viewing others' club magazines

[Mark R]

Over here, the 750MC committee attempted to go "electronic only" some years ago but met with resistance from the membership. The committee responded by reducing the frequency of the magazine. After a while they had another go but evidently decided to just do it. Here's the tweak - they timed the announcement of their decision, in the last ever "Bulletin" to arrive, nicely just after all the direct debits for membership renewal had gone out. So people like me who would have preferred a paper copy (for reasons I won't bore you with) found that the deal for which they had just paid a year's subscription was immediately changed. I thought only government departments did that.
So it's a win - win, you get rid of the people like me and you keep a yearsworth of their money. Of course, the 750 MC lost my long standing financial support a year later and my good opinion immediately, which I don't suppose keeps the committee awake at night. So your committee might like to learn from the pros?

Regards,
Stuart


The same happened with the VSCC the monthly magazine became email unless requested otherwise but ''if everyone requests it via post we won't save anything". This happened without any obvious consultation, my membership was due anyway so I voted with my feet. Other clubs I'm a member of have now began to offer reduced rates for online only but personally I spend enough time reading a screen and do like a paper magazine though it depends on what it is.

[Bob Culver]

Possibly relevant; for the last 35 years the NZ Jowett mag has included a section Around the Clubs in which the 2 UK national mags and the Oz mag are summarised, with emphasis on authoritative technical articles and notable events. Dubious tech articles which plague so many magazines are not mentioned. Anyone interested in fine detail can borrow the mag, or locate on line.  Has proven popular, and a mainstay of the local mag, although involves a lot of work. ( I have often joked that UK members could save a lot of tedious reading  time subscribing to just the NZ mag.) With so many Clubs in UK it is not so applicable, although all could share basically the same summary.

Unlike mags about moderns, much of mags dealing with vintage cars  is relevant forever. For those who put in a lot of effort, it is satisfying to see a lasting printed copy.