Re: MCM - Digest V1 #242

[Neil Frank <nfrank@mindspring.com>]

At 04:12 AM 02/27/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>From: "Mary McCaw" <marymccaw@mediaone.net>
>I support James' position.

I agree with Mary. James is an AGA member as well as others on the contest
committee. They have spent a lot of time on the EXCELLENT proposal and I
defer to their recommendations. 


Mary also asks:
>Are there any other =
>perks we could offer our members?  What about taking 10% off book store =
>purchases?


THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION. Perhaps we should clarify the purpose of the AGA
bookstore. Certainly, it is to provide "hard to find/obtain" items. [Karen
mentioned that it is ONLY available to AGA members and its objectives do
not include a profit]. I don't deny that we MAY have decided that in the
past, but I really can't recall and I don't know where to look to find it. 
I suggest that the AGA-MC/AGA-SC figure out a way to document our policies
(maybe on the web site... maybe on a work in progress subpage for AGA-MC
only?.... after issues like this come up and we make a decision <g>]
Therefore, my followup questions: 
(1)Is AGA bookstore and posted prices available to AGA and non-AGA members?
There is no perk if anyone can buy our books from us... at the same price.
(2)Should there be a 2-tiers of prices. Either discount to AGA or markup to
non.
       [(1) and (2) are connected. I say we should offer to both AGA
          and non-AGA, but ONLY with 2-tiered pricing. Nothing formal...
         if person identifies himself as AGA, then he gets lower price]
(3)What are our profit objectives of this particular activity and what
should be the prices? Some of our money making ventures can fund other
activities (e.g. Bookstore can fund speakers... or TAG or ???). Or,
bookstore is supposed to buy wisesly and then break even. There is benefit
to letting one activity fund another; otherwise TAG might require ads to
make the magazine better? So, the choice of what to charge and to whom all
depends on many factors (book costs, inventory analyses - what to do with
bad purchases, profit objectives and probably our tax status. Despite the
long list, I think it can be done in a relatively simple way [come up with
a moderate markup that is intended to cover expenses -- basically designed
to break even--and then any extra monies can fund a particular activity or
have the money go into general fund].

I am sorry to throw another bunch of questions in the pile, but from
someone who has been in the organization for a long time, it seems that we
periodically try to reinvent the wheel.
--Neil
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