On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Jaral48462 wrote:
> In a message dated 98-03-11 10:07:24 EST, LANG@ISIS.MIT.EDU writes:
>
> << I mean that the vendor follow-up is almost always requesting info on how
> they can advertise in our NL. We don't take advertising, so we ignore those
> requests, but this shows what kind of response a hard copy NL can cause. >>
>
> Why wouldn' t you want them to advertise. With the price of postage, printing
> and all the labor required to put out a monthly newsletter I would welcome
> some cash to replenish the club treasury.
Our club has always prided itself on not having to rely on vendor
advertisements to keep publishing. It's kind of a New England Yankee
self-reliance thing. In fact this stance has created very loud debate at
club events like our annual fall meeting...
About 8 years ago a local person (to us) started a newspaper that is
dedicated to serving club's needs for material. In order to "join the
club", you pay an amount to him to send his newspaper to your
club members. This is fine, in fact I laud his effort. However, the
editorial deadlines are completely too difficult to meet for us (as we
are spread over 6 states - really). So, for a period of something like
two years we were courted to join his effort and each year we decided as
a club to not participate. We have very little communication with these
people now except to say that they are nice people and we see them at
various events all over New England and the Eastern US.
You and others on this list know the publication as the _British Marque_.
It is a fine publication. In fact club members have submitted material to
the Marque from time to time because we are also members in other clubs
in the area that are Marque participants.
That having been said, by not accepting advertisements, we are in a
position whereby we can print anything we like about experiences with
vendors and so forth with no ramifications. Period. So if someone sends
me an article tomorrow lambasting the customer service at "We Be British
Car and Spanners Co., Ltd", I - as editor - can run the piece without
concern that we won't be able to print our October newsletter because
that company pulls out their ads because they are offended.
Now, we don't go around assasinating any vendors, but we know we don't
have to hold back any punches either. That, in a strange way, provides
some confort.
There are other reasons that we do not accept ads. For instance, there
are tax implications of accepting monies. We are not incorporated, so we
can't get a tax break. How do you handle that? We don't take any money.
It's all pretty simple.
We're not an entity as far as any legal definition or any tax requirement.
But, we do have events, and we do like to hand out goodies. Companies
love to hand out promotional items, 'cause they get to write them off. So,
we gladly accept these, and we follow up by sending our newsletter to the
vendors so that they can see what we are up to. Which is how this topic
started in the first place.
Wow, full circle.
> Ron
later,
rml
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