It's A Beautiful Day In The South Central Region

AVA TRADEMARKS -  The following two items have been registered by the AVA and should display the trademark symbol with them.  AVA Headquarters will be sending out modified logos with the trademark to the Clubs shortly.  When they are received Clubs will include these new trademarked logos in all future printing of walk brochures, newsletters, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, etc, displaying (1) the AVA symbol alone or (2) in combination with the words "Fun, Fitness, and Fellowship."  Clubs will be permitted to utilize supplies already printed, but when there becomes a need to replenish stock, they must be prepared with the logo with the trademark symbol. 

     The AVA symbol alone would be merely yhe top portion of what we see belw as that symbol in combination with the words "Fun, Fitness, and Fellowship." 

 
Starting Point  -  Sam Korff, AVA Northwest Region Director, is Chairing an Ad Hoc AVA Committee to explore the future of the Starting Point.  This is a copy of his most recent communication to the NEC on the subject:   

Hello all,

Below are some questions regarding the Starting Point.  Please circulate the questions to your regions and ask for replies before December 1.  That's over 60 days and gives the ad hoc committee sufficient time to formulate/tabulate recommendations for the January NEC meeting.  I have also posted these questions on the AVA Future forum to give the questions the widest dissemination.

Sam

1.  Should AVA continue to be in the book selling business?

DISCUSSION:  AVA has been selling Starting Point books with its current data.  This question leads into the next one, where some have suggested that we get out of the book business and sell the information on a CD or put it on line.  Is this suggestion one that your club would like?

2.  If we keep the Starting Point, what form should it take? (current form, on line form,  printed form broken out by regions and sold by individual regions, CD, a combination of all of these forms)

DISCUSSION:  If we keep the current form with spiral binding, should we also produce a CD, or a breakout by region, or should we just put the data on line and when someone wants the information, they would go on line to retrieve the data?  Some people don’t have computers but computers are available at every library.

3.  How should we charge for what we have?

DISCUSSION:    Lower print run mean higher per unit cost.  It’s been suggested that we get at least 3 bids before sending the Starting Point to the printer.  Is this feasible in view of the deadlines that we have?

4. Should we take pre-orders only, thus eliminating the hundreds of copies not being sold?  This also asks whether AVA should accept the loss of the cost of books not sold and write it off as a marketing/publicity cost. 

DISCUSSION:  Pre-orders have been suggested so that if the club or the person has not ordered the Starting Point by a certain date, then they would not be able to get the book, but would have to get the information on line.  What has happened in the past is that the clubs have used the last year’s sales to determine what they order.  For example, a club sold only 10 Starting Points last year, so they only order 10 for this year. Then they sell only 8.  Nationally, that has worked out to 2000 sold in one year so 2000 get ordered, but only 1600 get sold.  So the following year 1600 are ordered and only 1200 are sold.  We buy hundreds more than we sell.

5. Do you have a suggestion not previously mentioned that could help AVA with The Starting Point?

     Your responses to any or all of the foregoing questions can be transmitted to Sam via your Club or through me.

Ken

Kenneth G. ("Ken") Miles

South Central Region Director

3613 East 55th Street

Tulsa, OK   74135-3811

Home:  918.745.0212

Mobile:  918.706.6063