# Membership - an idea



## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

Guys

Having seen the recent query regarding the membership fee, and the reply being 'Postage'. I had a thought...

Along with the regular membership offering, you could also offer a reduced 'electronic membership' rate, which would mean the member wouldn't receive hard copies of the magazine, and instead they would receive a PDF by email (or in a managed download area with a time expiry on it). You can then reduce the cost of the membership due to no postage, printing costs, etc etc etc.

The member would still have all the usual benefits of the TTOC, however they simply wouldn't not receive hard copies of things, everything would be electronic.

In this current economic climate £5 postage is quite a lot (IMO), so offering the choice would not only appeal to more people who may want to join, but could also incentivise more people to renew?

Anyway, thought I would put the idea into the pot. Choose to do with it what you will.


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

Thanks Kev.

To just clarify tho, that £5 postage is to cover the postage and packing of the renewal letter, new membership card and current mag issue. But also covers the postage of the other issues over the year of that renewal. With the mags costing 78p + envelope each to post that £5 does cover quite a lot 

With regard to the electronic mag, it's been discussed in the committee for a good year or so now and we haven't come to a decision yet. But we're definitely thinking about it, or something along those lines.

Nick


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## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

Nem said:


> To just clarify tho, that £5 postage is to cover the postage and packing of the renewal letter, new membership card and current mag issue. But also covers the postage of the other issues over the year of that renewal. With the mags costing 78p + envelope each to post that £5 does cover quite a lot


Sorry Nick, I should have made myself a bit clearer. I'm not saying the £5 is unjustified, I meant that £5 on top of a fee might deter people a bit. By eliminating that cost and making everything electronic (welcome email, pdfs etc) may allow you to reduce your overall running costs and allow a further reduced membership package rate.


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## mighTy Tee (Jul 10, 2002)

Kev/Nick

My thought on this is send me the PDF so I can put it on my website or email it so every non-member can download for free. Well I wouldnt do that but I bet there are members that would. :?

Just my 2p

Richard


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## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

mighTy Tee said:


> Kev/Nick
> 
> My thought on this is send me the PDF so I can put it on my website or email it so every non-member can download for free. Well I wouldnt do that but I bet there are members that would. :?
> 
> ...


That was my initial worry, however this can be got around by embedding it in an interactive 'download' area which has a time limit on it (in relation to membership time). Then thereis no way of physically downloading the file to a machine.

Anyway, as I've not having anything to do with the TTOC, I'll leave it at that.


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## Mike753TT (Jan 2, 2008)

PDF is fine for somethings, but I love receiving a hard copy TTOC mag through the post, thumbing through for a few weeks :roll: For the extra cash I would still pay for the hard copy, how many users on this site would choose to download a car mag against standing in Smiths for half an hour before choosing :lol:


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## brittan (May 18, 2007)

Hard copy every time for me. Downloading a pdf and reading it on screen just doesn't have the same appeal. 
IMO the time, skill and effort that goes into producing AbsoluTTe would be severely knocked back by putting out the magazine as a pdf or any other sort of electronic format.

Slightly OT, what the forum could do with (IMO) is some form of calendar in the Events section so that as event dates are proposed and firmed up they can be added to the calendar for all to view without trawling through numerous threads. Set to be the top sticky or in the announcement section this could prove very useful. :idea:


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## p5owt (Oct 18, 2007)

magazine for me aswell

pdf would mean i have to take the laptop to the toilet  

paul


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## clived (May 6, 2002)

kmpowell said:


> mighTy Tee said:
> 
> 
> > Kev/Nick
> ...


I like getting a physical magazine. Offering a download would absoluTTely lead to piracy and I think Kev's "no way to download it" idea, if I'm reading it right, would mean you have to be on-line to read it, which I wouldn't like.

Kev, since when were you "not having anything to do with the TTF" ?  (If you were being sarcastic, I didn't work :wink: )


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## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

clived said:


> Kev, since when were you "not having anything to do with the TTF" ?


I've never been a member of the 'new gen' OC, or been actively involved in anything mate. I did the logo, but that's about as far I went.


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## scoTTy (May 6, 2002)

I'm not currently a member so you can ignore this if you like :

When TTOC Version 2* was set up I expressed that I was actually against having any magazine. I was obviously in the minority as most people wanted it. My reasons were [1] time and effort is huge [2] cost to produce and distribute [3] the main one - the fact that it comes out every few months means that information will be sat on until a magazine release date rather than published as soon as possible. I therefore think it can be detrimental to the timely dissemination of information to members.

It also leads to a conflict with the TTF as what juicy stuff gets held back and what gets put in the mag.

Going electronic had various downsides. Of course the same amount of effort would still be required to produce the copy but if you make it available electronically then the cost per copy of the printed versions would surely increase i.e. smaller runs are more expensive.

I think the argument that swung it in the favour of a hard copy was than not all members are on TTF and some aren't even on the internet (yikes!!! :wink: )

The magazine seems to be one of the key benefits of membership and I'm sure (with all due respect to members) that membership would drop as a result of it being available without being a member. How long before it gets on Ebay?

I certainly don't have the definitive answer but hopefully my long held views open up the debate 

* I see : 
TTOC Version 1 as Russ' initial club
TTOC Version 2 as the reborn club with Nutts at the helm
TTOC Version 3 as the more recent club with a large change of personnel and the partnership with the TTF.


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## clived (May 6, 2002)

kmpowell said:


> clived said:
> 
> 
> > Kev, since when were you "not having anything to do with the TTF" ?
> ...


Kev, you said it was TTF, not TTOC that you had nothing to do with..... ;-)


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## kmpowell (May 6, 2002)

clived said:


> kmpowell said:
> 
> 
> > clived said:
> ...


Whoops, so I did, I meant TTOC


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## clived (May 6, 2002)

:wink:


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## B16TTC (Jul 7, 2003)

PDF mags would end up being "posted" and circulated everywhere. 
One of the main benefits of being a TTOC member would very rapidly disappear.
Glossy copy forever please :!: The pics are so much better than on a screen  
Mervyn


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## Kell (May 28, 2002)

While no longer a member of eitehr TTOC or committee, I always felt like while there would be some members that would prefer a PDF, the price points we were operating at with the magazine meant that we would not receive any discount for printing less.

IIRC, we printed 1,000 of each issue for a price that was about £60 more than printing 500. But reducing that 500 wouldn't give us any further discount.

So we wouldn't make any savings on printing, but we *might* have sold less copies additionally as people could get their hands on PDFs.

I always feel like a hard copy has intrinsically more 'value' than electronic and people can see where their money has been spent. The only way to do it, would be to go completely to PDF/electronic and not doing any printed matter at all.


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