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Re: Brickline back issues

To: Bricklin@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Brickline back issues
From: "John T. Blair" <jblair@exis.net>
Date: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 19:33:17 -0500
On 26 Nov 1998 Riley F Marquis III wrote:

>I don't know if this would be a good idea, but it would be nice to
>reproduce the full set of Brickline magazines......

As was pointed out by Greg Monfort there are copywright issues here not to
mention economic concerns.  The current budget to produce and distribute 
The Brickline is about $2,200 per issue.  Where does the money come from?
The club members.

If we ignore the copywright issues, you will be incurring some reproduction
and distrubution costs.  If you were to "xerox" (copy in black & white) the 
mag. at 7 cents/page for 30 pages (24 pages of mag. 4 pages of covers, 2
pages 
of wrapper - adds and Bricklinalia for sale) that's $1.05.  Now you will need 
envelopes at $.10 ea. plus postage of $1.35 you are looking at about $2.50.
This does NOT include you time to reproduce, coalate, and stuff envelopes.

In otherwords you want to go into competition with BI.


At 11:16 PM 12/1/98 -0500, Bill wrote:

>So John Blair may need to fill us in on his feelings.

Since Bill asked for my feelings on the subject here they are:

This idea, redoing the past issues, has come up before.  Basically, BI's
current stand is that the "reproduction" should NOT be done!  

1. Because most of the back issues ARE available from the club for a modest
   price.

2. There is a group of us, Scott Isensee, myself, and Terry Tanner, who have
   been trying to get all the back tech. articles, from the magazines that 
   are  No Longer Available (NLA), scanned and validated.  Unfortunately, 
   many of these articles have been Overcome By Events (OBE), or they really 
   weren't any good at the time.  So far, Scott has scanned quite a few, if 
   not all of the tech articles from the NLAs and I've sent most, if not all,
   of them to Terry for comment.  He has indicated that most are in need of 
   rewritting. In other words, we don't want to continue to disceminate bad 
   or erroneous information.

There is a fine web being weaved between the club (BI), the web page, and the
magazine (The Brickline).  BI is supporting the Web page!  The club also wants
to survive.  Who is "the club"?  It is the members and the vendors.

The following are MY personal observations and NOT necessarily that of the
entire BI board.

1. If we - anybody - gives away all the info on Bricklins, would anybody join 
   the club?
2. If no one joins the club, how would we (Brick owners) get info, help, and
   parts?
3. Would the Bricklin specific vendors continue to exist.
4. If the Brick. specific vendors walk away and the club folds, who is going
   to make replacement parts, and support us, the owners?

I'm not too sure how many members we currently have on the electronic
mailing list, but my database shows 117.  Of that only 57 are members of BI! 

Currently BI has about 333 members.  Or about 1/6 of the club being on the
mailing list.

I personally would like to see all the information freely available.  But 
I realize the economics of the above points.

Scott Isensee originally started the web page, then myself and Ron Auger 
jumped in to help.  Once we really got a nice web page on-line, there was
some concern in the club about the Web page.  Some members thought that 
giving away information would cause the end of the club as there would be
no need to join for information.  Others thought the web page as a very good 
advertising medium to try and bring some of the cars out of the wood work. 

The Web page has done that.  We probably should have actually kept some type
of data on the number of members that the Web page has brought into the club
in the last year and a half.  Unfortunately we haven't.

I've been a member of BI since '87.  When the dues jumped to $40 or $45/yr.
I almost bailed out for several reasons.

  1. What was I getting for my money?  Not a whole lot, as from about 94 to
     today, I have written most of the tech articles.
  2. I had been trying to effect some changes in BI's policies to no avail.

Then the dues were lowered to $30/yr.  In '97, I was voted in a a member of
the Board and took over as Editor of The Brickline magazine.  Since that time 
we have managed to:

  a. get a 1st class web page on-line,
  b. bring some of the cars out of the wood work,
  c. get at least a partial parts xref together,
  d. get the Bricklin mailing list started,
  e. get a Roster of BI members available to members for the 1st time
     in the history of the club.
  f. get a database of club members

Some people may say that the web page is all that is needed - but I disagree.
The owners need the club.  There are many people that don't have or want 
computers or internet access.  For them, the club and newsletter is
imparative.

I hope I didn't offend any one with this, as that wasn't my purpose.  But I 
felt that something more than a yes/no/maybe answer was required.

We, the club can use all the help we can get.  We/I appreciate the offers to 
help with trying to save and or compile all the back tech. articles, etc.  

But what we really need is:

1. to have the members to get their cars out and drive them,
2. try to have more localized (by state, local) meets/get togethers -
cookouts,
3. more people writting articles for the magazine,
4. more car owners to join the club,
5. more parts cross ref. info.

John



The biggest problem



John T. Blair  WA4OHZ          email:  jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va                  Phone:  (757) 495-8229

              48 TR1800    65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
71 Saab Sonett III     75 Bricklin SV1     77 Spitfire

www.team.net/www/morgan        bricklin.shel.olsy-na.com/bi



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