[RITSlist] A Rocket Survey

Mon Jul 2 10:11:24 CDT 2007

Bill,
you made a fallacial statement here. You state that the pubs committee is replacing a 60 to 80 page digest with a 30 page magazine. In the case of digests 22 and 23 that is true...BUT, after that the members are receiving 128 pages of published material per year instead of a single 60 to 80 page digest. IMHO, that seems to be a rather nice tradeoff. And the material is published ON TIME !! Something RITS has not been able to accomplish for quite some time now. In fact, when I was first inquiring about RITS many years ago, the first thing I heard was that they never got their materials to the membership and that I needed to be careful.
As I have told you in our private conversation on this topic, if retiring the Digest would allow sufficient funds to become available so that the Rocket could be expanded to say 40 pages with a single feature length article of say 10 to 12 pages included, that would be optimal IMHO. That would conceivably give us a faux 40 page digest within the Rocket albeit spread over an entire year. I also like the idea of spacing it out over a 12 month span. It gives me something to look forward to each quarter instead of a single "high" when the one digest is delivered. It also would give the variety that myself and others appreciate. Also, as an author, I would think that you would appreciate the ability to be able to spread an article over a couple issues thus relieving you of the demands of a single hard deadline.
Let's see what the publications committee comes up with BEFORE we start yelling "Foul".
Regards
David Schmidt
Beach City Texas
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Arkrail at aol.com 
  To:  
  Cc: rdhutchins at sbcglobal.net 
  Sent: Monday, July 02, 2007 8:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [RITSlist] A Rocket Survey

  On Jun 29, 2007, BILL POLLARD wrote:

  >>  
  >> There is a place for both publications.  To my knowledge, neither the 
  >> board nor the publications committee has formally affirmed any formal 
  >> position regarding the two publications, or explained their intent 
  >> for the two publications to coexist. 
  >> 

  We still haven't seen any response to my original comment (above), from either the publications committee or the RITS board.  If a decision has been made on the publications, it needs to be shared with the members in a timely fashion (meaning well in advance of the Chicago convention).  Otherwise, members will be left to make their own interpretation of the situation based on the information that is available.  That "available information" includes the following tidbits:

  The publications committe report (page 3-4 of the current ROCK) says:  "By the time you read this report, we will probably have decided what to do about publications through the next two years, and have our proposal ready for presentation to the Board of Directors at the convention in Chicago.  We are getting together in May for that purpose." 

  Later in the same report: "Digest #24 may be completed this year, which will close out any obligation for members to receive Digests."

  We are also advised that "missing" Digests 22 and 23 were summarily replaced with two Rocket magazines (2005-1 and 2005-2).  For the record, that's replacing a 60-80 page publication with a 30-page publication, each issue of which is apparently costing RITS as much or more than a Digest.  After reading the above comments, it seems reasonable to conclude that RITS is moving toward discontinuing the Digest.  If that is the case, the membership needs an opportunity to provide input before that decision becomes final.

  In his response below, publication chairman Dick Hutchins basically confirms that the Rocket is not really a suitable publication for long, in depth feature articles about a specific aspect of Rock Island operations.  That is not to criticize the Rocket -- the Rocket and the Digest are two separate products -- two vastly different formats, and each offering a publication for quite different types of articles.  Whether the topic is some obscure RI historical detail (like 15-passenger motor cars on the Searcy branch in Arkansas), or a lengthy "how-to" article on modeling a specific locomotive, RITS needs the Digest if the RITS membership is to continue to receive these types of articles.

  It is incumbent on the board and publication committee to craft a future publication plan which specifically preserves both the Digest and the Rocket, such as the once discussed plan to produce  3 quarterly Rockets and one annual Digest each year.

  Bill Pollard

  In a message dated 7/2/2007 1:08:59 AM Central Daylight Time, hutnet at earthlink.net writes:
    I will inject here, (pardon the injection) that we did hear a lot of 
    complaints about the length of the covered hopper article in The Rocket 
    2007-1.  When the magazine is limited to 32 pages, apparently some 
    folks prefer to have variety rather than lengthy articles.  But then, 
    you know the ole saying "you can't please all of them"
    Dick Hutchins

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