As many of you know, our club dues are among the lowest that anyone can find. Particularly when you consider the benefits that the club offers to its members. The numerous club parties and picnics throughout the year, the access to maps of surrounding areas, the camaraderie of our group rides, the discounts available to club members at many local bike shops, and, of course, this bimonthly newsletter. What you may not have considered are the costs associated with copying and distributing the newsletter to the entire membership six times a year. When you consider the printing and mailing costs, even with bulk mailing, you can see why it adds up to be a significant part of our operating expenses.
Imagine a better way. What if you could have the exact same document available to you on your desktop computer screen? It would look the same as the paper copy that you have in front of you. The fonts and graphics, even the advertising, would appear exactly as they do now. The online version would be printable through your own desktop printer if you wanted a hard copy. In addition, the online version would be searchable for certain text or an author's name. It could have bookmarks to jump to particular articles of interest. And since it would be available on the Web, you can access it from anywhere in the world. If you are on vacation and want to check in to find out what will be happening when you get back… there it is. Was there ever an article that you wanted to share with a distant friend? Send out the address for our web site and your friends can enjoy the same access. In short, the digital version would be just like the printed version… maybe just a little bit better.
Our club membership secretary, Roger Pierce, and I have been working together to publish a digital version of the club's bimonthly newsletter. Using Adobe Acrobat, I have created a version of our newsletter in Adobe's Portable Document Format or .pdf. Some of you may have already seen the previous newsletter for June posted in this format on the web site. By the time that you read the printed version of this article, the online version of the August newsletter will already be available. In fact, the online version was probably up before you had this copy in your mailbox. In order to access the online version, you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader downloaded and installed on your system. It is available free from www.adobe.com.
Now that the digital version is available, what next? Good question. For now I am looking for feedback. Download the Acrobat Reader and have a look at the online version of the newsletter. Then write to me and let me know how you like it. Tell me if I missed something. Let me know if you love it. Let me know if you think it would not work for you and why not. Give me some more ideas.
At some point in the future we may ask for volunteers who want to take themselves off of the printed version mailing list. Maybe you are concerned about the environment and don't want to see paper wasted when it doesn't need to be. Maybe you are interested in getting a look at the newsletter before everyone else does. Don't worry, we are not going to take away the printed, mailed version from anyone who still wants to receive it. But if you want to participate in the digital revolution and save the club some costs in the bargain, then this might be for you. If you think that you might consider being taken off the mailing list for the printed version of the newsletter, please write me to let me know at braisler@ufl.edu. In the months ahead, the board of directors will be discussing this issue and will have a list of interested persons which will help us make our decision.