Re: [AGA SC] Membership Committee Initiatives

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

Okay, it's early. My boss, apolitical appointee, just got
forced out of his job, and I haven't had my coffee. But
Idon't think we're looking at these things correctly. I'm
not arguing against doing them. I voted for them. But
financially, I think we're looking at them incorrectly.

Consider the example at hand of the club deals and 10 clubs
at 30 each. Would we need more than 1,000 TAGs? I assume
that, currently, with 800 members, we use about 900 TAGS,
roughly. Presumably, if we had 10 clubs sign up (needed 300
more copies so we'd need 1,200 copies). But we pay for
2,000.

Consider, what if we only had 3 clubs sign up? We wouldn't
need more than 1,000 TAGS, we would need 900+90=990. So we
could use the excess TAGs that come from a printing of
1,000. The marginal cost of the 90 TAGS would be postage
alone. Total net return on the 90 TAGS would be, by my
rough calcs, $1,400.

So until we need to print more than 1,000, the net
(marginal) return would be positive.

But when we reach the point where we do need more TAGS, the
costs would be much higher than estimate. If you only
needed, say, a total of 1,200 TAGS but print 2,000, then
what's the marginal cost of the 200 TAGS in excess of
1,000? It's the cost of the additional 1,000 TAGs -- at
$2.5 per TAG * 4 times per year* 1,000 additional copies
per issue = $10,000, which = marginal printing cost of 200
additional TAGs.

The won't yield a postive net return. To the extent that
the other 800 TAGS (2,000-1,200=800) can be used, that
would lower the marginal cost of letting the Clubs deal
push us over 1,000 TAGs.

Of course, if we do nothing but happen to sell 300 more
normal subscriptions than we have now, the marginal
printing cost of the last 200 (900+300=200), would be
$10,000. But the marginal revs ($20*200) would be only
$4,000.

It's like the vans for the field trip last year. Once you
filled the vans you have an need an additional van, you
have to get it loaded up a certain amount before adding
that van will break even. You have to sell a certain amount
of TAGs to break even on printing an additional 1,000.

Fact is, unless I've totally misunderstood the unit costs
and printing-run size, we need to sell 500 subscriptions at
$20 each to break even on printing an additional 1,000 TAGS
per issue.

So the problem isn't something particular to Cheryl's club
deals. And it's going to be a heck of a thing to reckon
with.

sh
--- Cheryl Rogers <cheryl@wilstream.com> wrote:
> I found Robin's original multis quote.
> 
> Notes from me inserted.
> 
> 
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > 
> > From: Robin Dodson <robin@completedirectmail.com>
> > To: 'Cheryl Rogers' <cheryl@wilstream.com>
> > Subject: RE: Aquatic Gardeners Association quote
> > Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 16:42:04 -0600
> > 
> > Cheryl, 
> > 
> > See below for the postage on the multis...
> > 
> > 2 catalogs - domestic ($1.52), Italy ($4.80)
> > 4 catalogs - domestic ($2.44)
> > 5 catalogs - domestic ($3.13), Denmark ($7.55), Japan
> ($8.40)
> > 15 catalogs - domestic ($3.85), Canada ($7.65)
> > 30 catalogs - domestic ($3.85)
> 
> OK, so assuming we have 10 "group discounts" that order
> 30 issues--pretty 
> ambitious, but what the heck, it's hypothetical. That
> would cost us $154 
> per year in postage. 30 memberships rates a 20% discount
> = $480 per year x 
> 10 groups = $4800.
> 
> If TAG costs AGA $2.50 per issue x 4 issues per year x 30
> memberships x 10 
> groups = $3000 per year.
> 
> plus $154 for postage =
> 
> $3154.00 in expenses which is a profit of only $1646.00. 
> Hmmmmm.
> 
> Doesn't seem like a lot, but it's not a loss. We *would*
> have to get more 
> than 1000 TAGs printed, though.
> 
> Cheryl
> 
> -- 
> Cheryl Rogers, Membership
> Aquatic Gardeners Association
> http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org
> 
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=====
-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
AGA 2004 Annual Convention
Designing The Nature Aquarium -- demonstrated by Takashi Amano
Paludarium design  -- Mike Senske
Planted Aquarium Ecology  -- Diana Walstad
Cryptocorynes -- Jan D. Bastmeijer 
Field Trip, workshops and more, Nov 12, 13 & 14; 
Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, VA, USA
Details & Registration at www.aquatic-gardeners.org  & www.gwapa.org

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