permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Andrew,
Thanks for your support.

We have NO intention of closing or selling. Things are going fairly 
well. We'd just like to accelerate that a bit. You are doing your part 
by sharing the mag and for that we are grateful.

Advertising has picked up a bit, subscriptions are up somewhat, and book 
sales more so. Scott and I have talked about the potential for growth 
and its a conversation we will continue. Everybody's input is valuable.

With magazine improvement and growth maybe we can start to pay our 
writers. I want to.

High on our wish list is new Pagemaker, Photoshop, (and other) software 
plus new Macs (about 4) and Pc's to run it on (I'm going to soon be 
running a dual boot of windows and linux and maybe Peter and Scott could 
dual boot Mac and Linux). If anyone has this software maybe it could be 
shared. When Peter returns I'll get more info about the other software 
he needs.

We keep saying that the first (usually unwritten) principle of 
permaculture is "get help". When seeking help, it pays to ask.....so, 
we're asking.

Nobody working for the Activist is full-time. Be gentle. ;-)

Improving the mag will take more than just time and effort. Money will 
be required...probably about $15-20,000....and most of our capital from 
teaching, consulting is going into paying off our new home in 
Bloomington. I'm working at generating a couple more income streams but 
that may take some time to develop. We've begun to get small donations 
via paypal and they are delightful welcome surprises for us. A whole 
BUNCH of small donations could be really exciting.

Meanwhile I like your "open source" metaphor for the mag. That is 
exactly what has kept us going. If not for you all, we wouldn't be viable.

We'd love to get nicer paper and more color but these don't come cheap. 
If we are to keep the price low we need more ads and subscribers. News 
stand sales don't help us nearly as much as subscriptions. Is our price 
to low? One of our distributors is selling it on Amazon for $10 more.

So, I'm very glad I asked the question...and I will keep asking 
questions to elicit suggestions and support.

I'm thinking we need to do some kind of fundraiser like the Hope Dance 
folks do. Maybe a raffle with a lifetime subscription or two and some 
full sets of back issues. More ideas?

I know I can improve the website to make it more shareable and 
interactive (forms for example and "click here to share with 
friends"...a newsletter...) so that visitors get enrolled in spreading 
the word. I just redesigned the home page so let me know what you think.

We want to sell more products but without the hassles of warehousing and 
shipping. A recent conversation with Lawrence London about his handmade 
garden tools suggests a possibility to follow up. More ideas about this 
are welcome. How can we affiliate to our joint benefit?

Should I start to charge 2, 3, 4, 5, or more dollars for listings in the 
Planetary Pc Directory? It takes a fair bit of time to keep that updated 
especially with more PDC grads all over the planet.

We recognize that the importance of the Activist is growing and we want 
it to be a vehicle for our mutual success. We know the potential is there.

Keith
PS I just spoke to an agent at Chelsea Green regarding a Best of the 
Permaculture Activist book. Stay tuned.

andrew phillips wrote:
> It would be a great shame to see the closure of Pc
> Activist and I commend the editors opening themselves
> to advice and critique.
>
> As a Pc newbie I find Pc Activist invaluable as a
> resource and subscribe to 10 copies to share with
> others when I'm on the road "selling" permaculture.
> And I enjoy the theory but others say they prefer more
> hands-on practical articles.
>
> There is material on this list that could well find a
> place in Pc Activist - I like the open source
> sensibility and though payment for articles would be
> good, perhaps just an honorarium would suffice.
>
> Keep working on it - we are at a crucial time for
> permaculture and maybe reaching critical mass - and we
> need the Pc Activist.
> Andrew Phillips
> Hancock Permaculture
> http://www/hancockpermaculture.org

--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a 
small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild