Sunday 19 July 2009

It's out... so next...

The latest BCN is now out in the mail to people - it's been a slow drip, drip of stuffing and mailing due to other commitments this week. Very pretty it is too, if I do say so.

The ideal target now is to have two more in the next month - a general one, and a BiCon special. I'd like this Special to be a bit more eyecatching than usual, and we've some interested advertisers (or should I say interesting advertisers, oh what lovely lovely advertising people helping cover the cost of making the BiCon Special), but it will need a fair bit of work. And I'm quite tied up already with Prides and my 18th* birthday to attend to.

One thing I'd like to do is have a CoverBis photo shoot. There'll be one at BiCon but one beforehand might be useful too. Volunteers c/o the usual contact places please! :)




* fcvo 18

Monday 13 July 2009

Piece of cake

I do wish Oldham LGBT Pride wasn't always on my damn birthday. I might go otherwise.

Though this year it does have this cake motif going on: a cake with five slices that are supposed to represent...

Slice 1: lesbian and gay
Slice 2: bisexual and trans
Slice 3: older and younger
Slice 4: black, Asian and minority ethnic lgbt and disabled lgbt people
Slice 5: LGBT Families and Friends, Families and Supporters

Now, I'm not lifting a finger to make this event happen and so my criticism comes with precisely that much importance I know. But my first instinct was, shouldn't those latter three be layers of the cake - about five layers in fact - and the first two instead be the four slices?

Or do you get extra cake for being genderqueer and bi, or Asian and gay? Perhaps it's cake as a consolation for oppression. Which, um, sort of works :)

Saturday 11 July 2009

Gah!

You find a new print house... you adjust to the new print house... the new print house hikes its prices up. Bah! Still more frustratingly, it seems the new print house had been doing these prices for about five years and we could have switched ages ago and had a shinier looking magazine.

Between that and the year-on-year rise in postage prices we can't really dither about any longer. BCN subs are going to have to go up in price. The original idea was that the unwaged sub loses a bit of money and the waged basic sub makes a bit more than cost. In practice I think we're losing about £3 a year on the waged sub now -- and would still be doing so if we went back to our old, slightly cheaper but harder to get to print shop.

People also get confused by the way a subscription runs for two years. Simple enough to combine the two problems into one solution: a lower amount to pay each time, but subs come up for renewal yearly instead of every two years.

Now, I must get the accountant in to go over the figures with me before we set the new rates. We have a lovely accountant and I owe her some hobnobs and tea I think :)