Buick Bugle facts

[Guest imported_BCAOffice]

It's time for some straight facts to come out in print on this Forum concerning the cost of the Buick Bugle magazine. There is a sentence on every renewal envelope that we send out and every new member application that we pass out that is absolutely INACCURATE. I refer to the statement that claims that $34.00 of your annual membership fee is for subscription to The Buick Bugle. The BCA will spend approximately $164,000.00 this fiscal year to publish 120,000 Bugle magazines. That breaks down to $1.37 per issue. 12 issues per year per member comes to $16.44. It will cost the BCA approximately $60,000.00 to mail the Bugles to the membership, which breaks down to $0.50 per issue, or $12.00 per year per member. That brings us to a total cost of $28.44 per year to receive the Bugle. The $34.00 cost SHOULD refer to the total cost per member to administer the needs of the BCA. This includes the cost of operating the National Office to handle all the membership renewals and all the other jobs assigned to the National Office, the cost of the insurance policies needed to cover the BCA, the cost of the Board of Directors meetings, the cost of trophies and awards not covered by the host chapter of a BCA National Meet, and various other costs that need to be paid during a normal fiscal year. We will bring the subject of that inaccurate statement up at the next Board of Directors meeting and attempt to get the OK to change the way that reads so as to reflect a more accurate description of the use of your dues. We hope this information helps.

Mike & Nancy Book

BCA National Office Managers

[Gene Brink]

Mike & Nancy,

Makes perfect sense and is actually what I assumed since it did not make sense that the Bugle along cost that much by itself. Thanks for all both of you do.

[The Old Guy]

i wondered how the BCA could function an $1 a year per member! Thank you for setting the record straight.

[Guest imported_BCAOffice]

We are a VERY frugal outfit!

Mike & Nancy

[Guest]

the fact is the print bugle cannot keep up with the internet chatter.

For me, and "my people", in the '27, '30, '42 & '50 groups list below, we get direct answer to specific questions. Not, a over view story in a printed publication. We get all the stories, with color pictures on cars we are involved with. plus we don't have to wait 30 days for it.

the "nail head" group has 500 members in it.

I think the bugle-on-line, is going to be the way of the furture, were you get a password with your dues to access groups, shop manuals, and club actives. (just like my '58 cadillac club)

[Guest Skyking]

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I think the bugle-on-line, is going to be the way of the furture, were you get a password with your dues to access groups, shop manuals, and club actives. (just like my '58 cadillac club) </div></div>

Tommy, I hope you are wrong about this. The internet is taking over too much of our lives. I for one like to hold a magazine in my hands when viewing photos and reading stories. People complain about paying $35.00 in dues. I bet these same people pay more for cable each month without complaining. It seems you cannot satisfy everyone!

[Guest 70 Electra]

Mike & Nancy,

My thanks, too, for clarifying this issue.

I'm not sure if I missed something or not, but you state that it costs $0.50/issue for mailing, and that this works out to $12.00 per member per year. However, with 12 issues per year at $0.50, shouldn't the yearly total for postage be $6.00, not $12.00?

[NTX5467]

Thanks very much for your input on this subject, Mike and Nancy! Thanks for all that you do!

Internet delivery (if you've got a big enough mail box already, without paying extra!) or CD-rom might be alternatives in the future, but to do so would result in not having a printed document with which to promote the BCA to prospective members. You can't brag about how nice a CD-rom looks on the coffee table, for example (I guess you could, but I doubt many would). Some might even complain that it took their computer too long to load the pages with Adobe Acrobat Reader or they needed a "pay for" upgrade to read the pages correctly.

There are already several car clubs that use Yahoo! Groups for their contact medium and also to post their magazine/newsletter. We've got this excellent place already, though.

In the meantime, we've got a pretty good print magazine each month that we can carry around to show people, find out about new members, and chase car and car parts through the advertising.

Enjoy!

NTX5467

[Guest imported_BCAOffice]

You are correct Greg....My math was just as inaccurate as the $34.00 cost statement! That brings the average cost down to less than $23.00. thanks for pointing that out!

Mike