To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Online Pomona
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:24:52 -0700
Can we all agree that the multiple volunteers of NAFEX and other
horticultural groups subsidize the cost of membership by contributing
their labor and frequently make other donations too.
Lets just say that the cost of membership is a base fee of $12.00 per
year and the expense of printing and distributing the publications is an
extra fee that is determine by the number of people selecting that
option and the actual cost associated with that delivery form. Another
option might be a CD including all 4 issues at the end of each year. My
guess is that until a volume of 500+ plus CDs, the cost would be about
the same as small press runs.
Has anyone considered using Xerox Docucomp printers that combine high
quality output and reasonable costs per copy for regular 8x10 magazine
formats with a finished collated, stapled booklet with a heavier paper
stock used for the cover. There is no real minimum as they charge a
setup fee and a fixed price per copy. No need to over print and worry
about storing extra copies. I believe the cost of regular printing is
more expensive until 1000 copies for B&W camera ready copy provided on a
ZIP disk.
The electronic delivery of the publications would be included in the
basis membership. Anyone who reads the publications on line or
downloads them to be printed is paying to do so and the actual cost will
vary according to the computer power, connection speed (cable modem or
dialup), and the printing expense (B&W or color inkjet, B&W or color
laser printer).
Providing options is the solution to our financial problems.
Promoting membership can be easily accomplished by a small trial fee of
$4 per viewing of any online issue. Using PayPal is an excellent method
of accepting payment.
If this effort is successful, I would suggest tapping into the
international interest in fruit growing by changing the organization's
name to Fruit Explorers while retaining POMONA as the name of the
journal with monthly publishing dates and possibly having editors from
around the world who specialize in various types of fruits. The
possibilities are priceless, the benefits incalculable.