The (Bi) Monthly Slobber

 

One of the benefits of Membership is receiving the Club newsletter every two months. In August of 2004 the DDBS began to offer the club newsletter to its member in an electronic PDF version.  This allows members who are online and able to utilize Acrobat Reader to receive their newsletters weeks before the printed version is in the mail, and it is also in full color with live links!  Newsletters are ONLY available through membership.

 

To learn more about PDF’s go to “PDFs and the (Bi) Monthly Slobber”  then come back to read a sample issue!

 

Try a Sample of the DDBS Newsletter!

Member Feedback

As with anything new, change takes a while to take effect and come around however, to date we have already brought on line 69 DDBS members who are receiving the newsletter in this manner.  That's nearly 25% of our membership!!  To give everyone some idea of what our members have to say about the new format we asked them to come forward and offer feedback.  So don't take my word for it, see what our members have to say about the DDBS Newsletter in PDF.  Some of the feedback is similar to one another but we've opted to post their responses anyway to demonstrate that a lot of our members find the same options remarkable:

I love receiving the newsletter this way.  It is much faster and the pictures are in color.  Plus I can burn them onto a CD and not worry about keeping a stack of newsletters stored somewhere.  -  Angie Reed

I like the newsletter in PDF because it's in color and I can always print out another one if I need to.  I can see why people may not like it.  You have to turn on your PC, get into your e-mail, download it, and then print it rather then just going to your mailbox. -  Anthony DiNobile

 The quality is very good, the color is wonderful, the promptness with which it is sent is grand, and not having paper to store is a relief.  What's not to like?  -  Dianne Morrison

It's wonderful!  I have a folder set up on my computer to save them.  The color pictures are so much better than the black and white.  And if Boudreaux eats my printed copy, it's not lost forever!  -  Amy Norman

I love the PDF version. It’s more attractive in color, easy to refer to and archive for future readings. I can also print a copy from my home and have that lying around to refer to also without turning on the computer. The software Adobe Acrobat Reader that is needed to view the PDF version is FREE to download and easy to use. Can't beat it.  -  George Brown  DDBS President

COLOR! I like the color, and it’s neat to see it that way.  The newsletter can be longer because we don’t have to spend money on postage, but we can’t do that unless everyone is PDF.  Punctual.  -  Trish Brian

 Just wanted to mention here how much I LOVE getting my newsletter by PDF!!!  I enjoy the PDF format because it is instantaneous, I have it days if not weeks before the mailed version would have arrived. I love that I can print as many copies as I like to share with friends and family. I love that I can keep all my back issues stored in my computer instead of having to find a storage place for hard copies.  This was a super idea and I am please to know that I'm saving the club money......So far I really haven't found any drawbacks to this format.  -  Vickie Barfield

I absolutely love the format!  The pictures are in color and nice and crisp.  No more torn newsletters in the mail....yeah.....and goodbye to the boxes in which the paper newsletters would be stored in.  I also like the fact that they could be printed and handed out if needed.  For example, if you want to pass one along to someone interested in the breed.  I would not go back to the paper newsletters!  -  Penny

I love the receiving my newsletter electronically for several reasons:  Pictures are in color.  Receive the newsletter way before I would the hard copy.  Can save it to CD and don't have the hassle of filing paper copies.  And,  it saves the club money.  -  Hilary Branscum

I like it because I can print it out in color and the pictures are much clearer.  -  Kris Munday

The benefit of PDF is not having to wonder where, or if, you'll file/keep the copy. It will always be available electronically to go back to and reference. No lost files, misfiles, torn or soiled copies (Sammo bumped me on one copy I was reading which has coffee stains on it now!).  -  Jan Bennett

 

DDBS Club Officer Perspectives

As with any breed club there is always room to improve our financial stability.  Despite a recent rise in club dues that was long over due this particular project will further help with our expenses by allowing us to save money otherwise spent on our club newsletter in paper form. The long term goal of the DDBS Club Officers is to eventually have the majority of our members on line and receiving the newsletter in this format.  Remember, those who opt to go with the electronic newsletter instead of getting a paper copy still get all of the things presently offered in the paper newsletter but the electronic version is instead provided to our members at no cost to the club!  Postage costs alone run in the hundreds per year and continue to rise.  Then if you consider the added delay those results from time spent printing, assembling, labeling, mailing, and travel time it puts our newsletter behind schedule on occasion.  PDF takes care of all of that while still providing us with electronic and more permanent storage options, it also allows for the find feature, color photos and graphics and also in the future we may discard our present set limits on the length of our issues (it adds to postage costs when they are larger).  Having said all of this and after reading the responses from our members I'm sure that you all realize that it's difficult to make significant gains within the club in programs and services we offer when we lack the resources to develop them.  In short, this is the easiest way to put your dues to work allowing them to be reallocated for other things, like a health or pedigree database, research funding, guest speakers at our national shows, etc.

- Nicole Stark