Masters newsletter publishing poll

Hi Ken, very good topic. Here in the Michigan LMSC we put out 4 Newsletters a year to as many as 800 members. We have been doing this for many years. Our LMSC has been distributing via bulk mail as a non profit business which also entitles us to non profit postage rates which results in signifgicant savings than regular mail and regular business rates of postage. The "Wave Eater" Newsletter as it is called in Michigan is are main source of communication and we have all our meet flyers, meet results, news, and stories about masters swimmers in each issue. We are finding it very expensive to do and very time consuming for our Newsletter Editor. We are in the process of doing a survey with our 2004 registration form with the exact questions that you are asking. In the next month we will be doing an e-mail distribution for the 2004 registration year renewal to our membership and with the answers we receive we will take action in 2004. One of the suggestions that has come up in our meetings is that if the majority of the members want the newsletter online or e-mail only then we would charge a fee for a printed paper copy that is conventionally mailed. It will be interesting to see how people feel about this. Frank Thompson - Michigan Masters Chairman

Hi Ken, very good topic. Here in the Michigan LMSC we put out 4 Newsletters a year to as many as 800 members. We have been doing this for many years. Our LMSC has been distributing via bulk mail as a non profit business which also entitles us to non profit postage rates which results in signifgicant savings than regular mail and regular business rates of postage. The "Wave Eater" Newsletter as it is called in Michigan is are main source of communication and we have all our meet flyers, meet results, news, and stories about masters swimmers in each issue. We are finding it very expensive to do and very time consuming for our Newsletter Editor. We are in the process of doing a survey with our 2004 registration form with the exact questions that you are asking. In the next month we will be doing an e-mail distribution for the 2004 registration year renewal to our membership and with the answers we receive we will take action in 2004. One of the suggestions that has come up in our meetings is that if the majority of the members want the newsletter online or e-mail only then we would charge a fee for a printed paper copy that is conventionally mailed. It will be interesting to see how people feel about this. Frank Thompson - Michigan Masters Chairman