Let's avoid an ENRON

[<dwalstad@bellsouth.net>]

Dear AGAers,
    I propose that the AGA stop selling 3 year subscriptions to TAG.  I
believe Karen will be bringing this up before the BOD, but I wanted my
arguments seen by all.  (My book is associated with the AGA and the
situation is starting to smell bad.)
    With all their enthusiasm, intelligence, and backing Mary McCaw and Dave
Gomberg weren't able to keep bringing out new magazines year after year.  I
doubt that the new editors can either unless they've got something brand new
that I don't know about.  The new direction toward color pictures, which are
terribly expensive, means that TAG will probably be unable to sustain
itself.
    I think that the AGA is setting up an untenable situation by selling 3
year subscriptions when issues are not coming out regularly.   Karen has
argued that hobbyists will eventually get 12 issues, but hobbyists won't be
pleased having to wait 6+ years to get their full 12 issues.  I'm sure that
new subscribers pay $40 fully expecting to get 4 issues/year for the next 3
years.  Selling 3 year subscriptions IMPLIES that TAG is published right on
schedule and has a reliable track record.  That is not true.
    While hobbyists might be willing to tolerate losing $15 on a year's
subscription where issues don't come on time (or at all), they will be much
less tolerant after losing $40 on a 3 year subscription.  They will feel
like they've been "snookered", as indeed, they have been.
    Getting the AGA incorporated so that officers can't be sued was smart.
But on the other hand, it looks to me like an Enron, "lawyerly" type move
that shouldn't be necessary if the AGA knew it could deliver on what it
promises.  Right now it looks like the AGA puts on expensive conferences,
take financial gain (paid positions), all of this financed partially by
subscription sales to naive and unsuspecting hobbyists who may or may not
get what they paid for.  Even if AGA officers have the most honorable
intentions and boundless enthusiasm, they also must be realistic.  Limiting
subscription sales to one year and 4 issues seems like a prudent measure
that will avoid future problems.

Diana Walstad