[DeTomaso] Electronic Delivery of newsletters / Profiles
Jeff Detrich
jjdetrich at gmail.com
Sat Nov 7 00:01:55 EST 2015
These are great comments and remember, we're talking about the Newsletter,
not Profiles. An electronic version of the Newsletter was planned to be
included in a new but failed website development project that your Board of
Directors somehow screwed up again this year. (Another reason they don't
want you to know what goes on at Board meetings! I would suggest that the
Board publish the minutes for every meeting and all other actions taken so
members really know what's going on; but ,hey, you already know my position
on the Board's effectiveness.) The important part of the electronic version
is that the graphics are so much better, pictures and diagrams would be in
color, more content could be included, etc. etc.
Under the web site specs, *Members would have an option of receiving a hard
copy version, no questions asked, *but the copy would be the crude black
and white version sent out now. Paying extra for it would be a good option
since it's expensive; POCA spends about $25,000 per year on the Newsletter
That's about 50+% of your net dues after chapter rebates.
The second reason and more important reason to do it from the website was
Dick's 2nd point; All the institutional knowledge from all the old copies
of the Newsletter could be maintained on-line as well. The key to this
feature is the indexing, not a google search but a true metadata index of
the reason for the article, key words, parts used, even the effectiveness
of the suggested changes. It could also include user grading of the
content. (Like Yelp!) Now that would truly be a major new source of value
to the DeTomaso Community, something that non-members might find appealing
enough to join POCA.
It would, however, require that some qualified people would have to review
the articles and index the contents. Once all the key words were indexed,
Members could query the keyword database and it would return all the
qualified articles. Or Members could just browse old versions. We've
actually had the old Newsletters in digital form for some time now but your
Board just can't seem to understand how to actually build a website and
disregards counsel from those that do. Too bad, I've gone thru the old
Newsletters and they are really interesting. It's one of the most valuable
assets that the club has.
And we could do the same thing with archiving old versions of Profiles
Magazine. I wouldn't suggest receiving Profiles electronically but, once
again, there is an incredible amount of historical and useful information
that could be made available in the old versions. Interesting enough, we
could also index and archive all the old Pantera information that Dick has
collected over the years. In fact, the index could even direct your to
non-POCA sites like the Registry and Pantera Place. Even the historical
emails from the POCA email forum rather than the crude google search used
currently. Now we add real value to being a member!
Since the Board can't seem to get a website going, it was suggested that we
deliver the Newsletter by email. Not as optimal but it still provides a
better copy and it saves the club a ton of money, money that could be used
to reduce your dues. It's better than nothing and it gets you the better
quality. Once again, you could opt out and get your beloved hard copies if
you wanted to do so.
Attached are some of the proposed pages for the web site regarding the Tech
Articles from the Newsletters. These were working copies of the specs but
they do give you an idea of what could and should be done.
On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 3:11 PM, Dick Koch <arkoch at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Judy, I really don't understand the problem with providing the newsletters
> electronically.
>
> POCA doesn't need to send anything to anybody. The publication should be
> made available on the POCA website, with member only access if limited
> access is desired. If a member wanted to have a printed copy, then they
> could do so. If a member didn't have access to the internet (I find it
> hard to believe that anyone that has a Pantera or an interest in one and is
> a member doesn't have access to the internet) and wanted a hard copy then
> they would have to pay for that delivery service. Most all organizations,
> for profit or otherwise, are going this route, both to reduce cost and
> provide more timely service to its customers.
>
> An archive of all the Newsletters could be maintained, with an index by
> year and topic, with free access granted to those that were members at the
> time of the newsletters, Plus for new members that wanted to have access to
> old newsletters and certain topics, POCA could charge a fee for that access.
>
> POCA reduces substantially the cost to mail the newsletters, provides an
> additional asset to produce income, drives members to the POCA website,
> provides a way to reduce the membership fees, and generates a great sales
> incentive for members to sign up.
>
> Dick Koch - Atlanta
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at poca.com
> http://poca.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso_poca.com
>
> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use
> the links above.
>
-------------- next part --------------
These are great comments and remember, we're talking about the
Newsletter, not Profiles. An electronic version of the Newsletter was
planned to be included in a new but failed website development project
that your Board of Directors somehow screwed up again this year.
(Another reason they don't want you to know what goes on at Board
meetings! I would suggest that the Board publish the minutes for every
meeting and all other actions taken so members really know what's going
on; but ,hey, you already know my position on the Board's
effectiveness.) The important part of the electronic version is that
the graphics are so much better, pictures and diagrams would be in
color, more content could be included, etc. etc.A
A
Under the web site specs,A Members would have an option of receiving a
hard copy version, no questions asked,A but the copy would be the crude
black and white version sent out now. Paying extra for it would be a
good option since it's expensive; POCA spends about $25,000 per year on
the Newsletter That's about 50+% of your net dues after chapter
rebates.A
A
The second reason and more important reason to do it from the website
was Dick's 2nd point; All the institutional knowledge from all the old
copies of the Newsletter could be maintained on-line as well. The key
to this feature is the indexing, not a google search but a true
metadata index of the reason for the article, key words, parts used,
even the effectiveness of the suggested changes. It could also include
user grading of the content. (Like Yelp!) Now that would truly be a
major new source of value to the DeTomaso Community, something that
non-members might find appealing enough to join POCA.A
A
It would, however, require that some qualified people would have to
review the articles and index the contents. Once all the key words were
indexed, Members could query the keyword database and it would return
all the qualified articles. Or Members could just browse old versions.
We've actually had the old Newsletters in digital form for some time
now but your Board just can't seem to understand how to actually build
a website and disregards counsel from those that do. Too bad, I've gone
thru the old Newsletters and they are really interesting. It's one of
the most valuable assets that the club has. A
A
And we could do the same thing with archiving old versions of Profiles
Magazine. I wouldn't suggest receiving Profiles electronically but,
once again, there is an incredible amount of historical and useful
information that could be made available in the old versions.
Interesting enough, we could also index and archive all the old Pantera
information that Dick has collected over the years. In fact, the index
could even direct your to non-POCA sites like the Registry and Pantera
Place. Even the historical emails from the POCA email forum rather than
the crude google search used currently. Now we add real value to being
a member!
A
Since the Board can't seem to get a website going, it was suggested
that we deliver the Newsletter by email. Not as optimal but it still
provides a better copy A and it saves the club a ton of money, money
that could be used to reduce your dues. It's better than nothing and it
gets you the better quality. Once again, you could opt out and get your
beloved hard copies if you wanted to do so.
A
Attached are some of the proposed pages for the web site regarding the
Tech Articles from the Newsletters. These were working copies of the
specs but they do give you an idea of what could and should be done.
A
On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 3:11 PM, Dick Koch <[1]arkoch at earthlink.net>
wrote:
Judy, I really don't understand the problem with providing the
newsletters electronically.
POCA doesn't need to send anything to anybody.A The publication
should be made available on the POCA website, with member only
access if limited access is desired.A If a member wanted to have a
printed copy, then they could do so.A If a member didn't have
access to the internet (I find it hard to believe that anyone that
has a Pantera or an interest in one and is a member doesn't have
access to the internet) and wanted a hard copy then they would have
to pay for that delivery service.A Most all organizations, for
profit or otherwise, are going this route, both to reduce cost and
provide more timely service to its customers.
An archive of all the Newsletters could be maintained, with an index
by year and topic, with free access granted to those that were
members at the time of the newsletters, Plus for new members that
wanted to have access to old newsletters and certain topics, POCA
could charge a fee for that access.
POCA reduces substantially the cost to mail the newsletters,
provides an additional asset to produce income, drives members to
the POCA website, provides a way to reduce the membership fees, and
generates a great sales incentive for members to sign up.
Dick Koch - Atlanta
_______________________________________________
Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
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