Excellent and very well thought out post, Gill. I like most of your suggestions and you have provided a lot of food for thought, prior to the Winter meeting (Sunday, 1/4/10 at the Conference Center at CBSP at 9AM!). Ellie and I were talking the other night while discussing the Spring Convention. She suggested making all of the TEXAS CAVER newsletters over a year old open to anyone (her idea), after they complete a Subscription form (your idea and one in which I concur). I think this would entice them to consider joining the TSA and the desire to read the newer issues would clinch the deal. I like this discussion and ways to improve the TSA and attract new members and to get prior ones to re-join. Let's just be sure to keep it civil, y'all. 'Tis the season, and all! Mark
________________________________ From: [email protected] on behalf of Gill Edigar Sent: Tue 12/15/2009 7:57 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Texascavers] Subscribers to digital publications On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Charles Goldsmith <[email protected]> wrote: If the TC goes free, it won't be in the password protected section, it will be available on the front page. That would not be good. But it would not be not good because of the reason being discussed here--spam, etc. There's another... Now I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna tell you then I'm gonna tell you why--two paragraphs. The process should be some variation of this: Cavers can get 'invited to subscribe' to The TEXAS CAVER by any of several means--from the TSA or Grotto Home Pages, at Grotto meetings, the TSA convention, TCR, from fellow cavers, from handouts at projects such as CBSP, Gov Canyon, Punkin & Deep, etc, or basically any way and place that cavers get together. Then, the caver will go to the link on the TSA web site and navigate to the Subscribe to The TEXAS CAVER button. Then, the caver will be asked for some vital information such as name, address, etc, NSS number, Grotto affiliation (or independent), and maybe even personal info such as family member names (which are mostly for photo identification purposes, not for publication, etc), age, years caving, and a brief caving bio, and the all important email address (which does not have to be the caver's primary one). Most of this info will be voluntary. Basically all that will be needed is a name and an email address and a password. The caver will also be asked to furnish a password for accessing his or her own personal subscription information. Then, whenever a new CAVER is ready to mail (or some breaking TSA caver-worthy news) the caver will be sent a message telling him or her to go access his or her subscription account, and to download a free digital copy of whatever is being offered--TEXAS CAVER or whatever. There could be some restrictions as to which publications can be downloaded without being a TSA member, such as a Members Manual, meeting minutes, etc. Then, they can download it and print it out in any way they choose, archiving the digital copy for posterity, and getting back to doing whatever they were doing before--or maybe read The CAVER. The mechanics of that process are not too hard to visualize--I hope. But there are some questions, I'm sure. So here are a few 'whys' to dispel some of um. Q. Why require a subscription? A. Because what we really want is to know who is this subscriber is and where they fit in the Texas caving scene. Basically we are trying to identify all the cavers in Texas so we can keep in contact with them--ostensibly through the auspices of The TEXAS CAVER--and influence them and they us. "We will give you a free CAVER if you will be a part of our 'extended' TSA caving fraternity. This is a bribe from us to know who you are and that you are one of us--even though you may have been hiding for many years because you felt that the TSA doesn't care about you--doesn't want you to be a part of their elite group without you getting involved in their political intrigues" or any other reasons you may have. Q, How does this help the TSA? A. The subscription gives the TSA a database for contacting outside cavers (not just TSA members) about important issues such as cave conservation, caver functions, projects, conventions, TCR and other events that cavers would be interested in. It also restricts (somewhat) the distribution of errant issues on the open market. That's not to say that I couldn't just print out 40 copies via my download and hand them out at Walgreens. It also provides a larger man-power base of both leaders and followers which will obviously contribute to projects, training, participation, writing articles, and a general contribution to more and better caving. Q. How will my email address be protected? A. The subscriber list will be maintained as a database, pretty much entirely electronically. The database, or selected fields, at least, should be available to subscribers as a caver service. Subscribers could elect to not make their email address and certain other fields visible. Also, certain low tech schemes such as embedding the letters 'TSA' into each email address to be manually removed by the end user could offer some degree of security, but probably not worth it. Q. Will a Members Manual be published? A. A hard copy Members Manual is a handy reference for cavers who travel great distances to visit caves and caving events. But, as the Members Manual is a TSA list, perhaps only TSA members could be allowed to download it. That would provide incentive to join TSA. Properly loaded, a Members Manual could be available for downloading just like The TEXAS CAVER. Again, subscribers can elect to have their sensitive data available for viewing or printing. Q. How do we keep just anybody from accessing and printing out a copy of The CAVER or Member's Manual? A. Well, basically we can't. I can print one for my brother-in-law and he can leave it laying in the break room at work for anybody to see. Just like a hard copy could be. But the subscription process will help and will at least let us track who is subscribing--which should be valuable information, in it's own right, for an organization dedicated to conservation and safety, at least. Q. How will the hard copy subscribers be handled? A. When subscribing to receive The TEXAS CAVER, a subscriber can elect from any of 3 options: 1) To receive free digital TEXAS CAVER downloads (and other selected publications and notices). 2) To receive both a digital notification for downloading and a hard copy of any (again, selected) publications. 3) To receive one or more hard copies from TSA via USPS at a proscribed rate to cover production and mailing costs. A 4th option, which should probably come first, would be to join the TSA as a dues paying member with voting and other privileges, hopefully stated somewhere. Q. Who will tend to the hard copy printing and mailing business? A. Traditionally the editor had a major hand in that, often doing it all--printing, collating, binding, labeling, sorting, mailing, paying, and dealing with returns, address changes, etc. At time there were helpers for any or most of those tasks. I suspect that with the lighter load, the editor can easily handle it all. But the door will still be open for volunteers to pitch in. Hard copy subscribers will probably see a bit better service since things won't take so long to finish as they formerly did. Q What else can we expect from the new contacts we will make. A. Well, some of them will join the TSA. Many of them will contribute trip reports and cave reports and articles and other submissions to The TEXAS CAVER for your reading enjoyment, swelling its pages. They will become a part of our inner caving community instead or remaining out of it. And they will contribute to our overall enjoyment of caving, standing around campfires, and reading The TEXAS CAVER. Q. Would it be realistic to expect more issues of The CAVER? A. Actually, it would be realistic to expect that the editor could publish any time he'd accumulated enough information to make up an issue--not necessarily on a fixed schedule. In fact, the raw information could be made available as it is gathered and processed and cavers could watch the miracle of publication progress before their very eyes. And possible inspire them to submit some article themselves. This is the first time I've actually enumerated these ideas so they may be somewhat crudely developed, but the basic idea of what is possible should be contained within this writing. The two most important things to be gained are 1) identifying and getting The TEXAS CAVER into the hands of non-TSA cavers and 2) getting them to participate in the TSA. Neither of those will happen if we don't do something. There are, I'm sure, details which I've not considered. But the underlying concept should make for a better, cheaper system for producing and distributing The TEXAS CAVER and other TSA periodical-type publications. It should contribute to a broadening of both a Texas caver base and TSA membership and participation. It should satisfy those cavers who justifiably prefer a hard copy CAVER supplied by the TSA. And it should result in the TSA having more money and human resources to put toward the realization of its aims and purposes. And, on the face of it, I can't identify even one reason to justify not doing it, at least somehow, along the general pattern I have presented here. There is just no down side. In the interest of Texas caving, I thank you for your time and consideration, --Ediger
