In local groups, as in the real world, there is much talk these days of cutting costs while maintaining quality and service. For most, the printing and distribution of a monthly newsletter is the single most expensive line item in the budget. American Mensa Limited (AML) returns to groups a small portion of members' dues, but only in rare instances does this stipend cover the actual cost of the newsletter.

There are many ways to save money. One of the more popular ideas is to take advantage of the growing Internet savvy of our members and move to purely electronic means of producing and distributing newsletters.

Portable document files (PDFs) are the easiest way to do this. PDFs are image files; they preserve the layout, font, graphics, color and overall appearance of a document, be it one page or 100. The files are larger than plain text files, but smaller than the files typically created by a desktop publishing program. Most modern page layout programs include PDF-creating options, and all modern computers, whether Unix, Windows or Macintosh, can read PDFs. It is this cross-platform feature that makes PDFs popular.

For those who have the skills and the software, making a print newsletter file into a PDF and popping it onto a Web site is relatively quick and painless. The thing to remember is to use high resolution for files intended to be printed, and very low resolution (72 dpi) for files destined for screen viewing. The higher the resolution, the slower it is to load. Members who wish to print out a newsletter from an online PDF can do so, and the worst that will happen is that some of the crispness of graphics and photos will be lost. High- resolution PDFs can also be e-mailed easily, eliminating even the grainy photo consequence.

In the interest of helping local groups move toward this inexpensive format for disseminating information, AML potentially could help with teaching the skills and providing the software necessary to create PDFs. But the day of replacing paper with online altogether is still very far away — it can't happen until we can be sure that all members can and will use the Internet.

The compromise option of providing some members with PDFs and the rest with paper newsletters is worth contemplating. When I became Publications Officer for Chicago Area Mensa, I brought up this option and learned that it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Groups that mail their newsletters with regular old first-class stamps can choose simply not to mail some; someone just needs to keep track of which members receive which format. But larger groups using the periodical rate have a mountain of regulations they must follow — including rules that do not allow sending paper to less than 100% of the subscribers.

If Chicago Area Mensa were to stop printing and mailing ChiMes to some of its members, we would risk losing our periodical rate; if that happened, we'd have to spend more on postage than the savings gained from the PDFs in the first place. So, every month we spend nearly $1,500 to print and mail paper newsletters. What is not covered by the AML subsidy, we pay for out of RG profits. When money gets tight, we publish smaller, duller ChiMes.

Wanting to confirm my facts for this article, I called the USPS so that I could properly cite the regulations. Weeeelll...

I was wrong.

Nothing in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) requires that all members receive a paper copy in order for an organization to keep its periodical rate. If National Geographic wants to send PDFs to a zillion readers, it may do so without compromising its periodical rate. What the DMM mandates is that all subscribers must receive printed and posted copies. I also learned that, contrary to what I'd been told, there is no minimum number of pieces necessary for using the periodical rate. We could have one subscriber and still use that cheaper postage, as long as we printed it periodically, when we said we would.

So, why haven't we all switched to the periodical rate and used e-mailed PDFs to cut costs further?

Because using the periodical rate entails tackling a nightmarish mountain of fees, forms, data and sorting regulations. A variety of filing statuses exists for periodicals, and each status has its own nuances. There are regulations about which types and sizes of groups may apply for which filing status. There are rules about which rubber band goes on in what order (horizontal, then vertical). No one person at any post office knows and enforces them all, and anything can change on any given day with each Biff or Bambi at the counter.

The USPS Handbook DM-204: Applying for Periodicals Mailing Privileges specifies the requirements for subscription requests: "A request obtained by telephone must have an auditable record that substantiates the request. At a minimum, the following is needed: a. The name, address, telephone number, and signature of the interviewee (i.e., requester). b. The date of the telephone interview. c. A copy of the text or script used by the caller. d. An indication that a `code' word (e.g., mother's maiden name) was established between the caller and the interviewee (i.e., requester). e. A business reply card or similar record-collection device that obtains the signature of the requester. A request received via the Internet must be substantiated by a business reply mail system or similar technique of obtaining the requester's signature and date of the request, or it must be substantiated using one of the [also specified] alternative methods."

To check up on you, the Postal Service may even "send a card to names selected by a Postal Service reviewer, soliciting a response confirming that the recipient has requested and is receiving the publication."

Those of us who have had any dealings with the Postal Service can well imagine their similarly intense scrutiny of our lists of non-subscription members. Very, very detailed records must be kept (and produced on demand) demonstrating subscribers' requests to unsubscribe from a publication and to subscribe to electronic-only files. When a membership allows for two different distribution methods, properly managing the data and paperwork takes the talents of an accountant and the dedication of a medieval scribe afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Every group needs more enthusiastic, dedicated volunteers than it can find. The care and feeding of these volunteers demands enthusiasm and dedication from the ExComs, AML and general membership. The "cost" of maintaining the sanity of a circulation manager able to navigate the USPS may be beyond the resources of groups already struggling with officer vacancies. For groups with adequate human resources, offering PDF-only "subscriptions" may, indeed, be a viable way to make the AML subsidy meet actual expenses. For everyone else, FSM parties will continue every month and electronic newsletters will remain an idea for the future.

— Robin Crawford

Robin Crawford is the LocSec, Webmaster and ChiMe Editor Emeritus of Chicago Area Mensa.