In a message dated 1/6/06 10:28:17 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, Gsdman2@xxxxxxx writes: As always, Tom raises some good questions. I find some of them require more thought, so I have responded with what bothers me about this approach. It just makes it more difficult to find a solution, but then, it is probably best left up to the board anyway. It just makes an interesting subject. I think some advertisers are not interested in having their ad overshadowed by color ads which are too expensive for many people. I'm not sure how to solve that problem, but I do believe it exists. Perhaps we should charge more for a black and white ad. Quality always costs more, and although as a flaming liberal, I like the idea that those with money should not get an advantage, it seems a free economy works that way. The Education Committee should submit an article every month. Those articles should be on breeding dogs, or perhaps discussions about old bloodlines. The cost for printing that article should be taken on by the Education Committee, or even by the Parent club itself. This means the club loses more money, the Review shows more income, then the money from the Review goes back to the club, so it is a "wash". Who is going to write those ads? I know the current Review Editor has turned down a number of submissions, and so far I have no reason to think she didn't make a wise decision. I have seen some of the things submitted, (I wrote some of them) and it was a good plan not to publish them. Everyone thinks they can write, not everyone can. There has also been an obvious push to make the performance people happy. I think this has been done at some cost to things interesting to the folks who are only interested in conformation. The GSDCA should have a Performance Committee which is dedicated to all of the performance venues. That committee should also submit a monthly article to the Review. The cost of that article should go to the Performance Committee, or to the PC. I seem to remember a performance issue. This club is currently driven by conformation. That seems to be changing, and when it does, the dominant faction will control the club. The standard still is based on conformation, but the day may come when that will not be the case. Again, it is a great idea to have articles written, but the quality will dictate if they should be or will be published. There should also be a feature article similar to what we see now. Again, who is going to be our authors? That is a total of three articles in each Review with some attempt to print something interesting to everyone. How do we pay for that? The first year would be difficult. Before you're going to make money, you have to convince people your product is worth what you're selling it for. I'm no advertising person, but as I understand it, circulation dictates the value of advertising in any magazine. If you manage to increase circulation, you will increase advertising. Commercial advertising should always be sought out, and that will get easier as circulation increases. The Review is not a commercial publication. The better it gets, the larger it gets, the more interesting it gets, it is still available to the members. The tax problem of having the Review a public publication was addressed a few years ago, and to maintain our tax status the percentage of members who get the Review has to be more than those who are not members. Therefore, no matter how good it gets, the circulation is not going to change. Unfortunately, because of today's Review problems, a lower subscription cost to non members should also be considered. Again, we have to be careful of the IRS. I've heard there is a rule that dictates how many pages can be printed, based on how many ads are received. That sounds wise from a financial stand point, but it is foolish in the long run. We do have to consider some basis for cost control. To allow the magazine to just go in any direction is not reasonable. The Review Committee is in a much better position to understand that than we are. A great help to all of this would be a serious increase in membership. For the time being, inexpensive memberships without a Review subscription should be available. Advertising for membership should also be done as much as possible in various dog magazines. Membership increase is indeed the answer to the finances of the club, not necessarily the Review problems. The tax basis for our exempt status would be in trouble if we offer a membership without the Review, and the Review is the House Organ, and how we communicate with the membership. It is nice to talk about advertising in other magazines, but how is that going to be paid? Spending money is easy, balancing the books is a lot harder. We are not a government agency with unlimited funds, we do have to depend on out board to put limits on expenses. The past few years they have done a great job of making this club profit. I also have no good answer to the logical question .� "How are you going to pay for this?" That is a question that should be asked after the best possible magazine is debated and designed, not before. As a man who runs a business, as does Tom, we both know the first question is "how do we pay for this?" asked before anything else. Allocation of funds needs to be made, then the job for each committee is to decide what they can do within those limits. So far, except for the timely delivery, the Review is doing a great job. I say, move the next date on the front of the issue to March, and we will be delivering the magazine months in advance. Evan (http://www.asgardgsd.com/) Asgard German Shepherds http://www.asgardgsd.com/ Where Type Movement and Temperament come together ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2005. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://www.showgsd.org ============================================================================