Re: [AISdiscuss] E-memberships

[Robt R Pries <rpries@sbcglobal.net>]

I think Jill makes some good points. While we are
brainstorming let me make an additional suggestion.
Why not three types of members?

1. Subscription to Bulletin (traditional membership)
2. E-membership only
3. E-membership with subscription.

The first would be what we all have now. The second
would cost just a little less, The economy rate. The
third would cost somewhat less then the other two
combined.

In essence we already have an e-membership that just
gets one access to the registrations on line. If this
were greatly enhanced with other material, bulletin
articles, programs, etc. It probably would attract
many internet users.

The third provides the benefits of the internet
membership but one also receives the printed bulletin.
I would bet that most people would want this last
form. 

As a life member I would gladly pay extra for
additional services available on the internet. The
more impressive these could be the more likely people
would value them and want the last membership. Since
the internet is not without some costs (although less
then printing) we may want to be careful as to what we
would charge for this service. 


--- Jill Bonino <aissecjill@earthlink.net> wrote:

> 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
> >>>>
> >>>>
> 
=== message truncated ===

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