LONG RANGE PLANNING COMMITTEE

 

Meeting No. 7:

Location: Scott Severance’s Office.

Meeting Date: Apr 19, 05

Meeting duration: 7 to 9PM

 

Committee membership attendance:

In attendance: Tom Button, Scott Severance, Arley Morey, Marvin Patnode, and Bill Boudin
                        

Excused: Judy Swanson, Mary Clay, Sandra Sherwani, and Dick Butler

Absent: Karen Whedon, Sallie Dannan, Kurt Londhair, Leo Naylor, and Jane McCarthy

 

Next Meeting: Jun 21, 2005 @ Scott’s Office @ 7PM   

 

Minutes:

The meeting focused on issues that involved the high cost of operation of the club.  How do we keep the club dues fixed while still providing the normal club functions? Due to the significant costs of the Boomer, the meeting primary focused on the implementation of an electronic Boomer while phasing out the paper Boomer. Some discussion of reducing general meeting costs and expanding the function Membership Chair were also entertained.

A-    Electronic Boomer:

a.       Discussion:

                                                               i.      Cost of Boomer:
The Boomer cost $8,200 this year and the membership was 575.  Thus, the Boomer cost each member ($8,200/575 = $14.26 of their $20 annual dues).  Since the Boomer was over budget by $2,700, the budgeted cost for each member would have been [(8,200 – 2,700)/575 = $9.56].
Thus each member should have paid about $10 out of their $20 annual membership fee for the Boomer.

1.      Based on a March 4, 2004 estimate of the Boomer cost structure, it is estimated that the $8,200 would be divided as follows:

2.      Layout  (19%) ………….$1,565

3.      Printing (63%) …………$5,143

4.      Mailing (18%) …………$1,492

                                                             ii.      Creation of Boomer .pdf File:
In order to minimize Boomer costs and keep membership dues fixed at $20/member, it is thus proposed that starting the next fiscal year the Boomer will be made available electronically as a .pdf file on the OSC web page.  Anyone who wants to can copy all or parts of the Boomer using Adobe Acrobat reader.  The Webmaster will place a link next to the Boomer that would allow any individual to download a “free” copy of Adobe Acrobat reader – if they need it.

                                                            iii.      Still print limited number of Boomers:
70% of our membership has an email address, and therefore access to the web.  It is expected that 30% of the membership (0.3 x 565 = 169 members) would still want a paper Boomer.  Since we will mail the paper Boomer to households, we would have to mail less than 170 copies – say 60% of 169 = 101.  Thus, we should plan on printing about 100 paper Boomers for distribution to households. 

It is not realistic to expect that we could reduce the printing costs linearly, and thus we would not be able to save all of the $5,143 printing costs.  We need to have Karen find out what the vendor would charge to do the layout, produce the .pdf file, and print the 100 copies.

Households (not individual members) would be charged an extra $10/year for the privilege of receiving a paper Boomer.  This would generate an extra $1,000 to help offset the high cost of printing.

                                                           iv.      Total elimination of paper Boomer:
Although not presently possible due to a portion of our membership that is not computer savvy, the long term the objective is to eliminate the paper Boomer totally and go to an Electronic Boomer.  Phasing out of the paper copy will continue to be pursued by this committee.

b.      KEY action items required to implement Electronic Boomer:

                                                               i.      Estimate of new costs from present publisher:
Determine what the present publisher would charge to produce the .pdf file layout and print 100 copies.

1.      Need to fix a page count with typical layout sections and sizes for Karen in order to fix Boomer costs.

2.      Need to have Karen approach the publisher and get an estimate based on fixed page count.

                                                             ii.      Eliminate the layout costs:
See if we can find any club member to do the layout in PageMaker, create the .pdf file, and have the 100 paper copies printed by say Minuteman Press. This would separate the layout issue from the printing issue.  Presently they are tied together by our current publisher.  This would save an estimated cost of about $100 per issue to do the Layout.  Since we publish 10 issues, the savings would be 10 x 100 = $1,000 per year. 

1.      Marv to ask Karen to see if she would be interested in doing the layout.

2.      Secure a second person to work with Karen so that the layout burden is spread – each person doing the Layout for say 2 months at a time.

3.      Marv to approach his daughter who has a business that creates websites.  Ask her what it would cost to do the layout and create the .pdf file.

                                                            iii.      Reduce the printing costs:
Printing 100 copies of the Boomer could be pursued independently of the layout, and a significant amount of our present $5,143 printing costs reduced. With a .pdf file we could go to any local print shop for printing.

                                                           iv.      Secure Board approval:
Marv to present to the Board at the next Board meeting.

                                                             v.      Present to general membership:

1.      Announcement of these changes to be made at the 1st fall club monthly meeting by Scott.  Emphasis for moving to an electronic boomer to be focused on keeping the annual membership dues fixed at $20/member. 

2.      Scott also needs to present this idea as the center portion of his message in the Boomer.  Target issue is the May/June issue, however, this may have to wait until fall since it is close to the May issue being frozen.

                                                           vi.      Change membership application form:
The membership application form will have to be adjusted to reflect this change, and the implementation coordinated with the membership chair (Jack Lancette). Marv to coordinate with Jack.

                                                          vii.      Plan web page for Boomer Access:
Webmaster (Arley Morey) to plan for membership access to the Boomer

                                                        viii.      Create link to Adobe Acrobat Reader:
The Webmaster (Arley Morey) will place a link next to the Boomer that would allow any individual to download a “free” copy of Adobe Acrobat reader – if they need it.

                                                           ix.      Look into possibility of emailing the Boomer to each member:
This needs to be followed up later.  Membership must coordinate email address changes with the membership chair.

B-    Monthly Meetings:
Since monthly meeting represent a large cost, this committee needs to pursue ways of lowering these costs while still keeping the membership active and engaged.

a.       One idea was to have only 2 general members meeting per year and rely on the activity gatherings (biking, hiking, skiing, etc.) as the means of keeping the membership engaged.  The meeting thus could be very meaningful, have happy hours, etc., and be followed by a dinner.  The two suggested annual meeting were an election meeting and the Sept orientation meeting.

b.      NEED TO PURSUE AT FUTURE MEETING

C-    Membership:

The present Membership Chair collects money and keeps statistical data.  This Chair position needs to be headed by a Vice President and expanded to include (a) clerical, (b) collection, (c) promotion, and (d) hospitality.  Further, a program needs to be developed and implemented that makes each and every member concerned about expanding membership, and active in its promotion.  Members invite others.

a.       NEED TO PURSUE AT FUTURE MEETING

 

Respectfully,

Marvin Patnode