Nice questions Kinderchick
Would the Newsletter just be about our Manitoba peregrine falcons and their nest sites?
Primarily, though I don't have problems adding in notes about Manitoba peregrines elsewhere. Could have a separate issue of the newsletter once maybe twice a year that focusses on Manitoba peregrines nesting elsewhere. The advantage of the "paid" service is there isn't a limit on the number of different issues, just on the number of subscribers.
What is the e-update list that you refer to in your Preamble?
For folks that aren't on the Forum but who want to get occasional updates via emails, I have the e-updates list. If you are a member of the Forum you already know about anything that goes into an e-update - so-and-so is home and on eggs at such-and-such a location, the webcam will go live on such-and-such a date, special edition teeshirts are ready for order, that kind of thing. Only do about 3 a year just because its so labour-intensive, but it's enough to keep non-forum folks in the loop.
Would the subscription fee pay for the e-mail service? I think this is a good idea, given the labour intensive and time consuming task it would be for you, or anyone, for that matter, to maintain a mailing list.
Yes, these newsletters would only be available to subscribers via email. The newsletter service handles all the mailing list details (additions, changes, removals) and handles the actually emailing of the newsletter. I put the newsletter together and then give it to the service for delivery. Each account is private and the service is automated so email addresses given for the purposes of these newsletters are not available to anyone except the Project and we don't share, sell or rent our lists.
When you speak of distributing the Newsletter to folks who work near the Radisson or are guests of the Radisson, are you referring to an e-mailed Newsletter to these people or a hard copied Newsletter?
Email newsletter, just like others. So for example, someone who works in the Trizec Building is only really interested in the Radisson peregrines and doesn't want to get lots of emails but would like to get a couple of updates on just the Radisson birds. One of the things this service can handle is different mailing lists - all newsletters, just Radisson or just end-of-year reports or whatever combination we want to offer. Because the service is based on subscribers, the rate would be per person rather than per newsletter - so same rate to receive all the newsletters as to get just one.
Would the Newsletter also include information about the Brandon birds?
Short answer is yes. Longer answer would be that there will something like 8 issues per year, most in the nesting season and each issue would have information on all the sites so long as there is news to report. For the Radisson, West Winnipeg and McKenzie Seeds, since they are pretty solid sites, we would have updates every issue. For others sites - Brandon Tower, Selkirk and elsewhere - if they are occupied, we provide regular updates. There would also be less frequent special issues (ie year-end) that just focus on the Radisson, McKenzie Seeds, Manitoba Peregrines elsewhere that would provide summaries of those specific sites. Might even have a special issue that's for school teachers or for pest-control companies or or or, you get the idea.
Would you also continue to answer questions on the Forum that peregrine falcon fans might still have?
I don't think so, the idea is really to provide information rather than have another place for questions-and-answers since we have the Forum. Having said that, if non-Forum folks started inundating me with questions I would need to rethink it and maybe have a special Q&A issue or maybe one question per issue. It wouldn't come out each week, so the questions would be a wee bit stale before folks actually saw an answer. My inclination is to stay away from yet another place to have to answer questions in addition to the Forum and the CBC site, but we'd have to see but I wouldn't encourage it.
