The Enid Blyton Society

As if I'd dare!

Moonraker wrote: Mind you, whether or not the die-hard Blyton member would be interested in brands of tea, make-up and webcams of an island would be interested, remains to be seen!

Nigel, I don't quite see how a die hard Blyton member like me cannot also be interested in make up or puffin web cams (I'm not into tea as it causes yellow teeth ?
The web cam is IMHO very much related to a Blyton book called "The Sea of Adventure" which happens to be one of my favorite EB books. I loved those puffins when I read about them first in my childhood. And now as an adult I still enjoy watching them. What's so negative about that?
I thought that's why there is a "General Natter" forum. I must have been mistaken.
Right now I'm not reading any Blyton books, so there is not much I could contribute to a strictly EB thread. But I still enjoy staying in touch with the other forumites (and if it's only about puffins or make up).

Moonraker wrote:The Camra forums are even worse. With over 125,000 members, only about a dozen regularly contribute to them.

What are Camra forums?

pete9012S wrote:In the next Journal,54,why not have a page dedicated to some highlighted selected words of appreciation by the posters here about the previous Journal,Journal 53?

It would raise consciousness of the Journal to those who subscribe but never post here,and they could be also be encouraged to express any appreciation by either writing/emailing in or by joining us here on the forums?

Either way it would raise the profile of the Journal with everyone who receives and reads it,possibly promoting more interest,subscriptions,or at the very least more vocal appreciation for our excellent magazine??

Very good suggestion, Pete!

Chrissie777 wrote:

Moonraker wrote:The Camra forums are even worse. With over 125,000 members, only about a dozen regularly contribute to them.

What are Camra forums?

http://camraforum.org.uk/index.php?sid= ... 4ce7bfa772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A very good idea from Pete but not something I would really want to add to my workload. I would however be delighted to include it if somebody else wanted to do this and get their name in lights - or at any rate on the 'contents' page! As far as no longer having a letters page is concerned the answer is simple - I don't get any letters!! When we did have a page for this we didn't have a website and even then I didn't get very many letters.

I thought this would be a good place just to point out the current Journal situation. Over the past year we lost 201 subscribers, although this does not include 72 people who had Journal 53 but have not yet renewed their subscription. However, it does include a few people who have posted in the last two weeks who no longer subscribe. In the same period we have picked up 157 new members which softens the loss a bit.

As things stand now I will be sending out the smallest number of Journals in a month or so for nine years, and it will also be the smallest print run for the same period.

At the same time it is also worth mentioning that the number of new people registering on the forums last month was also the smallest for nine years (and even then some of these could be sleeping spammers as they have yet to log in for the first time!) - perhaps for some reason the forums are losing their appeal for new members!

The outlook for the Journal and the Society does seem quite bleak. I think the Journal and other Society publications are good value for money. I renewed my subscription by Paypal as soon as I received No 53, or at least I think I did, if I haven't Tony let me know and I shall renew pronto.

I never have to renew my subscription to other organisations (Malcolm Saville Society, to name one), as they employ a DD system. I think I've mentioned this before and I seem to remember that there is a problem in the EBS doing this. Worth a thought though.

I think Poppy could do a brilliant,concise resume and overview of the online responses here to the last issue of the Journal posted here for Tony to include in a letters/appreciation/comments page of the next edition of the Journal.

Her writing style is concise,friendly,mature and inclusive.
I don't know whether she would want to do something like that for each edition of the Journal of course,but I'm sure if she did it would be nice to see a representative of the younger generation working regularly on the Journal's behalf...

What about it Poppy? I think you would do a brilliant job of that if you were interested??

Best Wishes

Pete

I'll second that!

I would love to do something like that, Pete. I think it is an excellent way of promoting the previous journal, as well as encouraging members to share their views upon the contents. I will definitely agree to this, if Tony is happy to include an article like this in the Journal.

Moonraker wrote:I never have to renew my subscription to other organisations (Malcolm Saville Society, to name one), as they employ a DD system. I think I've mentioned this before and I seem to remember that there is a problem in the EBS doing this. Worth a thought though.

Yes you have mentioned it before and I will give you the same answer - it would make a lot more work for me as I would have to separate those who pay by direct debit and those who need a resubscription form. It probably works fine for the Saville Society as they have about six people doing the jobs that I do on my own, including someone whose only responsibility is to deal with membership renewal and that is all done once a year anyway and not three times a year.

pete9012S wrote:I think Poppy could do a brilliant,concise resume and overview of the online responses here to the last issue of the Journal posted here for Tony to include in a letters/appreciation/comments page of the next edition of the Journal.

Poppy wrote:I would love to do something like that, Pete. I think it is an excellent way of promoting the previous journal, as well as encouraging members to share their views upon the contents.

That's great! I'm sure you'll make an excellent job of it, Poppy.

Thanks for taking it on, Poppy. You'll be great at it.

Thanks Anita and John! Looking forward to making up the first article!