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NEWSLETTER #69 - DECEMBER 2009 CLUB NEWS
REGENERATION ?
Followers of the cult UK TV Show Dr Who will know that the lead character has just gone through his Nth 'regeneration'. The question for us is whether the club can or should be re-generated in a new form. Issues around this are mainly responsible for the delay in this issue, particularly whether to ask for subscriptions for 2010.
There was not a great deal of response to the forecast of the clubs demise in the September issue. Certainly no-one came forward as a candidate to take over the authorship/editor role. Perhaps not surprising due to the previously mentioned age-profile issues in the club. We are not alone in this, particularly in the transport sphere. The two oldest Railway societies in the UK, with 150 year histories have announced a merger due to falling membership. In all fields of common-interest clubs the story is one of membership collapse.
It now seems unwise to ask people to subscribe for a slow lingering fade-out in 2010, rather “if t’were done best be done quickly”. So, unless there is a last minute offer, there will only be one more print version. This, issue 70 – a nice round number – will be a Farewell Special looking back over the past issues and will appear in the Spring.
I personally would like the Club to continue in on-line form and this idea is expanded below. However I may be alone in this. To do so would incur costs which would be lower than the current situation but would probably need recovering from a smaller membership, thus resulting in a similar per-head cost to now. So, where there would normally be a renewal form, I am testing the market by asking current members whether they will financially commit to an on-line version. For financial break even we would need a take-up of about 30, but to be considered psychologically worthwhile, probably more. If there is insufficient demand all payments will be returned.
AVIATION POSTCARD CLUB – ON LINE ONLY ?
In the manner of websites, some FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) – OK not frequently but maybe arising from the proposals in the editorial.
WHY NOT CARRY ON IN PRINT ?
This appears to mean my continuing to edit and, mostly, write the newsletter.
Like many activities, about 20% of the output requires 80% of the effort.
The 80% tends to go on researching material that is outside my own collecting interests so the switch would be an opportunity to validate what members are really interested in – perhaps it should be Airline rather then Aviation in the title with the odd excursion into other areas rather then trying to be all things to all.
I would also wish to get away from a quarterly issue deadline and the constraints of the print format. I guess most collectors recognise that their level of enthusiasm waxes and wanes through the year (Leonardo Pinzauti has confessed to this in correspondence recently) which may not tie in with a quarterly schedule. The on line format allows more flexibility in article size and especially, the number of images, as well as using colour where appropriate.
WILL THE ON-LINE VERSION CHANGE ?
That depends on the take-up – the more the interest, the greater the enthusiasm for delivering something extra. The spectrum is :-
1. MINIMAL – preservation of the website, frozen as an archive. Free-to-view to all . As a measure of the value of this I have recently had various E-Mail contacts with a descendent of Imperial pilot OP Jones who is researching her grandfather. She located the OP postcard in issue 50 on an Internet search, which worked because issue 50 is the sample in the public zone of www.aviapc.com
But if it is to be all free access, how to fund it ?
2. AS NOW - regular new material, slightly less rigid format and less rigid timescales. Subscribers E-mailed when new material posted as now.
3. ENHANCED. Possible add ons. Either inclusion of a forum or linked to the existing moribund Airlinepostcards forum on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/airlinepostcards/
Or extending that idea to an open-to-all blog-type format
So, here is your chance to decide, for or against.
Current On-line/PAYPAL, members need not use the form, just E-Mail.
Phil Munson will also be stepping down from his residual roles in the Club, so any “New Club” will also require a new second signatory on its bank account, to be set up either based on the current one or from scratch. For that reason, interim payments should be made to myself, as stated on the form, and not to the Aviation Postcard Club.
Perhaps not a particularly happy new year from a limited club perspective, but ( heresy !) there are more things to life than postcards and, as I am composing this in a snowstorm in the first real winter here for many years, the cover repro KLM poster from their 1994 70 year set seems appropriate. It’s a 1947 item – now THAT was a winter, hence “KLM flies heated aircraft” !
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