Re: [AGA-mcm] Advertising in TFH and selling a book

["Karen Randall" <krandall@rdrcpa.biz>]

> I know Herbie's going to have a fairly small bed and I'm not sure Bubba 
> would be willing to let him share it with anyone else.  I understand that 
> TFH may have a bilge-poor reputation, but they do ocassionally put out some 
> good stuff.  They do print the NAW series.  :)

Which might seem like a good thing unless you'd seen the difference in 
quality between the originals and the TFH versions... And know the inside 
story on how they took advantage of Amano in the deal.

> What is the reason for not wanting to compete with other vendors?  If I've 
> forgotten to mention this or brought it up too long ago, I apologize.

First, it is VERY important that we not give the appearance of s for-profit 
store front.    Second, sales for the sake of sales is not part of our 
mission statement.  In all other cases, what we DO sell, is to make 
something available to the public that is either not available, or hard to 
get elsewhere.  The items we do sell, we sell for marginal gain to the 
organization.

> ***There is no minimum order on any of their books***  If space or money 
> is an issue, we can get 5 copies of things and just order more when they 
> sell out/get low.

That is good.

> Another great thing about us being non-profit is we don't have to worry 
> about selling our stock for much, if any, gain, unlike the other folks. 
> We could be very competetive price-wise.  I'm willing to bet more than my 
> right arm that planted tank related books are a teeny tiny portion of any 
> online retailer's aquarium book business and they won't care/won't notice 
> if we offer more selection in the store.

In the past (and for that matter, even at present) the organized hobby is 
often viewed in a less than positive light by retailers, who get by on very 
small margins themselves, and view hobby organizations as cutting into that. 
It is a view that we would do best to be very careful not to contribute to.

> Oooh, I just had another idea.  (OUCH!)  ;)  Have we approached ADA about 
> selling us backissues of AJ for cheap and then selling them?  Do we still 
> have those boxes of journals left from 2004?

I think, since we couldn't GIVE them away, we'd have as hard a time selling 
those as selling PAM... probably worse, since at least PAM is in English.<g>

> Anyways, I'm getting a little verclempt thinking about this, talk amongst 
> yourselves.

Phil, it is ALWAYS worthwhile to discuss your ideas, whether they are old 
territory for the rest of us, or new.  Sometimes you don't know the 
background, and you (and others new to the AC or BOD) deserve to hear the 
history. (Scott and Cheryl have both received many such history lessons in 
the last few years ;-)  But also, as with any organization, we often get 
caught up in "new" stuff, and don't re-examine what we "have done all along" 
or why we're doing it.  I worked in banking for years, and very often when a 
branch was not in balance, I'd be able to go in and point out the problem in 
minutes.  It wasn't that I was better at balancing the branch than the 
managers were, it was that I was approaching it with "a fresh set of eyes". 
One of the values of adding new people to the AC from time to time is that 
they come in with that fresh set of eyes, and look at things in a different 
way.  That is good for the organization!

In this case, my personal feeling is that our old policies, and the reasons 
behind them are still valid. (though the discussion on TFH was purely 
personal ;-)  But I am only one of the people on the BOD and AC... everyone 
deserves to be heard.  Even I have been know to change my opinion at least 
once. ;-)

We won't always agree with you; heck, the BOD doesn't always agree with each 
other.<g>  And we can't/won't implement every idea that comes along.  But 
EVERYONE on these lists has an equal right to express their ideas, be heard 
respectfully, and have their ideas given careful consideration by everyone 
else.

So the bottom line is, keep those ideas coming!

Karen 


_______________________________________________
AGA-mcm mailing list
AGA-mcm@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/aga-mcm