I think the purpose of a mailed newsletter is more for outreach than for anything else - we're trying to reach cauts who aren't on this list, hoping to get them involved. Success is dependent on the degree to which we have an adequate mailing list. Don told me he had developed a list of about 400 members and 150 non-members. The caut-list has something like 240. One thing we've been talking about is having a line on the membership renewal form asking whether the member is a caut. There has been an impression among the general PTG membership that the caut community is a "closed elite club" made up exclusively of full-timers - an impression we're trying to change. So while I agree that a paper newsletter is a lot of work, hard to get together, and of limited usefulness, I think we should continue to produce one on a limited basis for the next few years simply for the purpose of widening our reach. We are hoping to do a mailing to administrators/dept heads sometime in the next few months, with information about the guidelines, PTG, and various other references as part of the overall effort to promote PTG and PTG membership. Electronic communication will definitely be the major thrust in the long range future, but there continues to be a place for paper IMO. So while I agree with everything you say, Scott, I think we should continue for the time being. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico Scott Thile wrote: > > Hello folks, > > Ever since I was editing the newsletter (two issues, one in '96 and one in > '97) I have wondered if a newsletter was really an asset to us in today's > E-based world. All of the information is either available already , or could > very easily be made available via E-mail or the CAUT website. It is much > cheaper to deliver it that way (it's free actually) and it takes much less > volunteer effort to do it. Information can also be kept much more current. > > I think we should consider dropping the paper Newsletter and concentrate our > efforts elsewhere. A newsletter mailed out once every year or two is just > not going to be effective at anything. I would guess that virtually all full > time CAUTs either have access to the internet in their shops or can easily > gain access thru a computer lab nearby. Contract and part time CAUTs very > likely have access at homes or their shops. If people want a hard copy of > something we deliver to them on the web they can print it out. Others, > without access to the internet, could either ask a friend to print it out, > or perhaps the Home Office could do that and mail it to the limited number > of techs that would be involved. > > An occasional E-mail to a general music department E-mail list (like NASM or > something?) could be sent notifying piano faculty, piano techs, and > administrators about our existence and web URL. Perhaps we should consider > doing that after the Guidelines document and formula are ready? We could > even have an online tech calculator based on the revised formula. > > Interest in the Newsletter was waning while I was editor. No one was > interested in publishing articles or sending me anything else to be > published. I bet that hasn't changed any, and, of course, more of us have > access to the internet every day. > > I find it hard to justify the time and money (dues money) that it costs to > support a mailed out Newsletter. > > Scott > -------- > Scott E. Thile, RPT > Piano - Instrument Technician > Manager, Lovett Auditorium
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