[RITSlist] Yahoo Problems

Fri May 23 13:22:35 CDT 2008

Steve,

My admittedly cynical response was directed more at the present RITS 
situation, wherein we were all told that the problems of old (lack of material, late 
publications) would be fixed by the new administration, new publication 
policies, new publisher, etc.

I am well aware of the past trials and tribulations of the Digest... I've 
been around since the beginning of RITS and was one of those hard core RITS 
members you mentioned who kept sending in money in during those lean years.  I also 
wrote more than a few lengthy DIgest articles over the years, starting with 
"Ghost Trains on the Rock Island" in the early 1980s, J.J. Grier Eating Houses, 
a few short articles, and most recently the Searcy branch article in the last 
Digest edited by Harper.  As a fairly regular contributor to the Digest over 
past years, as well as being a RITS member about as long as about anyone else 
here, I'm inclined to voice my opinion when I see a situation which seems 
questionable.  If I get "called out" over that, so be it.  We all want a good, 
solid, well run RITS -- we just have far divergent ideas on the path we should be 
taking to get there.

You mention the difficult schedule of the Digest in past years, but that is 
more or less "ancient history" -- lets look at the more recent past.  How was 
the Digest doing over the last 3-4 years?   Was an annual Digest getting 
published?  Were additional issues coming out to help get the Digest caught up?   
Was the Digest almost up to date?  The answer in all cases -- YES.   If so, is 
it possible that much of the publication turmoil of the past couple of years 
was fixing a problem that was already being corrected?  Was there some other 
agenda at work, part of which was also withholding the Wojtas photo collection 
from the Digest editors while allowing free use by the Rocket publication?

You also mention the Rock schedule....  Matt was not the last editor of the 
Rock before it became a Rocket insert, Ed & Sharon were editors at that time, 
and I am not aware of any publication timing issues during their tenure, until 
the Rock was subjugated to the publishing schedule of the Rocket.

The membership was told that the new arrangement (Rocket vs. Digest) was 
going to solve the problem of lack of material, lack of volunteers, late 
publication schedule, etc., by using a commercial enterprise for much of the editing 
and production.  First we were assured that the Digest would remain as a 
separate stand-alone publication; later we learned that it is also to be wrapped 
within the confines of the Rocket.  

It should not be surprising that someone (me) now complains about the late 
publications.  Its not because the publications are late, as such, because I am 
well aware of the difficulties of getting historical material from the 
manuscript to the printed page.  Rather, my cynical response was provoked by the fact 
that YET ANOTHER part of the "all is fixed" fantasy in RITS is falling by the 
wayside.  The organization has gone through a rather difficult transition 
over the past several years, generating hard feelings on both sides, all in the 
name of getting publications on schedule, reducing dependence on volunteers, 
solving the "no material" dilemma.  Now, we learn that its pretty much the same 
old, same old, in terms of needing volunteers, needing material, scheduling 
compromises, etc.  

As far as my submitting a RI article to another publication, that is correct. 
 In years past, I limited my historical research to publication in the RITS 
Digest.  That limitation no longer exists. 

Bill Pollard

In a message dated 5/23/2008 10:40:55 AM Central Daylight Time, 
gcbear205 at yahoo.com writes:

Mr. Pollard

I'm calling you on this one. You complain our now falling out of schedule on 
the ROCKET due to a lack of material, but yet you decide to submit a Rock 
Island related article to another Rock Island related magazine. For whatever 
reason you took that is your choice sir. 

Yes things were done rather cheaply with volunteer help but we could not even 
keep publishing an annual magazine on scehdule we fell 5-7 years behind.There 
was a couple of times where we went 2-3 years without ANY DIGEST.Even the 
last few newsletters edited by Matt Willet fell behind because of Matt's work 
schedule. 

Volunteer help works good when you have the volunteer man power to do the 
works and it seems while RITS semed to be lacking in that department.

At one time RITS had about 1200 memebrs. When one of RITS 2-3 years hitatus 
of digests happened membershipo plummtted to about 750 (we are now around 900 
)you do not know how many people I talked to who WERE RITS members dropped out 
and the theme was the same "We never got anything other than a newsletter" If 
it wasn't for us hard core RITS members who faithfully sent our 15-20 dollars 
a years during those lean times I suspect RITS would be no more.

Yes WRP's staff did submit articles you read in the Rocket and the cost was 
significantly higher. Why did they do it. LACK OF MATERIAL.. The more material 
submitted the cost of the Rocket goes down. Then WRP's staff designs and lays 
out the magazine.

While the 2nd quarter Rocket is still being put together. I seem to recall 
that the 2nd quarter includes the months of April, May, and June. The 2nd 
quarter Rocket will be out in the 2nd quarter.

Steven Suhs
BOD member

Arkrail at aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 5/22/2008 6:33:56 AM Central Daylight Time, 
bbent at kconline.com writes:

P.S.   I think RITS is also a quarter behind on our scheduled publications?

How could that be, when all the publication problems were supposedly going to 
be solved with the expensive Rocket publishing arrangement of the last few 
years?    Now we are being told that the delay is due to a "shortage of 
material"???  Wasn't that "shortage of material" the same problem that we used to hear 
about from the editors of the Digest?  The same problem which some officers, 
some of those overseeing publications, and some members were not particularly 
tolerant???   The only difference is that the Digest was produced by RITS 
volunteers at very low cost, while the Rocket is produced by a commercial 
publishing company at a considerably higher cost to RITS, with editorial work 
presumably also paid out of RITS dues revenue.  Weren't we supposed to have everything 
on a more timely basis when we started paying for what the volunteer editors 
used to do?

It might also be noted that when the Rock was a stand alone publication, 
rather than an insert mailed with the Rocket, it also appeared on a much more 
timely basis.  Of course, that was back when RITS dues revenue vs. expenses were 
sufficient to cover the extra postage for the Rock mailings.  Indeed, it does 
seem like things have deteriorated....

Bill Pollard

**************Get trade secrets for amazing burgers. Watch "Cooking with 
Tyler Florence" on AOL Food.      
(http://food.aol.com/tyler-florence?video=4&?NCID=aolfod00030000000002)

-- 
BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS
------------------------------------------------------

Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 26327934) is spam:
Spam:        https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=26327934&m=fba9806431ea&c=s
Not spam:    https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=26327934&m=fba9806431ea&c=n
Forget vote: https://storm.simpson.edu/canit/b.php?i=26327934&m=fba9806431ea&c=f
------------------------------------------------------
END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://thunder.simpson.edu/pipermail/ritslist/attachments/20080523/b5f232c4/attachment.html 