Number 240 - May 2003

UPDATE
A Milestone or a Millstone?    This is the 240th issue representing 20 years of continuous monthly publishing as the TOGGLE! Why is it Volume 21? Well, rightly or wrongly we have included the "unnamed newsletter" published during the first year of existence of the user group, then known as the Tacoma Osborne Group (TOG) as volume 1. OK that's the milestone part. What's the millstone--what's dragging us down?    We are facing the same problem that most other user groups are facing; namely dropping membership support and rising printing and mailing costs. Some have suggested dropping the monthly publication and mailing of the newsletter and posting it only on the Internet instead. However, most of the membership want to continue with the publication and mailing. That however, is our principal expense and our membership fees are not keeping up with it. As a result our treasury continues to dwindle. Printing more newsletters than we need is costing us dearly!    But there are ways we can cut back this expense. We have been printing and mailing 200 newsletters in order to get the bulk mailing rate. But our	membership is about one quarter of that number so it is proposed that we stop printing and mailing 200 newsletters and simply mail to the paid membership and a dozen or so user groups with whom we exchange newsletters. That is the plan for this month and next month--then reevaluate. Next step may be to cut the number of pages to reduce printing costs. We'll see...    On another front the TOG elves are at work updating our Help Line to be more representative of current hardware and software support needs. There are several tasks like this that need periodic review and updating or elimination. We need more people to step forward and volunteer to help. A user group doesn't run itself. Some individual or group of individuals has to step forward and do something. We have a handful of people who do this but they need to be supported and, perhaps, relieved of their duties.    If you want to see our computer group continue in good health please step forward with ideas on fund raising, meeting program material and help in running the group. Annual elections are due this month -- How about you? Are you ready to help?
Number 240 - May 2003