Re: Foreign Memberships

["Karen Randall" <krandall@world.std.com>]

* Tomoko is right that piracy can happen in any format.  She is also tright
that our mission is to provide information and education to our members.
The problem is that without a membership base, there will BE no magazine.
More pressingly, we really need to get up around the 1000 member mark for a
full color magazine to be self-sustaining, even with advertisers.

We have to be careful that anything we do doesn't encourage people to access
the information easily WITHOUT being members.  If we do that, we will
threaten the paper version of the magazine for everyone.  Personally, as a
lover of reading "on paper", and one who appreciates the better quality of
printed images, I would be unhappy with that.

If all e-books are is PDF files, that shouldn't be any problem at all in
terms of getting it done.  The problem is how do we protect the interests of
our members?

* James offered to convert some back issues of TAG into electronic format...
Thanks, James, but it's already done.  Erik, our wonderful, talented web
master did all the back issues a year or two ago.  I believe he has kept up
with each new issue since then.

* Someone wrote from Hartwich, U.K. saying that they might be interested,
but they didn't know anyone in their area.  I know we have other members in
the U.K., so I know it's possible to join as an individual from there.  That
will still always be an option for people, and probably the best answer for
those who live in an area without a number of other active aquarists.  My
guess is that if we are able to do group mailings cost effectively, it would
need to be something like 8-10 issues at a time.

What I would LIKE to accomplish is to find a way to service aquatic
gardeners outside North America at a price that is closer to what those in
N.A. pay.  We'd have to check into the exact expenses, but I wanted to see
if there might be a call for it first.

Karen


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