RE: James' post

["James Purchase" <jppurchase@rogers.com>]

Karen,

"I don't disagree with you at all that it would work better if one committee
handled all of these functions.  But you made it sounds like there was some
reason that they WEREN'T handled by one committee.  There are only reason
that they are not."

Sorry if it sounded critical - it wasn't meant to be, at least not critical
of specific individuals on a personal level.

"First, all 3 needs are relatively new and second, they each have developed
over time, and separately fro each other."

Yes, I'm very aware that the AGA is sailing into new and uncharted territory
here. In ALL of the preplanning we did for the Showcase/Contest and in the
effort I expended in contacting vendors in 2000, it never even dawned on me
until Erik mentioned it that Charlene would be doing a similar thing. I was
floored when I found out that my efforts might have limited what she was
able to obtain and also shocked to realize that by working together we might
have been able to achieve more than either of us did working separately.

I think this is just one of those "live and learn" things - we did it one
way, it worked, sort of, but we can now see that there is probably a better
way of doing things for the future. Luckily, we have come to that
realization relatively quickly and the solution (or at least one possible
solution) is apparent and should be easy to work out.

"As far as a contact list for TAG advertisers is concerned, there is no such
beast because TAG has never accepted advertising.  We are working from
square one.  We do have pricing established, based on what PAM charged and
BB charges.  We have looked at the advertising list that both of those
publications use/have used.  That's it."

"The BIGGEST reason we don't have such a unit is that no one has stepped
forward as an obvious leader.  Art Giacosa has offered to chair the TAG
advertising "committee". But there seems to be only one other active person
(Don Lee) involved with that.  I believe you offered, and I know I forwarded
your name to Art, but I don't know if you guys ever made contact."

I had volunteered to you in a private e-mail I believe - I don't ever
remember seeing my offer bounce back to me on the aga-member list. But at
that time, my ISP account was changing due to the failure of the @Home
network and my e-mail accounts got mixed up for a while.

I did see where you had passed my offer on to Art and I expected him to
contact me if he wanted/needed my help. I did not contact him directly.
Several days later, you posted something to the effect that Art and Don were
working on it so I figured that my help was not needed.

I have no "advertising" experience, although I'm generally pretty good at
"selling" things. You identify what it is you want to sell, find a need in
your intended market, and put the two of them together with the proper
schmoozing and hope for the best. My "help" in this area is probably best
offered in the area of ensuring that the message is communicated clearly and
effectively to our potential advertisers.

"I think your ideas are good, but this stuff all comes down to people.  Are
you volunteering to oversee this piece, or do you have another (specific)
person in mind?"

I am willing to work with anybody cooperatively in order to get things done.
My main focus right now is to get the AGA Contest going. I have looked at
the posts made about cooperation and given the issue some thought. My long
posting was just a summary of what I think should be done to maximize our
chances of success.

I'm retired, so my time is pretty free but if my past experience in 2000 is
anything to go by, handling the Contest is almost a full time job - it
devoured most of my time and energy for the entire "pre-planning" and post
announcement period the last time around. I felt like a wet noodle at the
end of November 2000.

Hopefully, the hard work that we all put into the pre-planning has paid off
(it appears that the main change done last year was to simplify some things,
and that is very gratifying) and that this and future years will be smoother
and less time consuming. We now have a better idea of WHAT has to be done,
something which we didn't know in 2000, and we also have some reliable
people who have worked on these things before, so delegation of tasks can be
done to a greater extent than it was in the past (I'm speaking about year
one and my experience). So I don't expect the Contest to devour as much of
my time this year as it did before.

"Oh, as far as that e-mail list idea is concerned, Erik has benn GREAT about
setting up whatever lists we need.  We've got a general one for TAG.  I'm
sure if we get a group of people and a LEADER to work on advertising and
donations, he'd be happy to provide them with a list as well."

I'm not sidestepping the question here, but I think that the Board needs to
discuss exactly WHAT is needed before looking for a person to fill a role. I
made some suggestions - I think that pulling PR (in very general terms, that
includes vendor contact and advertising) out of the individual events and
centralizing the function it might go a long distance to reducing
duplication of effort and ensuring that the message delivered is consistent
and to the benefit of the organization as a whole. People working on PR
could be made aware of the fact that their "services" might be required and
used in a variety of ways and for a variety of events. The same group of
people could service everything (i.e. more work acomplished by fewer people
because their focus is tighter).

The advertising needs are similar to vendor solicitation but not exactly the
same. The coordinator need not be an expert in selling advertising but there
should be some pretty savy people on board to advise and lend a hand (in
other words, you don't have to know how to dig a ditch in order to supervise
a work crew).

But whomever leads such a committee (and I'm not saying it couldn't be me)
would have to be aware in advance of the needs of all of the various
sub-units involved, willing to build a TEAM to do the various tasks needed,
and able and capable of devoting the time necessary to see the job through
to the end.

This isn't a criticism of Art, but I thought that his posted estimate of the
amount of time needed to handle advertising for TAG was inadequate. I would
imagine that at least initially a lot more time would be needed to develop a
sales pitch, determine your intended market and make initial contact and
then follow up to SELL them on the benefits of advertising in TAG.

I also found it rather odd that he didn't take me up on my offer of helping
out when it was first made. Even when he discovered that he was having
difficulty getting companies to "buy in" to his sales pitch.

Talk to the other members of the Board and see what they think about my
suggestions. Then lets talk.

James Purchase
Toronto


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