Association Forum - ideas to improve the TellTale

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

ideas to improve the TellTale

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

JimB517
Past Commodore

Member Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Initially Posted - 12/22/2003 : 22:48:40

The TellTale is going to remain for members only (unless your elected officers tell me different). As I am the new editor, I'd like your ideas to improve the content.

I'm thinking that besides the words from each officer we could add racing news, cruising news, sailing news, fleet news and stories of general sailing interest. Since the great Tech Tips are going to go into the Mainsheet, perhaps we could pull off some threads we'd like to keep around that are not tech tip related, for example the thread on all the stories behind our boat names, lists of books to read, movies to see, things like that. Maybe we could do a boat or member profile each issue.

What can we do to add value for Association members?

Please send your ideas!

Indiscipline 1978 FK SR #398

Edited by - on

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
3324 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 13:18:01

I completely concur with Brooke's sentiments.
Derek

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 13:21:36

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Brooke Willson
 Do you really NEED a printed newsletter? I have not paid my association dues this year because there's nothing in either Telltale or Mainsheet that interests me that isn't already on the website...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'd imagine a good portion of the association dues pays for this website, which is well worth the cost of admission.

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Brooke Willson
 Do you really NEED a printed newsletter?...I have dropped my newspaper subscriptions, and every morning read the Richmond, Baltimore, and Washington newspapers online. It works, and it's the future. Heck, it's the PRESENT. Should we follow suit?<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

The only reason you are able to read the Richmond, Baltimore, and Washington newspapers online is because the printed versions of these papers generate the revenue which pays for the online versions.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 14:28:07

The newsletter is available on line in the members only area. It is emailed to most members. A printed copy is mailed only to those members without internet access.

If we're going to do this lets do something good. Ideas are still being requested!

Edited by - on

Arlyn Stewart
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
2984 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 15:21:45

I agree with Brook and Derek... that the value of the Mainsheet is somewhat in doubt. Even though I serve as a tech editor, I've always felt that the web site was a much better tool.

It gets the information out faster and in many cases allows for more graphics etc. and just seems to work for me better. I sometimes read beyond the lead articles and association offerings, but not often.

I do have to remind myself that there are some who are not online that the Mainsheet reaches.

Last year I joined another sailing organization, The Trailer Sailors who have a web site on Yahoo, but there isn't much interchange there. While they have members spread across the US, their special event for the year is a two week North Channel cruise.

They produce a three times a year Clipper Snips that is a fantastic publication. It is a delight to receive an issue and retire to the sand box and read. While I have wireless internet on my laptop and tried it once, it just doesn't seem as friendly to the sand box as a magazine or newspaper.

I think the Telltale though it is distributed online or by snail mail if desired, ought to have a goal that its ulitmate appearance and content are the kind of thing that would easily be printed out for reading other than online time.

Perhaps it ought to be produced as a downloadable Adobe document to facilitate easy printing and insure the layout is not compromised.

I wrote a treatise recently on Lightning and the Trailer Sailor. In the last month and a half, it has been opened nearly 800 times but based on my stats program information, I know its not being read but about 25% of the time. Why? Perhaps because it is both technical and long.

When I view something like it... I very often print it to read off line. There are many occassions when a piece of reading materiel is needed. A visit to the sand box, the doctor or dentist or waiting on the wife in a store, occassionally at work.

While there are drawbacks to offline, such as loss of the power of hyperlinks... I still value off line reading and suggest the association keep that in mind when producing the Telltale.

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 17:13:21

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Brooke Willson
 ...which is why, Don, so many newspapers are in trouble. It's not the subscriptions or the street sales that keep those papers afloat, but the advertising revenue. As media increasingly go electronic, they have to restructure their income schemes -- which is why we have all those popup ads we love so much. OR, newspapers are bought by media conglomerates that make their primary revenue elsewhere.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Actually, it is virtually impossible for a purely self-sustaining, content driven website to exist because a viable internet advertising model has yet to be found. This is why some sites(numerous newspapers, CNN, ESPN, Practical Sailor,...etc) charge users certain fees to view online content while others simply fold.

As for the media increasingly going electronic, this has been going on for quite some time. In the early part of the last century, it was widely thought that with the advent of radio, print media would quickly fade. It didn't. When television came along in the 40's and 50's, it was again thought that both print media and radio were done. Still not so.

Edited by - on

Bryan Beamer
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1038 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 17:57:14

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
Originally posted by Brooke Willson

It would be interesting to see what the results would be if you polled the membership and asked if they would prefer lower dues and no mailings, or the same dues with the mailings.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

What mailings do you get from this association? The only Catalina thing I get is the Mainsheet Magazine 4 times a year and that is mailed to all Catalina associations. So what other mailings can be eliminated? I find the Mainsheet interesting.

I think Jim is trying to come up with ideas to make the Telltale newsletter more interesting. So instead of bickering about what our $20.00 a year does or doesn’t do lets support Jim in this venture.

As for the poll on lower dues, $20.00 a year is money well spent. Nobody on this forum should complain about this being too costly.

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 18:22:40

Bryan, why don't you send me an email describing what you did to race prep your boat ? You don't have to tell all your secrets, but you're National Champion. If we were going to do a member or boat profile, we ought to do you. Also Leon, Arlyn, I think it's Patrick who owns Lucky Star, there's some others out there who have done really great work on their boats and I am sure are proud enough to share. Write to me and tell me everything you did with the boat. Send photos. I will make an article out of it.

For the Feb. Issue, how about a Spring fitting out checklist? Who wants to send me that?

Who's hosting the 2004 Nationals? Why not send me info on your venue, yacht club, facilities, things to do and see in your fair city (for the non-racers).

How about if I get my 14 year old daughter (and budding author) to write a kid's eye view of cruising for a week on a C25?

How about a list of the best sailing books to read? I'll gladly provide my own list if no one sends me anything.

Someone want to write me a review of Master and Commander? What about other sailing movies? How about a list?

Does anyone who submitted a story on their boat name object if I make that thread into a short article? I'd like to keep all those touching stories around rather than let it all go into the archives.

I think I've fallen in love. With a Catalina 350. How about a boat review? Perhaps I can drag Gary to the San Diego Boat show and we can see one and write a review.

I am very impressed with Steve (Gypsy) winter sailing on the Chesapeak. Come on, he posted photos sailing with snow on the deck! ow about an article on cold weather sailing, clothing, preparation, safety. If you send it I will print it.

How about a list of our favorite stops on the Atlantic ICW?

One of our members (was it Oscar) found a place to keep his boat for the winter in Florida. Tell us about the place. Share the info. Other snow bird members may be interested. Nothing is better than having other active C25/250s join you down there.

REMEMBER

We have 640 members out of ~7000 boats out there. Most get the tell-tail on line or in email. A few hard copies are sent out. People who bought a new C250 will get them. Perhaps they will visit the web site or remain in the National Association when their free year is over if we send them some useful content. Otherwise we can publish some material that is too long for the Forum.

I promise that the TellTale will be available for download in PDF format from the Meembers Only portion of this site.

I just offered to do this job. I don't want my first official act to be to agree to disband the TellTale.

Edited by - on

Bryan Beamer
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1038 Posts

Response Posted - 12/23/2003 : 23:15:43

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Bryan, why don't you send me an email describing what you did to race prep your boat ? You don't have to tell all your secrets, but you're National Champion. If we were going to do a member or boat profile, we ought to do you. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Sure, if you would like. It's not very scientific. There are a lot of people out there that know way more about racing than me. But I will come up with something. When do you need it?

Edited by - on

osmepneo
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
1420 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2003 : 07:11:20

Interesting discussion!

One of the things that I think is important is that the NA and local fleets need to provide some value for the members. Some reason to belong, some tangible reason to belong. To my economic man mind that is often money oriented, or providing me something I couldn't do or have otherwise.

A members only section of the web site makes sense to me, and a newsletter to communicate to members is an important part of that. Gary talks about the Fleet 94 saying that all their communications is by e-mail. We tend to do that for association members. We are already there!

so one of the things that I think we should be doing is developing services that provide value for members. Suppose we had a sail buying program, a couple sailmakers that we had negotiated a discount with, for NA members. The only way to get to the discount would be through a members only area. Of the top of my head I think of sails, hardware, paint, etc that we all use and need that we could order on-line and pay a discounted price for it. That would motivate others to become part of the NA.

Just some early morning ramblings . . ..

Edited by - on

osmepneo
Past Commodore

Members Avatar

USA
1420 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2003 : 07:15:27

BTW Jim, your desire for ideas to improve the Telltale is excellant. I think you have many good ones that you've shared with us, and listening to the comments on this thread only stresses for me the importance of working toward improving the the content of Telltale, and giving the members more value.

Thanks for stepping forward to take on this important job!

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2003 : 08:29:02

A couple of years ago, our club (Catalina 22 Fleet 4) proposed to the membership that our monthly newsletter "go electronic", eliminating the $1000/year cost of printing and mailing. The idea had to be abandoned after only a few months, as it turned out that about 1/3 of the members had no internet at home, so we had to continue mailing paper copies to them, and that in any given month, at least one or two of the members with internet service would switch ISP's and never get the electronic newsletter, which generated a lot of complaints and the necessity to mail back-issues. The electronic newsletter just plain didn't work. I would guess that there are a lot of over-60-age-group people out there who went through their school years before computers were invented, never used computers on the job and are now retired, and feel no need or desire to learn computerese. My high-school drafting teacher, and my one remaining uncle are perfect examples. And we seem to have quite a few people like them in our sailing club.

I also agree with the comments above that reading long articles - or whole books - on a computer screen isn't as pleasant as holding a printed book. But sooner or later, someone will develop a notebook computer that is so light, and has controls conducive to easy scrolling, and long battery life, and at that point we will have electronic book reading capability that will be acceptable as a replacement to printed paper books. After all, a tiny 512 meg compact flash card can hold the text of most entire home libraries. Coupled to a display device with easy-to-use controls and a good screen, it could be really great. There are thousands of works of classic literature in the public domain, available free for download on the Gutenberg Project website, and all of it, or at least a big percentage - a lifetime of reading material - could be stored on a few flash cards or a 60 gig notebook hard drive.

Edited by - on

John G-
Admiral

Members Avatar

793 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2003 : 08:57:36

Jim,
Thank you for picking up the ball on the Tell Tale. The membership is entitled to a Tell Tale every quarter just like the Mainsheet.
I see the main difference between the Mainsheet and the Tell Tale is the Mainsheet is read by our members and all the other association members and I try to keep that in mind when I write and edit for it. The Tell Tale is read ONLY by our members (and should stay "member only" IMO). It's in the Tell Tale that the workings of the association can openly discussed and communicated, elections, regatta proposals web site issues etc. The details of the regatta need to be there, I can only fit a brief race notice in the Mainsheet. The details of the local fleet developement and status (or non-status) of the fleets can be looked at. In other words membership business without non-member scrutiny.
I have only so much room in the Mainsheet for the Commodores comments some brief association comments and the "Fleet News". We have been lucky to get feature articles in many of the past issues and we have a great one coming in the Feb. issue it may end up as the cover story the first we've had that I know of. But indepth articles about the association cannot be included and shouldn't again IMO.
As for owners making use of the Forum and web site we encourage all of them to join to support the web site and forum (yes it does take money to have a great resource like the forum). Members also get a 10% BOATUS discount along with the Mainsheet and now members only access to the Tell Tale quarterly. In addition the Association supports a National Regatta this year to be held in the North West and next year in Kansas ("...and your little dog too!!....)

So JOIN!!!!
Thanks again Jim.
John Gisondi
Mainsheet Contributing Editor
C25/C250 National Association

Edited by - on

Spike
Navigator

Members Avatar

141 Posts

Response Posted - 12/24/2003 : 13:53:04

I think you should add the sale items to the next TellTale. That way those who get the paper copy will know that there is a sale going on.

How many paper copies of the TellTale go out?

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 12/25/2003 : 19:32:41

Jim B.

Thanks for taking this on. I responded to your request for input via e-mail to <cj@indiscipline.org>. Let me know what you think when you get around to it. Happy holidays!

-- Leon Sisson <SissonL@MPInet.net>

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.