yes understood - but where are the practical solutions - this is not one Ros ----- Original Message ----- From: "Geoffrey" <lists@sog.org.uk> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 7:19 PM Subject: Re: [SoG] WW1 Medal Cards destruction > > A number of issues have been raised and some answered, such as the cost of > an EGM but the question "What would an EGM achieve" has not. > > April asked >Do the byelaws preclude emails (to those who have the facility)? > > At the moment we are obliged to give notice by post to ALL members and we > may in the future change the rules to allow email notice. However, at the > moment it is not practical to do so and probably will not be for some time. > There are two main reasons for this. > > The membership secretary has a number of email addresses on file, but we > have no way of knowing which are current, if we were to use those then many > members would not receive the notice. Members forget to change address on > the list, though active members are prety good about this. Casual email > users usually forget to notify the membership secretary. > > This mailing list has only around three and a half percent of the total > membership and have currently active and reliable email addresses. The > cost of updating the membership files to show that they have been emailed > would probably outweigh the postal cost involved. If the percentage of > reliable email addresses were much higher then the possibility would be > there, with the remaining risk that some members would not receive the notice. > > Thank you to Edna for posting some of the facts which does allow us to > assess the value of these records. The key elements (assuming the details > to be correct) are that less than one and a half percent of the card have > addresses on the back and only a percentage of these are not found within > the man's service or pension documents preserved at The National Archives. > Also 143 cabinets would require 340 square feet of storage space with the > cabinets packed together or at least 600 to 660 sq ft to allow access. > This would take a large part of the downstairs library space where the > computers and microform readers are located if the Society were to acquire > them. > > Then there is the removal costs and a large project to sort out the cards > requiring filming. It took many months for a full-time team of filmers to > do the Society Great-Card Index which (if memory serves) was a quarter of > the size. > > A good enough case needs to be made for the retention of the cards to > justify this large project. > > This is not an official reply but simply my views on the subject. > > Geoff > > > > > Geoffrey T. Stone, > SoG Mailing List Administrator. lists@sog.org.uk > http://www.sog.org.uk >