Sept ON

mneblett said:

Another abused Sept. issue here.

To the MOA:

Plastic wrapping costs additional money -- WE get that.

Your members want plastic wrapping -- YOU need to get that.

Figure out what it costs per member's issue, multiply by 12, and add that to the annual dues.

Or find some other way to fund it.

But DO it.

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SOME members want plastic wrapping but some of us don't need it.

I don't want to pay more annual dues and plastic wrapping could either delay delivery or give us a more dated magazine.

Moa on

I pay the extra bucks for overseas airmail and the ON arrivres in a white mailier. Never had one mangled and only one or two that I would consider late and I put that to our mail syastem more so than the MOA.
If the mailing is such a PITA to you contact the MOA and tell them you would gladly pay a couple extra dollars per year for extra packiging, and if you don't want to pay that then I can assure you, you wouldn't want to pay my airmail bill but I get mine in good order, no heart burn and no elevated blood disorders.

Who will be the first to start a new tread called "October ON ?

September 2011 issue arrived today, in plastic.

However, it is probably due to "Membership Renewal Enclosed".

My vote is to add the plastic.

Being on the left coast, I am sort of by definition against plastic used for this. But, mine always arrives (later than yours, I bet....Sept not here yet) in fine condition. Occasionally a RoadRacingWorld will get some ripping, or this and other mags get bent, but we only have a small PO Box in an even smaller PO, so I can't really complain. If I checked the mail every day, I'ld be fine except around Catalogue Season....only 22 days till that starts!

osbornk said:

SOME members want plastic wrapping but some of us don't need it.

I don't want to pay more annual dues and plastic wrapping could either delay delivery or give us a more dated magazine.

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I agree, I don't want higher dues to fix what isn't broken for me.Sorry if it's a recurring theme for some.
It isn't MOA, rather a USPS issue. It falls on that organizations shoulders to fix their handling practices. The fix was supposed to happen by the way the USPS handled bulk sorting facilities and routing...guess it hasn't got results .

I am also one who has not had any damaged magazine from anyone or general mail in the last three places I lived. Smaller town now, but even when was home never an issue. Few of my regular mags are wrapped. Maybe the Wunderlich or Touratech catalogs are.
The printers usually have in house mailing/packaging available, or contract it out. It's just another cost step before USPS gets it. I used to work in the print/mail stuffing business way back in time. We shrink wrapped International stuff ( A USPS Regulation), but not N. American .

Couldn't happen here

yeah, I know there is plastic shown but you might think somewhere those bundles get broken down regionally.

Going to move this over to Campfire as well.

Motorrad is more for BMW & general bike talk

hang on...

Time for the MOA to comment

Received my September ON today - perhaps earliest ever. Plastic wrapped, perfect condition. Here are my comments/questions:
1. How much more does it cost to "plastic wrap" the mag? (You will note that Canadians pay an additional $12 per year dues.) I'm guessing that most of that money goes for higher international postage; very little for the plastic wrap. But SOMEONE has the answer.
2. I've come to suspect that only a very small percentage of the members post on (or read?) the forum, but a large percentage read the ON. Reason: I've attended a campout and a barbeque hosted by our local club since my article "Don't Drop the Bike" came out in the August ON. The majority in each gathering commented (positively, I might add) on my article. NOT ONE has posted a comment on that thread in the "just Ridin'" forum.
3. From that experience, I think it safe to say the MOA hasn't a clue how many US members regularly receive damaged magazines. And neither do we on this forum.
4. When we know the cost of a proven technolgy for delivering un-damaged magazines, the delay (if any) this causes, then you US members can make your wishes known. My guess is that it is less than 20 cents per month. If I lived in the US, I would gladly play that premium, even if only 10% of the members received damaged mags.
5. So make some calls, those of you have been mistreated. And get back to us.

BCKRIDER said:

4. When we know the cost of a proven technolgy for delivering un-damaged magazines, the delay (if any) this causes, then you US members can make your wishes known. My guess is that it is less than 20 cents per month. If I lived in the US, I would gladly play that premium, even if only 10% of the members received damaged mags.

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I think 10% is enormously overestimating the situation. We had over 1000 members on the forum yesterday (and the day before, and ...), but there are only a very few that have posted here with a problem, well under 1%.

If your magazine arrives in poor condition, call the office and they will send you another one by 1st class postage.

Haven't Received my Sept ON

I don't know if I should contact the BMWMOA office, but I still have not received my Sept ON, as of Sept 10.

How do the rest of you receive yours so early in the month?

fastdogs2 said:

I don't know if I should contact the BMWMOA office, but I still have not received my Sept ON, as of Sept 10.

How do the rest of you receive yours so early in the month?

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The official policy is that if you don't receive your magazine by the 10th, call the office and they will send you a new one.

My personal experience is that I almost never get the magazine that early, but it does show up eventually. I think I did once need to call, near the end of the month, and they sent me a copy 1st class.

Once the dues are increased so magazines are plastic-wrapped, we'll see threads complaining about how the content doesn't live up to the increased price.

I don't need plastic wrappers for my motorcycle magazine and neither does the landfill.

It doesn't matter to me I have the online edition read already.

DarrylRi said:

I think 10% is enormously overestimating the situation. We had over 1000 members on the forum yesterday (and the day before, and ...), but there are only a very few that have posted here with a problem, well under 1%.

If your magazine arrives in poor condition, call the office and they will send you another one by 1st class postage.

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Maybe so. But there are members who REGULARLY receive damaged copies. And I suspect there are people with damaged copies who visit the forum for other reasons and never look at "Campfire - September ON."

I think all of us would like find the least expensive solution to a very real problem which may not be a widespread one. Your suggestion is a good one for people with an occasional problem - call the office and ask for a new mag. What solution do you suggest for the folks who frequently receive a damaged magazine?

BCKRIDER said:

Maybe so. But there are members who REGULARLY receive damaged copies. And I suspect there are people with damaged copies who visit the forum for other reasons and never look at "Campfire - September ON."

I think all of us would like find the least expensive solution to a very real problem which may not be a widespread one. Your suggestion is a good one for people with an occasional problem - call the office and ask for a new mag. What solution do you suggest for the folks who frequently receive a damaged magazine?

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As I see it, there are three possibilities:

• If the magazine arrives in a condition that requires it, call the club office for a replacement.
• If the magazine often arrives in such a condition, talk to your local post office about finding and fixing the problem. They are the ones that are having the difficulty. Obviously it may happen upstream from the local PO, but it also obviously isn't happening on a large scale, so neither the printer nor the USPS distribution center they use seems to be having a problem.
• If the club office receives so many requests for new magazines that it becomes a problem, or if enough people are frustrated and either influence the Board or run for it themselves, then the club will take on the additional cost of bagging the magazines.

Chatting about it here may allow some people to get the issue off their chests, but other than that, it does nothing about the problem.

it would be worthwhile asking if the printer could poly-bag the magazine for those who request and wish to pay for the service.

there is a lot of flexibility in bindery and mailing these days.

and i am pretty sure our membership database application could support varying amounts for dues.

ian

lkchris said:

The solution is simple and right in front of the noses of do-nothing MOA management, i.e. wrap the magazine in plastic like so many other reputable clubs do. For all the effort our "representatives" burn making excuses for this, they could have just solved the problem by now.

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I must not belong to any reputable clubs or subscription lists, because all the magazines I receive in the mail arrive with no plastic wrap. 99 times out of 100, there's nothing wrong with them.

Casey said:

Those plastic covers sure would be nice, but I'm sure it's another expense that the MOA can't afford. Besides, who is going to stuff the magazines in them??

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Both are salient points - though I suspect the wrap could be done as part of the printing process.

At any rate, it's not the MOA's fault when your magazine arrives "distressed". It's the USPS that does that, not the MOA. Call/write the appropriate organization & please stop advocating that my dues go up.