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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] POMONA and the E-List

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  • From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] POMONA and the E-List
  • Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:42:44 -0600

Very interesting, Lon. Thanks for the background!


The effect on POMONA is that a much smaller percentage of people write articles for it now, even though the by-laws contain a clause that members are expected to contribute something at least every other year or so.
Most members are afraid to write for POMONA now, thinking they aren't "good enough" and this attitude has stifled the magazine.


That certainly applies to me. I'm a complete newbie at fruit-growing, and I'd never expect to have valuable information to share in *Pomona*. But I do post on this list (too much, no doubt). I ask questions, I try to share my experiences (such as they are), and I even try to answer questions, if I can (mostly, if I've asked the same thing previously or discovered it independently on the Internet). This list is not nearly as intimidating as an article in a magazine would be.

So it does seem like this list serves the same purpose as the original round robin letters, and even the original purpose of *Pomona*. And considering that *Pomona* is far and away the biggest expense of NAFEX - pretty much our ONLY big expense, according to that treasurer's report - perhaps it needs to evolve. But I don't know what I'd suggest. I didn't join NAFEX to get *Pomona*, since this list works well enough for me. But if we have 1,500 members, but only 500 - not all members - subscribe to this email list, then *Pomona* must be the only source of NAFEX information for the vast majority of us (I believe those figures are what I've seen here, correct?).

One suggestion, though - we might want to make a bigger effort to promote this email list - or the forum, if that's what you really decide to do - in *Pomona* itself. If our members aren't using this list, they're really missing out on a great deal. I know the list's URL is printed in *Pomona*, but we might want to do more than that. That's not exactly a solution to anything, but it's probably something that should be done, don't you think?

Bill

--
There is no spirit-driven life force, no throbbing, heaving, pullulating, protoplasmic, mystic jelly. Life is just bytes and bytes and bytes of digital information. - Richard Dawkins




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