[MR] Receiving the Acorn

[King Janos & Queen Rachel]

To all of Atlantia does King Janos sent tidings.

We have watched with interest this discussion for quite some time and it has
taken an interesting turn lately.  Since there are 3 basic options to
receive the Acorn involved lets review them.

1st Class - You desire to receive your Acorn in a timely fashion
3rd Class - You would like to get your Acorn, but timely isn't as important
to you as saving the 10 dollars (We have been at this place ourselves, We
used  3rd class before we won Crown but updated because we needed/wanted the
information sooner.)
No Acorn - For those who don't want it at all.

Now from all the discussion We have heard lately, pretty much all the ones
having delay issues are 3rd class.  By not paying for 1st Class they choose
the option to not have it delivered timely.   (And just moving it a week
back won't help those who are getting it a month late)  That is just a fact
of life when dealing with bulk rate mail.  You are telling the Post Office
that you want it "whenever" they get around to it.  But then you can't
expect the Chronicler and everyone else to move their schedules around to
make it more timely when there is a simple option already available to you.

So We guess it comes down to a couple simple choices.

Pay 1st class and get a Newsletter or, pay 3rd class and get a "historical"
document.

It seems to me that some people wish to not pay for 1st class, but get the
same service.  Something like having your cake and eating it too.  It is
actually rather nice of the SCA to even give you the option of 3rd class or
1st.  None of my other subscriptions do that.

So in closing, if you want to help the Chronicler out by providing input on
when you receive the Acorn, email her privately at
chronicler at atlantia.sca.org.   If you just want to complain, send your
complaints to complaints at atlantia.sca.org and they will be handle
appropriately.  (GRIN)

Thank you.

Janos - Rex



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Rettie & Heather Bryden" <tom at his.com>
To: "merry rose" <atlantia at atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 7:02 AM
Subject: Re: [MR] Re: acorn


On Jan 4, 2005, at 11:47 PM, david wendelken wrote:

> I went back and checked the SCA membership form just to be sure, and
> the SCA sells a "newsletter" with it's membership - not a "club
> magazine".  As such, it should contain "news" not "history".
>
> If we **know when we sell it** that a purchased membership AS IT IS
> SOLD BY THE SCA is unlikely to receive "news" rather than "historical
> data" in the "newsletter", then I would argue that the SCA is at
> fault.  The SCA set up the deadlines and the process that we use with
> 3rd class mail, not the post office.  The post office offers a service
> and we have chosen to use it wrong.

Andras raises a valid point. Kingdom policy reads:

"6.11.5 Mailing Requirements

Newsletters should be mailed by the 25th of the preceding month so that
they reach the populace by the first of the month that the newsletter
covers (i.e. - the 25th of December for the January issue). This
deadline may be pushed back a week for those groups that hold their
business meeting the last week of the month."

It would seem that the intention of this policy was that members (not
just first class subscribers) would receive their newsletters in a
timely fashion. If that's not happening, the SCA (or at least our
kingdom) needs to reexamine the policy, our business processes, and the
effect they have to determine if changes are needed.

The newsletter publication process changed from our traditional model
when we outsourced production and mailing. We now have what the
business wonks would call a "multi-threaded supply chain" that involves
at least five parties (the kingdom, SCA Inc., the printer, the mailing
house, and USPS). Any time you outsource services, there is a potential
for unintended outcomes, especially if you don't have a lot of
visibility into the vendors' processes, and vendors will rarely if ever
admit they aren't doing what they're supposed to.

This is not about finding fault with individuals, it's about fixing
business processes that don't work as intended.

With respect,

Fin


-------------------------------------------
Tom Rettie      tom at his.com


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