FOCUS Annual Report: Spring – Winter 2008

Tanya Feddern-Bekcan, Publications Editor

During 2008, four FOCUS issues and one special membership drive issue were printed and mailed out to members. The following is the breakdown:

Spring 2008

  • Received in members’ hands by March 1st (within the deadline)
  • Contained four ½ page ads and one ¼ page ad
  • 3 were existing advertisers, 2 were new advertisers
  • # of pages: 16
  • Printing cost: $1,268.14; Revenue: $905; Net: -$363.14
  • 1250 copies printed; 1054 were mailed out; 196 were on hand to be distributed at the 2008 Spring Conference; any issues left over were to be given to the Regional Representatives for meetings.

Summer 2008issue:

  • Received in members’ hands by July 1st (within the deadline)
  • Contained three ½ page ads and one ¼ page ads
  • 2 were existing advertisers, 2 were new advertisers
  • # of pages: 16
  • Printing cost: $1310.45; Revenue: $645. Net: -$665.45
  • 1200 copies printed; 1136 were mailed out.

Fall 2008 issue:

  • Received in members’ hands by September 1st (within the deadline)
  • Contained five ½ page ads and six ¼ page ads
  • 4 were existing advertisers (one advertiser had 2 ads), 6 were new

advertisers

  • # of pages: 16
  • Printing cost: $1,101.50; Revenue: $1740. Net: +638.50
  • 1000 copies printed; 975 +10 advertisers = 985 were mailed out.

Winter 2008 issue:

  • Received in members’ hands by December 1st (within the deadline)
  • Contained three ½ page ads and three ¼ page ads; one of the ¼ page ads was no charge—repayment for mailing labels error per SJ
  • 5 were existing advertisers, 1 was a new advertiser (his ad was at no

charge, see above)

  • # of pages: 16
  • Printing cost: $1,181.22; Revenue: $763.75. Net: -$417.47
  • 1100 copies printed; 983 were mailed out. The printer inadvertently printed extra copies (at no charge to us); so at least 200 copies will be on hand to be distributed at the 2009 Spring Conference; any issues left over will be given to the Regional Representatives for meetings.

Special Membership Drive Issue December 2008

  • Designed and arranged by Betsy Burgos
  • Received in members’ hands in December
  • Contained no advertisements
  • # of pages: 4
  • Printing cost: $4,470.02; Revenue: $0. Net: -$270.02
  • 8434 copies printed; 8434 were mailed out.

FOCUS Summary:

The 2008 publication year brought in 9 new advertisers; one of which was given free advertising (as reimbursement per SJ). The4FOCUS issues cost $4861.31; however, they brought in $4053.75 in revenue. Therefore, instead of costing FOTA $5120, the FOCUS only cost $807.56. The 2008 Special Membership Drive issue was printed and mailed out for $4470.02; the budget was originally for $4200. This price difference was most likely due to the increased postage rates in 2008.

Issues:

1. Do we want to raise our advertising rates?

Attached is the comparison chart of the advertising sizes and rates for the newsletters from FOTA, FPTA, and FLASHA associations.

  • Except for the full-size ad rate, FOTA’s newsletter advertising rates are the cheapest.
  • However, FOTA has the smallest number of subscribers.
  • Because of the economy, advertisers may expect us to raise our rates; however, because of the economy, people are cutting down on costs such as advertising, so raising our rates may deter advertisers. If we do raise rates, the head of AOTA marketing recommends that we offer unadvertised specials to potential new advertisers.

2. Business-card size advertisements:

  • Do we want to offer business-card size advertising?

3. Inside front and inside back cover advertising:

  • Do we still want to offer this? No advertiser has asked for this. Also, if we stopped offering this, then we’d have more freedom in the layout of the FOCUS.

4. Ad sizes (FYI, the FOCUS uses a ½ inch for the left, right, top, & bottom margins):

  • What size should we use for the business card size ad?
  • What size should we use for the quarter-page size ad?
  • On the FOCUS website, we should list the size for the half-page horizontal and vertical.

5. The Co-Editors need to know this about FOCUS advertisers:

  • The advertiser’s mailing address and contact information (in order to mail out a FOCUS to the advertiser and to contact about any questions/problems)
  • What size ad the advertiser paid for
  • Which issues the advertiser wishes to advertise in
  • This data needs to be provided to the Co-Editors no later than the submission deadline for the issue
  • Who in FOTA will be responsible for providing this data to the Co-Editors? See if Member Clicks can automate their submission form to provide ALL these details to the Co-Editors.

6. How do we announce the electronic-only issue option?

  • Via listserv, the FOCUS, and/or FOTA webpage announcement?

7. Publication Schedule:

  • Should we change the publication dates, especially for the Special Membership drive issue (maybe make it for January or February) and the Spring issue (maybe decide to make it after the FOTA conference)?
  • Should we change the topics covered in the issues (to tally with events, such as the FOTA conference, OT month, etc.)?

8. Decide upon the content of the special Membership drive issue:

  • Pg. 1: Article from a returned FOTA member on why FOTA membership is important
  • Pg. 2: FOTA took action on (lists pivotal FOTA activities that directly impacted Florida OT practitioners)
  • Pg. 3: FOTA conference flyer
  • Pg. 4: What does FOTA do for you (bulleted list) AND FOTA fundraising via Amazon
  • There’s no room for advertising. Currently, 4 pages equals one sheet; in order to make room for advertising, we’d have to use another sheet, which would substantially increase our cost.

9. FOCUS Co-Editor:

  • How do we publicize the need for a FOCUS Co-Editor?

Co-Editors’ duties:

  • Sign on new advertisers
  • Get existing advertisers to continue to advertise
  • Keep records on the contact information for advertisers, ad sizes, and which issues they plan to advertise
  • Put out a call for articles on the listserv
  • Get the regularly-contributed articles: President’s letter, VP’s letter, South Bay Forum, news from the other Regions, FLOTEC Nuggets
  • Write articles as needed
  • Edit articles
  • Arrange multiple rough drafts of the FOCUS until the final product is ready
  • Email the FOCUS final draft to the President, Vice President, and (??FOTA position title, currently Barbara??) for a final proof-reading of the FOCUS
  • Download the mailing labels from the FOTA website
  • Email the mailing labels file and the final FOCUS in Word and PDF formats to Greg Camp, the printer; one Co-Editor will be the contact person for Greg Camp, the Printer
  • Forward the final FOCUS in PDF to the FOCUS webmaster
  • Get the “bad addresses” from the printer and manually address and mail out the FOCUS to those people
  • Find out who in FOTA will pick up the extra FOCUS issues from the printer
  • Write the annual FOCUS report for the FOTA Board Meeting

10. Official Recognition:

  • In the Florida Health Sciences Library Association, all the Board Members and the Newsletter Editor (or Co-Editors) each get a Certificate of Appreciation, signed and dated by the association President (and maybe another Board Member official). I don’t think anyone hangs theirs on the wall, but it serves as proof of position held in the association. FOTA should do the same. A box of blank award certificates can be purchased at any office supply store.

Advertising Rates: FOTA (yellow), FPTA (white), and FLASHA (turquoise)

Placement / Size / 1 issue / 2 issues / 3 issues / All 4 issues / 4-7 issues / 8-12 issues
Outside back cover / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
7-1/2” x 4-7/8” (1/2 pg horiz) / $550 / $484 / $484 / $418 / N/A / N/A
Inside front/back cover / 7 1/2” x 10” / $480 / $450 / $420 / $390 / N/A / N/A
same / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
same / $550 front;
$440 back / $484 front;
$387 back / $484 front;
$387 back / $418 front;
$348 back / N/A / N/A
Full page / 7 1/2” x 10” / $420 / $390 / $360 / $330 / N/A / N/A
same / $800 / $800 / $800 / -- / $750 / $700
same / $385 / $352 / $352 / $319 / N/A / N/A
Half page / 7 1/2” x 4 7/8” / $240 / $210 / $190 / $160 / N/A / N/A
7 1/2” x 4 7/8” / $500 / $500 / $500 / -- / $450 / $400
same (horizontal)
3 5/8” x 10” (vertical) / $275 / $249 / $249 / $229 / N/A / N/A
1/3 page / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
2 5/16” x 10” / $300 / $300 / $300 / -- / $275 / $250
N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
Quarter page / 3 9/16” x 4 7/8" / $135 / $105 / $75 / $68.75 / N/A / N/A
3 5/8” x 4 7/8” / $260 / $260 / $260 / -- / $240 / $220
3 5/8” x 4 7/8” / $193 / $179 / $179 / $160 / N/A / N/A
1/6 page / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A / N/A
2 1/4" x 4 7/8” / $200 / $200 / $200 / -- / $180 / $160
Listed as 1/6 but size is same as 1/8 below
1/8 page (Business card size) / 3 9/16” x 2 1/2" / $80 / $65 (4 issues/6 issues) / $65 (4 issues/6 issues) / $50 (all 6 issues) / N/A / N/A
3 5/8” x 2 5/16” / $170 / $170 / $170 / -- / $150 / $130
3 1/2" x 2” / $110 / $103 / $103 / $97 / N/A / N/A

FOCUS: about 1014 subscribers; B& W only

$1221 for a 16-page issue of 1100 copies

  • $1.11 cost per 16-page issue: 72¢ for printing, 5¢ for folding & labeling, 34¢ for postage
  • $76.31 of advertising per page is needed for every page to break even (on a 16-page issue)

FPTA: about 3500 subscribers; BW only

FLASHA: about 2100 subscribers; B & W but offers a 2-color ad option for $75 extra

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION

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IN MEMBERS’ HANDS

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ISSUE CONTENTS

January 15, 2009

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SPRING ISSUE

March 1, 2009

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1.SIS information

  1. Member At Large News
  2. OT Month
  3. AOTA Online Report
  4. Annual Conference Registration form

May 15, 2009

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SUMMER ISSUE

July 1, 2009

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  1. Annual Conference News
  2. Meet New Officers
  3. Fall Conference Program
  4. Call for Awards and Recognitions

August 15, 2009

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FALL ISSUE

September 1, 2009

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  1. Annual Conference Information
  2. Call for Posters only
  3. Meet your FOTA Officers
  4. Lobbyist Larry Gonsalez article

October 15, 2009

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WINTER ISSUE

December 1, 2009

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  1. Annual Conference Information
  2. Recruiter Issue
  3. Call for Nominations for Officers
  4. Call for Awards and Recognitions
  5. Call for Papers and/or Posters

December 1, 2009

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Special Membership Drive Issue

By end of December 2009 /
  1. Article from a returned FOTA member on why FOTA membership is important
  2. FOTA took action on (lists pivotal FOTA activities that directly impacted Florida OT practitioners)
  3. FOTA conference flyer
  4. What does FOTA do for you (bulleted list)
  5. FOTA fundraising via Amazon

NOTES:

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1

2008 FOCUS Report_v1.2.doc