Re: E-memberships


This is great discussion....

From the Treasurer standpoint, here are some thoughts/ideas...

Pricing of e-memberships could take a two level form...

1. E-only memberships
2. E-member with printed Bulletin

This would be in addition to our current non-e memberships which I think we must still offer as is. I would say a portion of our membership (I don't know how big or small) do not have computer access and will not be getting it and this is a valuable membership to maintain.

E-only should be the same price or only a little lower than now even though we are not printing and mailing a Bulletin 4 times a year...The e-member would have access to more information (plus shopping capabilities) than is available now, and that is valuable.

E-member with printed Bulletin should be more expensive than the dues price now. The member would be getting info and services not previously accessible.

(FYI-The Wall Street Journal has a two level price, one for the paper only and one (higher price) for the paper plus on-line access.)

Would it be possible to have every e-member set up their own password and "login" like other vendors do for their shopping websites?

All member tiers would be on the Master website (that is accessible to the public) so people can join and renew the kind of membership they want (e-member or non-e member).

I also would want the password only accessible site to be security protected so we can put the Storefront items and anything else that we may want to offer for purchase on it and people can pay electronically.

Now...What about our current Life Members?...They have paid for printed Bulletins for the rest of their life. We have set the price based on printed Bulletins...

Some of our Life members would want to stay as they are but others might want to have e-member access too? Should they be charged an additional Life e-Member fee? And what about new members who would to join as a Life E-Member? Do we offer this and at how much?

Jill Bonino


----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Aitken" <terry@flowerfantasy.net>
To: <aisdiscuss@aisboard.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 8:37 PM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] E-memberships


It seems to me that there is an index in each bulletin and that, by
clicking on it, you could pick up specific articles. If the annual ads
and the masthead are somewhere else on the web with little revision
quarterly, the size of the bulletin becomes much more manageable. I dont
know how you would deal with pictures. Maybe there is a picture index?
-or pictures are embedded in the articles? I would bet that Erica would
be really good at this and a natural to set up this work since she sets
up the Bulletin in the first place. She does not do websites so that is
another step and another person..She could certainly isolate an index
and a series of articles/pictures and forward them to the webmaster.
This sounds pretty reasonable to me.
   Restricted access for e-members or regular members is an interesting
concept. I like it.
Terry

Robt R Pries wrote:

If we are going to offer an e-membership I would
assume that the articles of the current bulletin would
appear there during the quarter that that bulletin is
active. I dont think the bulletin could possibly be
one file, but a file for each article. I would assume
that such an arrangement would add considerably to the
work of a web-master and that it may incur additional
server costs. I believe a web membership should
provide something similar to a print subscription
membership with other possible options that might
attract members. I would not expect our present staff
to do this alone, or without compensation. A virtual
member might be lower cost to service, but not without
cost. We need to think about what we would want to
provide and how much it would cost to service this.
Just like the online registry there are immense
opportunities here, but nothing is totally free. I
would think if we do our job well, regular members
might want to pay extra, to be virtual members also.
Although I would expect considerable overlap. I do not
think we should think in terms of just replacing one
with the other.

--- John I Jones <jijones@usjoneses.com> wrote:



If you are talking about a specific bulletin, I am
not sure that it is
ever assembled in a single program file. It may be
that it is laid out
in Quark with space reserved for the pictures. Then
once it is ripped
and paged out for the press, that the pictures are
added. I don't know,
but we can find out.

My understanding is that each Bulletin edition takes
up two CDs. That
means that it could be as much as 1.4 Gigabytes.
Anyone interested in
downloading a PDF that big? Remember that for print
the minimum
resolution is 300dpi. That means that a 4 X 4
picture is about 2.5
Megabytes.

Sure we can break it into separate articles fit the
graphics, lower the
resolution of the pictures and create "PDF pieces",
but who is going to
do that?

I am not trying to be negative, but some things,
even with todays'
computer techniques, are just not there yet.

I really hope I am wrong about this.

John



On Mar 30, 2006, at 2:43 PM, Robt R Pries wrote:



I would suggest that articles, bulletins etc, be
available so that they can be read by adobe reader


on


the user end. It seems to be the standard for web


info


and the reader is automatically download once and


fro


then you can read most sites. Since Quark is owned


by


Adobe conversion should be easy.In-Design is newr


but


I would bet Adobe reader compatible.

--- Terry Aitken <terry@flowerfantasy.net> wrote:



Hi All
Most of our bulletins are on CD's going back


about 8


years (Since
"perfect bind"). There may be problems with


obsolete


publishing
programs( IN-DESIGN). Erica is using QUARK-6??.


-or


some different
version of Quark for 5 years. I have no idea how
compatible these are
for current recycling. I suspect that text files
will be easier to
salvage than "flattened" picture files. We used


ZIP


discs for a short
time before CD's and we have a ZIP drive on the


AIS


computer mainly to
deal with advertizers.
I will ask the question of Scott and Erica.
Terry

Loberg wrote:



Just curious, are many of the past AIS bulletins


stored in electronic


format, or have they been generated into a .pdf


format?


My local town paper has recently started to


publish their entire paper


on their web page, in .pdf format, in color, at


no


cost to viewers.  I


cancelled my subscription, it sure is nice to


not


have all the


newspaper around the house and bothering to


recycle.   I can read the


paper on line, and print any page of interest.


Some of the issues


are a bit long to download, even with high speed


internet, however, I


can store any issue if I wish.    How many of


you


can get their


newspapers entirely on line?

More and more publications are going this route.


I don't know how


many people would want the AIS bulletin in .pdf


format, as I want to


keep getting the hard copy in my house, as I


have


kept all issues as


far back as I have received them.   But it sure


would be nice to be


able to go on line and view any issue I wanted;


searching should be


faster.

To have this service as a low cost, add on


service, or an additional


e-membership service, isn't a bad idea.  I think


there is a whole lot


in the future that we'll be seeing on line.
Kitty Loberg
Calif.




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John                | "There be dragons here"
                         |  Annotation used by
ancient cartographers
                         |  to indicate the edge of
the known world.




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