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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #251

  • Glenn Pure
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I know that a member survey will be issued soon so that we can each provide feedback and make suggestions... but I'd like to open up a topic that others could comment on.

It puzzled me from the time I joined birdlife photography that the latest 2 years of newsletters are not available to non-members. I don't know how common that type of policy is or what its basis is for birdlife photography. The only one I can think of is that it provides an incentive to become a member (so they can fully access this resource) - but it could also discourage people as they won't be able to see what the group is currently doing or direction it is heading.

Can anyone comment on why this policy exists. And is it worth reviewing?

Cheers
Glenn Pure

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Re: Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #253

  • Graham Cam
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Glen, I appreciate you raising this issue - I don't have a definitive answer to your question but it is not uncommon for organisations, societies or groups to restrict access to features that only subscribing members are entitled to view or download. Whilst the majority of Newsletter articles are of a general nature there are technical articles which are designed to develop photographic and bird identification skills and take considerable time to compile by the contributing authors. it is not unreasonable to restrict these articles to subscribing members.

Certainly the 2 year block is unnecessary in my view. I will discuss this with the Committee and I will suggest that we have one Newsletter from the current year (perhaps one from the mid year period) that reflects its value to becoming a Member and is available for both viewing/download to the 'Public".

In raising this issue you have stimulated a related issue that I have been mulling over for sometime and it one where I really do need the wider views of our membership as well as that of the current Committee. I suspect that my views, which are definitely not set in concrete, will nor reflect the the views of other Committee members. I will start this discussion under a new topic (called Membership Access/Galleries) rather than a new thread so as not to distract other Members form responding to the Newsletter issue.
Regards
Graham

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Re: Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #258

  • Peter Gower
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Glenn & Graham, I think that restricting access to recent newsletters is necessary. Most clubs and groups use some sort of restriction, otherwise what is the point in being a member.
It is other services which may be open to the public.

regards,
Peter.

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Re: Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #263

  • Glenn Pure
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It seems the reason for this policy will remain something of a mystery!

I had a quick look on the web at camera clubs to see if their newsletters were made available. I only looked at a dozen or so and didn't keep count but observed that some restrict access to members only while a similar proportion provide open access. Some don't appear to have newsletters at all (instead, they may have mailing lists to which anyone can subscribe).

As Graham noted, this is part of a wider issue about access to the BLP web resources by non-members. I've also provided comments on that topic and think it probably can be considered as a subset of that, hopefully informed by information from the member survey about what motivated people to become members.

RE Graham's point about authors who have invested considerable time in preparing articles for the newsletter - perhaps they could comment on whether they would have an issue with their articles being more openly available? I have done a few articles in recent times but don't have concerns with making them available to all BLP web visitors - although none of my articles have required a lot of preparation time.

Glenn

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Re: Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #264

  • Peter Gower
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Glenn, I don't think newsletter restriction is a mystery. As I said previously, most clubs etc make their newsletters available to their members only. Prior to electronic publishing when everyone received a hard copy, if you weren't a member then you didn't get a newsletter.
Some clubs may now allow anyone to receive their newsletter, but in my experience most restrict newsletters to members only. After a certain period the restriction may be lifted. If it is 12 months or two years that can be debated.
Why bother to pay for membership if the latest newsletter is available to anyone ?

Regarding articles, I once supplied quite a lot to magazines (not bird or environment) and got paid for these (not much for the work involved). The magazines got their revenue from advertising and magazine sales. Contributions to newsletters is normally free from interested persons, and in this case if I supplied something to the Birdlife Photo Newsletter it wouldn't worry me how many people read it. That would be up to those who set the criteria for distribution.
Peter.

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Re: Newsletter access 8 years 8 months ago #265

  • Glenn Pure
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Peter, I was simply observing that no-one in BLP who was around when this policy was put in place has commented. Having said that, your guess (mine being the same) is probably right.

RE restricting access as a means of encouraging membership, I'm much less convinced that people are joining to access the newsletter. I suspect people are joining primarily to be able to post and share images. With luck, the member survey will cast light on that and policy should be set on what drives and reinforces membership. My preference would be to see the newsletters freely available so prospective members could read about what BLP is up to at the moment and hopefully be convinced it is a group they would like to be part of. Otherwise, there's very limited information available on the website about current activities and directions of BLP - the main place to find that is the newsletter.

Glenn

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