Re: [Leica] What do we want from the LHSA?

["Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>]

> From: "Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net> has come up with some
> interesting ideas for the future of the LHSA.
>
>
>>     .An improved Viewfinder, move from quarterly to bi-monthly and
> accept advertising.
>
> The Leica Historical Society here in the UK is about a tenth the size
> of the LHSA, and adverts play a significant role in reducing the
> magazine costs. That said, for me one of the pleasures of reading
> Viewfinder is the absence of adverts. But maybe we Europeans find
> adverts more intrusive than our US counterparts do.

The only reason for advertising is to pay the costs of producing the
magazine. Most photo magazines are advertising driven and the whole
presentation is distasteful for me, so distasteful that I do not read any of
them.

There are thousands of magazines in the world with tasteful advertising that
is there to support the editorial.
>
> Bi-monthly would be nice, but that implies:
>
> (1) more work for the editor - does he have the time? And if he does
> have the free time, is this what he'd want to do with it?
>
> (2) more work for the contributors - do they have the time? or the
> information?  Blank pages and no articles to put on them are the stuff
> from which editor's nightmares are made!
>
> (3) ... or more contributors. Do we hear volunteers? (Asked with all
> the guilt of someone who promised the LHSA an article almost two years
> ago, and the LHS an article more than a year ago. My apologies to both
> publications, but real-world work has this terrible habit of consuming
> all my time and then some...)

Another reason for paid advertising.
>
>
>>    .Hire a art director for Viewfinder. Graphically it looks like a
> cheap newsletter from the '60's.
>
> I don't think that the LHSA mag "looks like a cheap newsletter from
> the '60's.". It looks OK to me, and far better than most
> camera-society publications. Being a magazine editor, I notice the odd
> 'orphans & widows' at the top and bottom of columns of text, something
> I don't allow in my own publication, but some of my fellow-editors do.
> It's a plain simple layout, and I like plain simple layouts. Hiring an
> art director needs money, and that money would probably mean having
> adverts. My local store is full of camera magazines stuffed with
> advertisements. I'd rather have an ad-free Viewfinder.

I am a magazine editor myself (also Publisher) of a monthly and it is a lot
of work. Magazines provide a service and the readers deserve the best I can
produce.

Photography is a visual thing a photography magazine should have decent
graphics.
>
>
>>A much better website with regular updates.

OK. I am a minor corporation and my website is completely updated every
month.  http://www.icommag.com
>
> There are major US and international corporations who can't manage
> that! (A certain US aerospace company hasn't updated its site since
> May of last year.) And they've got salaried employees doing the job -
> not volunteers. Once again, it would need a volunteer with the skills,
> the spare time, and the desire to donate that spare time to the LHSA.
>
>
>>    .Have a forum for member feedback.
>
> An expanded web-site could include a area for postings, but at the
> moment isn't feedback one reason for having a readers' letters page on
> the magazine?

Yes of course every four months (reminder: the world is now on internet
time) with a limit of about 800 words at the discretion of the editor.
>
>
>
>>    .Figure a way to get rid of that ol' boy image.
>
> To judge by the LHSA folks who came to Wetzlar in 1999, many of the
> members *are* ol' boys. Here in the UK, the AGM of the LHS produces a
> fine crop of gray & silvery hair. If you mean that the society's
> officers are a small group who tend to shuffle the jobs around in
> different permutations, that's par for the course in most enthusiast
> societies, though most committees would welcome new faces. I'm
> relatively new to the LHSA and the LHS, and I'm already in acute
> danger of being elected to the committee of  the latter. The cold
> hungry waters of the north Atlantic will hopefully keep the LHSA at
> bay!

This means that my perception of Viewfinder is a incestous situation where
the same ol' people get their pictures or stories in all the time to the
exclusion of others.

>
>>    .Hold the Annual Meeting downtown.
>
> As several people have pointed, that would have had advantages.
>
>
>>.Have regional meetings.
>
> I suspect we'll never see a UK chapter of the LHSA. Brits who are
> members of the LHSA are probably members of the LHS as well, so we
> already have a local group. But for the US members, it sounds like a
> good idea. Once again, it may be a question of 'Any volunteers?'. (If
> there are any LHSA members in the London area who are not LHS members,
> I suggest we form an unofficial local chapter of the LHSA at a
> convenient public house. Drop me an email, and I promise the buy the
> first round of drinks - but will try to persuade you to join the LHS
> as well. The same offer goes to any LHSA members whose travels take
> them through London.)
>
> Best regards,
>
> Doug Richardson

I would not have started this rant, except, I like Leicas and I like the
LHSA but I see room for improvement.

Steve
Annapolis

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