Printed BTS

[JimVonBaden]

Pardon me for interjecting here, but I do know a little about it

Cost was the #1 issue. Only about 75-80 printed copies were going out every month. If they weren't folded, they cost almost $3 apiece to mail. If they were folded/taped, the cost went up to almost $5 each because of the machine costs involved at the printer. Printing costs went up and up and up every year - paper, ink and labor cost more every time I turned around. I shopped bids every year and went with the cheapest of the good, reliable printers, but even they could only hold costs down so far. Postage discounts didn't kick in until something like 200 copies (and it may have been more than that), and even then it only got the cost down to about a dollar a copy.

#2 issue: participation. Getting content was like pulling teeth most months. Beg, borrow, steal - only a very VERY small number of people could be bothered to contribute, and almost nobody was willing (or able) to do so on a regular basis. Go back and look how many issues I wrote almost entirely by myself. All those members who complain about not receiving it could never be bothered to contribute to it. Like everything else in the club, it boiled down to a small number of people who were willing to do the work and a large number of people who were apathetic about the whole thing.

I'm not trying to sound whiny because most of the time, I didn't care. I was happy to do it by myself when I had to simply because I loved doing it. When I needed help, however, very few people stepped up. When Kurtis needed help after I left, NOBODY stepped up. I mean, come on. I gave almost a year's notice that I was leaving, and I mentioned it at every club meeting for over six months that once I moved away somebody would need to take over. Not one single person volunteered, and Kurtis got STUCK with it.

At this point probably the only cost effective thing to do is print out a couple pages on somebody's HP at home and stuff them in envelopes with a $0.48 stamp on them, like the old days (the 1970s, I mean).

If I was still a club member - and again, pardon my commentary as an outsider now - I would tell anybody that wants a print copy that maybe they ought to earn it by contributing. Volunteer. Put out some effort and make it worth while. Advertisers bailed out because the club members themselves didn't care about BTS, so why should they bother? (that is more than just a guess, but that comment did not come from every former advertiser)

I'm more guilty than most. I vow to do better!

Jim

PS Who is the editor now?

[ERC Scott]

I was on the BOD in varying capacities during much of the time that Wes was our editor. I marveled at the awesome job he performed in growing BTS into what surely was the finest BMW club newsletter in the land. I also know how difficult it was for him to obtain content from members and advertisers, especially when he expanded BTS from a 12-page to 24-page format. During his tenure the only thing Wes could count on was the president's column and whatever material he put together himself. In Kurtis' presidency it was even more difficult. I suspect most feature articles were obtained only thru their continued "pressure" on friends to take a few hours to write an article and submit it. I usually had a feature article ready to submit if Wes or Kurtis needed content, but at best this was two articles a year. It's sad that they had to work so hard especially given all the talent we have in the membership pool. So, I would challenge any member who has spent 5 hours on social media this week, to get the hell off FaceBook and devote that time to writing a BTS article: be it a bike or product review, a bike-related reminiscence, even your experience had with a non-BMW bike, etc.

That said, I would also point out some low-hanging fruit (content) for BTS. In past years the club minutes were published every month (I'd indicate that Club Bylaws require the monthly minutes to be posted either on the website or newsletter). Also, previous editors have included the treasurer's report in BTS. And, last one thing I discovered in my 5 years on the BOD, if you expect members to volunteer out of the blue, it just won't happen very often. You will see better results by using personal contacts to get a commitment to make contributions.

Off the soapbox, Scott

[Chiba]

I suspect most feature articles were obtained only thru their continued "pressure" on friends to take a few hours to write an article and submit it.

You would be right about that. People still duck my calls, figuring I'm going to hound them for content...

...which is kind of true, because I still do that