UPS Delevery of our WTN in the Future?

Let me understand: as things stand now, digitizing the WTN into PDF for e-mail delivery results in an overly huge file. Is there any other format out there for electronically delivering magazines with lower file size? Or is it "this, or nothing"?

I know our international members would love to be able to receive their magazines via e-mail, and we would probably get a lot more international members if we could offer it that way.

I also realize that it's easy for all of us to sit back and say, "hey, the Club ought to do this" when we ourselves know we won't have to expend the time doin' the digitizin' !!

Very good discussion. Again I try and stay out of the discussions on here but since this one deals directly with the Club I thought I would weigh in. As Brownie pointed out, this has come up in BOD discussions in the past. As both the President and for now, the website coordinator, this is something that is on the forefront of moving the club forward. There are a number things that must be done before we can even start talking about delivering our magazine digitally.

First we have to assess what this does to membership costs. Would you still pay the same membership rate if you receive it online? What would happen to our cost of the magazine for those who still want it, if half our membership went online? Yes, the cost to the club goes down, but our printing of lesser number of magazines goes up. What would be the impact on other costs that the club has? Is the cost of producing it, justified if it is a digital file? Would members not see the value in the magazine if they got it digitally? Right now it is something glossy and nice to show prospective members. Would non-members desire to join the club if you gave them a copy of the WTN that you printed out on your black and white printer at home? There is some analysis to help us understand what decisions and when they should be made.

Second, what kind of technology do we need to employ? Do you send it out via e-mail where it could be potentially passed to numerous non-members and undercut membership numbers? Would it make membership in the club unnecessary if one person passed it around to multiple people instantly with e-mail? Remember that the club does a number of other things to advance the preservation of Hudsons and Hudson History. There is a cost to all of these things. Your membership goes to more than just the WTN. There is also cost to software, hardware, technology, development and maintenance of systems. The simple website plan we have, where we maintain the website, may not be sufficient for viewer software that could provide access to the magazine without loosing control of the content. If the cost of all of this required a membership cost half of the current membership costs, would you question why it was so much since it was "digital"?

Our current state of technology is that we have very little technology available to us. We are pursuing an online solution for a membership database that would allow us to deploy content to members, but this is slow work due to the lack of funds and software development talent in the club. As a 42 year old, techie/business information systems guy, I understand the need, the desire to advance the delivery of the club magazine in a format desired by the membership, but I lack the magic wand (they are expensive) to make this happen at this point. We also want to make sure that we understand the impacts to the club from a decision like this.

We will get there but there is much work to do and two few gerbils running on the wheel. Again I like the discussion, but there is a lot more to consider than just simply "sending it" out.