Theos-Talk Archives (December 2008 Message tt00022)

In the latest issue of Messenger (Official Member's Supplement to Quest
Magazine) there is an announcement that the individual membership dues
increases by 33.33% effective January 1, 2009.

US has been hit with a recession and people are losing jobs in droves,
investment values have gone down anywhere from 20% to 50% and companies have
drastically reduced their dividends. All this is affecting everyone's cash
flow including TSA. We will have to wait and see if the dues increase
affects the membership enrollment and renewals.

There is a  industry-wide trend to move from print publications to on-line;
some publications such as Christian Science Monitor has gone 100% on-line.

TSA and TPH are going to come under enormous financial pressures to move to
more and more on-line and less and less print,  due to escalating costs and
tight budget. I am not sure that the leaders have woken up or still in their
cocoons praying and/or meditating.

I ran into an interesting example of how simple steps could save money for
TSA. This morning, a TS member who did not have a copy of the Messenger
requested me if I could send a pdf copy. Immediately, I sent a email to the
membership dept of TSA inquiring if a pdf file is available and if so,
request that it be emailed to me.

It is now more than 5 hours and I have not received any response. I suspect
that they do not have Messenger in pdf format.

These days all publications are composed and made print ready using
computers. From this, producing a pdf file is a click away. Once a pdf file
is created, members can be given a choice of receiving a hard copy snail
mailed to them or pdf emailed and/or be made downloadable from the website.
This is done by many organizations to speed up delivery and cut costs. Why
this has not been done by TSA so far, I do not know.

>From the evidence we have seen, TS leaders extensively used email to
communicate and coordinate their strategy in the last election as well as in
continued activities of GC and so it should be easy for them to see and
understand the move to on-line publications. I hope they are not resisting
the move.

MKR

THERE IS NO RELIGION HIGHER THAN TRUTH


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