Let's not spread false rumors. The magazine lives on, my friend. The method by which it's being sent out is just changing. It sux, I know, but it's a necessary step to keeping the organization going.

I just double checked the constitution and bylaws and see nothing about guaranteed lifetime hardcopy magazine and free shipping, for life members or regular members. If I overlooked something, let me know.

I also looked at the Membership page on the club website. Other than additional fees for first class and overseas mailing, I see nothing that states that the club MUST continue printing a high-cost version of club magazine and shipping it out forever and ever.

Even if it did specify that a printed magazine must be printed and mailed, there are no specs for the format. If you were to somehow get a court to compel the club to continue printing/shipping a magazine, the club could shorten the official one to a single page, print it in black and white on stock printer paper, tri-fold it, staple it, slap a stamp on it and Bob's your uncle. That's probably the best outcome that you can expect from a lawsuit. And the worst outcome for the club.

I'm sure this is going to continue to get a lot of back and forth discussion. We all knew this when we undertook investigating alternatives.

I love the shiny, colorful, printed magazine myself and I'm proud to say that, in spite of only being a member for 6 years now, I own EVERY DANG ISSUE GOING BACK FOREVER (thanks to some generous members who wanted to unload their back issues and clean out their closets).

The next board meeting is scheduled for Monday, Dec 1, 6pm PT. The magazine will certainly continue to be a topic of discussion, and I would encourage you to let the board know your thoughts during the public comment time allotted at the end.

In addition, I'd be glad to go over the different options that were reviewed by the committee and the pros/cons of the various solutions they presented. They, in my opinion, did a very thorough job working on a very unpopular subject. Many on the committee have been members for a VERY long time (at least one is a founder) and they've seen all of the discussions over the years that "something needs to be done".

Lastly, if you have a solution that you think was not considered, suggest it now. We still have a full year of the printed magazine to figure something out. It's just that to a great many people who worked on this, there's no VIABLE solution other than one more generous benefactors ponying up the cash or raising the rates of membership by at least double what it is today. The latter would surely dissuade new people from joining and likely would cause current members to think hard about renewing.

My email address is barry@sunset.net. Tell me how you can fix this. My ears are open. I promise.

-- barry