INSIDE THE FOLIO ROOM by Kathy Rueve
It’s Tuesday evening at the weekly Folio meeting held at the Master Builder office at the crossroads of Highway 116 and Hurlbut Avenue in Sebastopol. Anywhere from five to fifteen people will participate in this meeting which is open to all. The Media Affinity Group of North Bay for KPFA (NB4K) is the force behind publishing the Folio.
Issue 4 was just mailed and it’s time to take a hard look at ways we could have made it better. This was a particularly challenging issue because the design and layout person asked to be relieved two and a half weeks before the issue’s mailing date. With great appreciation for all her work, we scrambled to find a replacement who could take on the Folio and bring this issue in on time. With the dedication of a few who don’t stop until the job gets done, we succeeded, demonstrating the strength and flexibility of a group that has learned to listen to the needs of each individual while spreading the work to other willing hands.
Every week, this collection of volunteers spends hours collecting information, reviewing articles, illustrations and photographs, and putting each issue together from initial layout through proofreading before sending it to the printer, and finally, folding and mailing to you. We could not have come this far without the contributions of so many willing helpers, such as Master Builder who has given us the office space for meeting and access to their mailing equipment at cost, and the Sonoma County Peace and Justice Center, who has collected our mail and provided banking for our subscriptions and bill paying.
Editorial decisions on content of each article are carefully reviewed with commitment to the consensus process. Other issues, such as whether we should take advertising or seek a grant to assure continuation of our project, are also regularly discussed. And we constantly review our financial status.
To date, 360 people have subscribed, most giving $10 to $25. Three subscribers have sent $50 each, four are $100 contributors and one has given $310. We have collected a total of $5717 from subscriptions and donations. Our current funds total $1314 with a projected budget of $2050 to produce issues five and six. If we fail to meet our expenses, NB4K has agreed to cover any shortfall. Subscriptions continue to come in slowly and we hope to break even in producing the first six issues.
To bring you the first four issues of the Folio, we have spent just over $4400 (see box for detail). All work on the initial design and layout was donated. No one working with the Folio group is paid.
_______________________________ Total subscriptions 360 _______________________________ Income: $ 5717 Expenses: Printer costs $ 2512 Layout and Design $ 905 Postage $ 598 Supplies, misc. $ 388 ------ Total spent $ 4403 _______________________________ Cash available $ 1314 _______________________________ Projected expenses (issues 4 & 5) $ 2050 _______________________________The biggest question before us is how to keep the Folio going. Because the rate of new subscriptions has slowed, we are concentrating on reaching new listeners who may not be aware of our efforts.
Subscriptions to the Folio have come from 87 cities in California, most in the greater Bay Area, a few in the central valley/Sierra foothills and a few in southern California. Subscribers in very small numbers from eleven other states, mostly east coast, have found us but we know there is a huge untapped group of listeners throughout the country who are concerned about the state of Pacifica that we want to reach.
We would like to remain completely subscription based, and are looking for new subscribers. We continue to select articles from all Pacifica listener areas and distribute sample copies to a wide area. A quick look at the numbers shows that if our subscription base remains 500 or less, 6 issues of the Folio will cost $13.00 at our current rate of production. Because most of our overhead costs are fixed, having a thousand subscribers brings the cost down to $9 for 6 issues, the cost for five thousand would be $4.
Now that your head is swimming, here is where we appeal to you, the readers. We want to continue producing the Folio. Are you willing to pay $10.00 or more for the next six issues, and give us the opportunity to increase the subscriber base to a thousand or more where our break-even point is substantially reduced?
Production of the Folio has become one of the main projects of our NB4K group because we believe it is an essential vehicle to spread information and bring listeners from all over the Pacifica broadcast area together. Please join us by renewing your subscription now.
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To subscribe for issues 7 through 12, return form with $10 check (suggested donation) payable to: Folio/Sonoma County Peace & Justice Center 540 Pacific Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95404Date_____________ Name_______________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________ City___________________________State_____Zip__________Subsidized (free) subscription for those who can’t afford to donate .
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