"to affiliate with the chapter that has the best newsletter"

[JHertzman@xxxxxxx]

Adding to what Tom Suter and others have said in response to Eric Lutkin's
wish "to affiliate with the chapter that has the best newsletter", his wish
bears some analogy to the situation I was in a few decades ago; AROC
membership entitled me to membership in (and the newsletter of) any chapter I
chose, but there was no chapter in my region at that time. 

Each chapter gets a "split" of the national dues paid by the chapter's
members, which supports the chapter newsletter and other activities; some
chapters add a "chapter supplement" if the "split" does not cover the quality
of publication and other costs of what their members want. I wrote all of the
chapters listed in Alfa Owner, explaining my position and my interests in a
technically informative newsletter, and asking if they would send me a sample
back-issue if they thought their newsletter would be a likely choice. About a
third answered, some saying that they were essentially inactive but suggesting
prime candidates among the others. I joined one, but others I found
interesting were amenable to the idea of an "adjunct membership", in which a
member of the national club who was a member of one chapter could be an
"adjunct member" of another, receiving the newsletter, for a personal payment
of an amount equal to the split plus the local supplement, if any. The
national club, for good reasons, does not allow local-only memberships or
newsletter-subscription-only arrangements, but nobody ever objected to my
being a member of the national club and one local chapter and an adjunct
member of two other chapters, receiving what were for my interests the three
best chapter newsletters as well as the national magazine.

All of the chapters nominated for Eric's consideration would be good choices,
and membership in the nearest active chapter is a good choice for many
reasons. If Eric is willing to spend a few dollars more for more value(as he
apparently is, having both ARA and AROC membership) he should be able to enjoy
as many flavors as he finds enticing.

John H. 

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End of alfa-digest V7 #148
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