magazine size (8 1/2 x 11") several
years  ago. This was during the early stages of serious membership drop.
The
magazine is very impressive but it did not stop the membership drop - which
is still more severe than ours. This just speaks to the motivation  for
"change". We need a better reason.

"Month" versus "season".  Since the beginning of (my) time, there have
always
been people out there who live by the stopwatch and complain bitterly when
our magazine does not  arrive on day one of the month of issue. I might
defend our position by  saying that commercial magazines have a full time
paid staff - unlike some  other "volunteer" organizations. I did suggest
"seasons" as a way out of  this dilemma. Again, not a positive response -
back then. ""Winter",  "Spring", "Summer", "Fall" works fine with me.
I do remember Ron Mullin  defending the Bulletin delivery time by saying
that
it was the "month of assembly and delivery". I like that one and have lived
by it. Occasionally,  we get lucky and have an "early issue". This
particular
issue had a time  line that had nothing to do with AIS. Erica was going on
vacation (some  civilized people do that!!!)on the 4th of July so, for me,
it
was a do or  die situation. We made it with an hour to spare. (I love
stress!!) I'm not  sure that Erica did!
I prefer the "month" versus "season" with all the restrictions Terry has to
work with.  MIS went to the "season" for The Medianite back when  we had
four issues per year.  The "winter" issue was always confusing as  most of
the "real" winter was always in the following year and several times  that
issue wasn't actually published until "the following year" which many people
did not like and was confusing at the time and later in doing  research.
Which year is winter? Season ending or season beginning? As a researcher I
prefer being able to reference a month and year to any  article.  The AIS
Bulletin looks good in a bookcase with perfect binding which allows for Issue
number and month and year to be printed on the  edge.  If one has 89 years
worth (I don't, only 45) of AIS Bulletins on the shelf, it takes awhile to
find even the right  year (much less issue) for those issues that had the
Issue number and month/year printed only on the front cover. The new issue indexes help a lot but there are many articles or vignettes not listed in the
TOC or index and  without attribution in past Bulletins of any era.



Anyway, keep those cards and letters coming. I am enjoying the
conversation.
Terry
Me too. And I agree that we have been there, done that two or three times
in the past 30 years or so.  I guess I am conservative about the
publication just like Clarence. I like it the way it is with fourteen or so color pages. My July Bulletin came today! Most impressive Terry. Picture flow
is very good.

Jim M.




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