Bulletin

Bulletin is the newsletter of the Ontario Libertarian Party. Bulletin #1 was published January 1975, about six months after the founding of the Party on July 24, 1974. Eleven issues were printed in 1975, one or two letter-size sheet printed 2-sides. Ten issues were printed in 1976 while the Party was working to become registered under the newly passed Elections Finance Act that required collection of signatures from 25,000 Ontario voters! In July of 1976 the format was changed to 7" x 8.5" booklets, anywhere from 4 to 12 pages. In October 1978 the format changed again to 8.5" x 11" booklets. From 1982 to 1985 the format of Bulletin was 7" x 8.5" booklets. Since the Summer issue of 1986 the format has been 8.5' x 11". The issues in 1986 and 1987 ranged from 8 to 40 pages. Since then Bulletin has been four pages.

For the past decade or more, Bulletin has been mailed quarterly:

• Early March, includes the Financial Statement for the past year compared to the previous year, and the spending budget for the past year and the new year;
• Early June, to promote the annual BBQ and announce the AGM or Convention;
• Early September with details for the AGM/Convention and Registration and Proxy forms; and
• Early December including a report on the AGM/Convention with election results, an appeal for year-end funds and a reminder of the tax credits.

Before the advent of the internet Bulletin was mailed to all members and inquiries. Once email became common, and the Party had a web site, Bulletin was uploaded to the web site and members were sent a link by email. Members, donors and Inquiries without an email were still mailed a printed copy. In 2016 the Executive Committee decided it would help the "Full Slate" project and donations to mail the printed Bulletin  to all members, donors and Inquiries, including members whose membership had expired in the last two years, anyone who had made a donation or an inquiry in the past two years. 

The major steps involved in publishing each issue are as follows;

1. Send out request for submissions. The Bulletin should be in the mail the first week of the month. Allow a week or two for the writers to write their articles, a day or two to layout the Bulletin and three to four days for the printer. Ideally the Bulletin should be delivered on Friday so the stuffing can happen on the weekend.
2. Determine if more envelopes or mastheads are required and order them from the Printer.
3. Follow up with possible submitters
4. Print Bulletin address/donor coupons suitable for #10 window envelopes. See instructions here.
5. Lay out the newsletter and send it to be printed, after determining how many will be mailed (previous step) and how many spares should be printed for New Members.
6. Ensure an adequate supply of #9 and #10 envelopes with return address
7. Ensure newsletter is mailed (currently Maureen Dance is being paid to fold the newsletters, stuff them in the addressed envelopes with a donor coupon and return envelope, sealing and stamping the envelopes and depositing them in a mail box.)
8. Upload Bulletin to web site. See instructions here.
9. Send bulk email to all contacts on CRM announcing Bulletin is online and any important events. See instructions here.

Costs

A question came up at the Nov 12/18 Executive Committee Meeting about how much the Party spends on Bulletin. The following is a summary of what was spent on Bulletin for the four issues between December 2017 and November 3018. We printed 2,585 copies (520 winter, 600 spring, 740 summer and 725 fall). 2,450 were mailed to contacts and 135 were mailed in New Member Kits. The following analysis of unit costs show it costs $2.62 per Bulletrin mailed, or $6,416 for all four issues.

Description	Unit Cost	Total
Print & Fold Bulletin	0.7714	1,890
Postage for mailing to Contacts	0.9605	2,353
#10 window envelopes with return address	0.1554	381
#9 Return envelopes	0.1554	381
Cut address/donor coupons, stuff & stamp	0.5761	1,412
TOTAL	2.619	6,416
Bulletins sent in New Member Kits	0.7714	104

If we continue to mail 700 copies of each issue of Bulletin in 2019 we will spend about $7,350.