At 4:03 PM -0500 6/10/98, Reid Trummel wrote:
> Dear friends,
>
> I have been off the lists for several weeks (driving cross-country in
> LBCs mostly), and now that I am back on the lists I would like to offer
> a few comments and perhaps some clarifications relative to this thread.
...
Dear Reid,
I think the original questions that were posted by others were something
like, Why should I belong to two national groups? What is the additional
benefit? Is one better than the other?
Your answer certainly spoke to the benefits of belonging to _one_ national
group. I am not criticizing. I like both magazines. I like the discounts
and the paraphenalia and all that comes with a well-run organization, which
I think both are. In fact, I really like the recent evolution of AHC-USA.
And, I agree that having a club on the national level has longterm benefits
that may result in more spares being available, etc. I'm just having
trouble seeing the need to join two entities that in essence provide the
same thing, with the exception of the local AHCA chapters.
As for $35 not being much, that's true, it's not. But $35 x 2 is getting up
there. Then, if you want in on a newsletter that covers our beloved
Spridgets, that's another amount to pony up. And, if you're a member of a
local AHCA chapter, that's more dues. And, if you want more general reading
on British Cars, that's more magazine subscription money. There are
benefits to each entity, but some of us can't afford all of them, so there
is a certain amount of triage. And so, you're back to the original post:
Why belong to two national organizations? Underlying that, why are there
two national organizations in existence? Again, I am not criticizing. I
like both groups!
As I posted earlier, I agree completely about the lack of Sprite content.
What can you publish if nobody sends anything in? Are Spridgeteers less
literate? Are we instead out driving more than our Big Healey friends (less
time to write)? Or is it that we basically feel that both national
organizations were established by and for Big Healey owners? I don't know.
I am certain that AHC-USA and AHCA both would love to have more
participation from Spridgeteers.
I also agree with the fellow who is in the publishing world. It is
reasonable to require that submissions not be in review or submitted to
other journals while active at yours. I, too, am in the publishing world,
and I know this to be a standard. I disagree with your comments that the
double-publishing is not a big deal. Each magazine runs about two large
articles per issue (sometimes one, sometimes three). If one of those
articles is identical across the two magazines, then I've paid double for a
substantial proportion of that month's Healy reading. Also, if it's not a
big deal to your readers, why did the thread run? It's not really a money
thing here, though. The per month cost of the magazine is obviously
trivial. It's an expectation. It's simply disappointing to have it happen.
Let me close by saying that I appreciate the enormous efforts of the
volunteers of both organizations. And, I look forward to the arrival of
both magazines each month. I wish that there was more Sprite coverage, but
then, I have never sent an article to either magazine. Maybe a positive
spin-off of this thread will be a surge of Sprite articles. Now, which to
send it to... Chatter or AH Mag?...
Best regards,
Jeff Boatright
Jeff Boatright '65 Sprite MkIII __o_\__
http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jboatri/
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