Some news about the NYSkies Observer's Handbook offer for 2010. Requests are coming in for the book, thank you, all. The books will be printed in October, sent to RASC clients in mid October, and then shipped out to you in late October. You should not hold your breath yet in wait for the book. You payment is HELD UNTIL THE BOOK IS SENT TO YOU. You WILL NOT see a nasty surprise on your September bank report with no book in hand. On the other hand, your shipping envelope is prepared, armed and ready to load the Observer's Handbook soonest it arrives at NYSkies. We got two requests by an electronic bank-issued check. that's fine. except there was nothing in the papers to tell WHO the request was for. There was the person's name and bank account info, but no street address or contact. By good luck the bank was near the City, so I checked with astronomy clubs in its vicinity and, did find out who the requests belong to. The outcome could have been a dead-end because you can bank anywhere, not only at a bank near where you live. If you arrange for electronic bank payment, PLEASE also send in the coupon with its fields filled in. Annotate it to alert us to the separate check from the such-&-such bank. There was mild concern that we will 'take over' a club's own OH offer. This is nonsense. In fact, if your club goes with our offer, IT REMAINS YOUR CLUB'S OWN BENEFIT. There are ONLY one, incredible, differences. Your club no longer worries about a minimum number for a discount. Even if only a couple members need the OH, they get the SAME LOW PRICE as the bigger clubs. That price INCLUDES pack & post to you. The sensible way to serve your member is the following. Get about with your normal OH announcement and collection of requests. Set a reasonable deadline, say a club meeting in November. On the next day look at the number of requests in hand. If it makes a discount for your club, why, just go to RASC and get the books. If it falls short, send the consolidated request to NYSkies. You get the good discount anyway. In this way, YOUR CLUB BENEFIT YOUR MEMBERS. And this is a good thing. What ever you do, please don't follow the road of some clubs of last year. When they found too few requests, THEY GAVE BACK THE PAYMENTS AND TOLD THE MEMBERS TO GO AND FIND THE BOOK ON THEIR OWN. You probably can guess how dues renewals worked out for such a club. What about a request or two that comes in after your deadline? In the bad old days you returned them for missing the train. Now, you just send them in to NYSkies. They will be filled a bit late, but they will be filled. This trick works even if the initial supply of OHs came from RASC. How to avail of the NYSkies service? Hop onto www.nyskies.org/oh.htm and www.nyskies.org/ohclub.htm. That's a thru route, no change at Jamaica.
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