[DeTomaso] Electronic Delivery of newsletters / Profiles

[Chuck and Linda Huber]

I don't normally reply to this list, but read the digest daily, and I have to agree with Jeff - The INFORMATION that is contained in the newsletter is what is valuable to the Pantera community (and should be harnessed for benefit to the club).

The PI forum is great, because it can be searched, and information can be located, extracted and used.  The same with the ProvaMo database.  People may complain about ProvaMo, but by requiring that people contribute to have access - it resulted in the most comprehensive collection of specific data on our cars that is currently available.... 

The POCA newsletters are filled with great information - but how do we (POCA) capitalize on it?

Maybe spending some of the POCA surplus on hiring a professional to scan (or upload) and sort / categorize every newsletter would be a good use of some of the funds?

Information is what is valuable - I would love to be able to easily search the contents of this email forum. Cataloging the POCA newsletters and Profiles in an indexed, searchable archive would be a tremendous asset to our club.

Chuck Huber


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Detrich [mailto:jjdetrich at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, November 6, 2015 10:10 PM
To: arkoch at earthlink.net
Cc: DeTomaso Mail List
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Electronic Delivery of newsletters / Profiles

Specs for Tech Arts Cont 3 (last ones)

On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 11:06 PM, Jeff Detrich <jjdetrich at gmail.com> wrote:

> Specs for Tech Arts Continued
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2015 at 10:59 PM, Jeff Detrich <jjdetrich at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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 in some following emails (I can only send 1500 mbs at a 
>> time) 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
>>>
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>>
>>
>