Re: limiting the benefits of STC membership

[Rose Wilcox <RWILC -at- FAST -dot- DOT -dot- STATE -dot- AZ -dot- US>]

Here's a quick opinion:

1)  Job information should continue to be given freely.   I believe this not
only because of the tax status, but I believe it is good policy for STC.  It
helps the tech writing community, our clients and employers, and thus leads
to good will.

2) Publications should be distributed freely only to members; however,
chapters should be encouraged to put *partial* newsletters on the Web as
both
a) a service to the community  and
b) a teaser to get new members.  These partial newsletters should include
meeting information and current projects of the chapter, one or two
articles, and a table of contents for the rest.  They should also include
bylines of any STC members who wrote articles whether or not the article
itself is published on the Web.

The reasons publications should not be distributed freely are:

* A sizable portion of members join for publications only and don't attend
meetings.  If we give away all our publications for free our membership may
drop so low that we begin death throes.

* Publications cost money to produce.

That will be 50 cents, thank you.

Rose A. Wilcox (the "A" stand for "...aeh, I'm tired of thinking up clever
things the A stands for!")
rwilc -at- fast -dot- dot -dot- state -dot- az -dot- us
ncrowe -at- primenet -dot- com
"Transformation is a way of life, not a moment in time."