Tamara is correct that older members will undoubtedly rise from the grave to renew in August, having learned the hard way that failing to read the August issue, cover to cover, will result in a nagging feeling in October that something is missing. Most of the people on arachne probably fall into this category. Personally, I really would like to make things as easy as possible on Laurie, but I am a little concerned that we will lose newer members. Over the years, I have had the experience several times where people joined and then after a year or two said to me, "They just stopped coming, but I never got a renewal notice." People in the US are trained to expect to receive postcards in the mail to tell them when things are expiring. My preference, for the group at large, as long as I am not doing the work :-), would be for a brightly colored postcard to arrive in the mail and sit among the bills where it will be processed with the "things to be done". The magazine itself tends to migrate to the living room or bedroom for leisure time reading and does not reside with the "things to be done". My concern is that we are currently at a very low membership. I used to license photos for a bulletin to be sent to 1634 people. Now I seem to be licensing them for 1320. I also find myself busy and forgetful, so that it becomes increasingly the case that only those items that are banging me over the head get done. As it so happens, there are a lot of other organizations banging me over the head with ever greater effectiveness and I imagine this is the case with new members who are not so intimately bound to the IOLI. (There are, for instance, three bird watching organizations that write us weekly to beg us to rejoin.) My preference would be for it to be as hard as possible to fall off the IOLI membership rolls through inattention. Singing renewal telegrams, perhaps? (I suppose I will have to do the singing for Northern New Jersey, now :-).) As usual, the volunteer duties expected of volunteers at the IOLI far exceed the amount of time most people have excess to the requirements of living. We all owe Laurie a big thank you for taking on this task. I know Laurie is working very, very hard, already. Of late, she has been personally trying to straighten out a membership gone astray of one of my friends, with admirable fortitude and even the skills of a detective. She is a superb membership chairman, and we are very lucky to have her. The idea of a helper for Laurie sounds like a good one to me, as it is really unreasonable to ask her to take on any more work. It is already a miracle that we can get anyone to volunteer for these jobs, without making them harder. Is there any way that computerization could be used to send postcards? I know that postcards represent an added expense, but as the membership declines, the expense of producing each individual bulletin goes up, since the rule in the printing world is that the more you print, the less each one costs. Also, the more members we have, the greater the volunteer pool to help run the organization, so as not to kill the volunteers we already have. Devon
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