Newsletter Archive Request

[RonG]

I would like to request that the Club archive all past Newsletters onto the ORCA website. A searchable repository of all the great articles written by Club members would be a great asset for anyone doing research. I find myself looking for a maker's information and remember seeing it in one of the past Newsletters. The problem is, I don't remember which year or issue it was. This is very frustrating and with today's technology, unnecessary.

I started archiving Newsletters for FATC back in 2006 and Joe Yates has been graciously been keeping it up to-date ever since. It's not that hard. You simply have to scan the document, create a "searchable" pdf file and then ftp it to the website. It doesn't take up much memory. Richard probably already has the digital database and scanning may not be necessary. I would be willing to help in anyway I can. See links below from FATC website.

Newsletter index:
http://fatc.net/Newsletter.htm

Newsletter example from 2006:
http://fatc.net/Newsletter/july06a.pdf

[Steve]

Ron, The ORCA Store has copies of The History of the Fishing Reel, which contains an index of ORCA articles from the dawn of time till last year.

[RonG]

Thanks Steve, yes I have the book and use it. Unfortunately, I do not have all the old Newsletters. I would selfishly like to get rid of paper. Let's bring ORCA into 2015.

[wrong99]

The book is an awesome reference. Not to get off-subject, but do non-members have access to all past Reel News issues? Thanks.
Mark

[john elder]

No.... Thats been a privilege of membership.

[Reel Addictive]

No.... Thats been a privilege of membership.

How do we differentiate between forum members and club members when a request is made?

I only ask because it seems relevant to our discussion of how to grant access to a restricted forum for some and not others. In fact any "services" offered to club members but not forum members would function according to the same programmed principles.

Now I do believe these benefits should be teased to the non members, just not available. Call it obvious incentives to pay dues.

William

[Roger Schulz]

Ron

As Steve note, we have developed a comprehensive index to all articles appearing in the Reel News. I will be updating for 2015 in the next week or so. I believe Brain will be looking how this could be made available to the membership for searching particular subjects electronically.

Regarding making all back issues electronically available would present to me some possible problems. If all issues are available electronically, a member could join for just one year and would be able to get all back issues unless you charge for the electronic files like we charge for back issues - same price.

Ron, go ahead an order a complete set of back issues. They are still 30 percent off for multi-year orders.

Roger

[RonG]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for reading my recommendation. I must confess the genius of this conversation. I recently moved from one house to another. During my 35 plus years of reel collecting, I had accumulated Xerox paper boxes full of back issues of all the ORCA Newsletters, NFLCC Newsletters, FATC Newsletters, several obsolete Antique Tackle Newsletters, UK Tackle Newsletters and a gazillion reel sales lists (remember when we did that?). I realized that saving all this paper was ridiculous for me. I decided to downsize and donate all this good stuff to collectors. I'm sure some of you may remember I donated the first 10 years of the ORCA Newsletters to the auction in Dania, FL Show.

Anyway, I firmly believe that the more information that is available for people to find on Google, the more the Club would benefit. There's nothing that enforces a new collector's interest in collecting more than finding out information about a reel found at a flea market or garage sale. Without information for the person to discover, their interest is a dead end. We can't keep this as a secret society that only shares information among ourselves.

That's all I have to say and I hope the Board considers my recommendation.

[Midway Tommy D]

How do we differentiate between forum members and club members when a request is made?

Roger can correct me if I'm wrong but it is my understanding that he checks the current ORCA "club" membership list and verifies the requester/petitioner is a current ORCA member. I think Marion the Librarian, aka Jon, does the same thing regarding library document requests.

It is also my understanding that forum members that are not current ORCA "club" members are listed only in the forum index until they actually obtain a "club" membership.

Tom

[RonG]

It's approaching the 1 year anniversary of my request for the Club to consider a searchable digital database of all the old Newsletters. Let's face it, we'll all be gone one day. This important information will become lost without archiving for future collectors. I've heard all the reasons why we can't do it. I think we can do it. How can I help? Let's do it!

[john elder]

Ron, it's a matter of getting the knowledge to put the material up. Betty is working with Matt to come up to speed on modifying the website and I'm sure that will be done soon. It's been considered and approved, as far as I know....just a matter of getting things done in a volunteer organization.

[RonG]

Thanks John,

Do we have a plan and schedule? That's the first thing we need. I'll volunteer to help.

[john elder]

Well, the timing is incredible!....Betty just sent out notification of many new additions and cleanup actions she has taken on our main website and more additions/changes will continue rapidly, I'm sure. Relevant to this conversation, a partial Reel News Index is now posted in the ORCA Store:

http://orcaonline.org/services/reel-news/back-issues/


which you can get to any time by clicking on home, then enter the ORCA Store and click on Past Reel News Issues.

[Mike N]

Thanks for posting that link, John.

Nicely done and thanks to all who spent time compiling that index.

Mike N.

[kyreels]

This is a major accomplishment. We now have a full index of Reel News, as well as a bibliography. It is all available in all screen sizes, on a full size monitor,
Tablet, or mobile phone. I checked, and no other piscatorial collector club seems to have that. No one has anything as good as Reel Talk or the online store or our available and searchable information.

ORCA wins the best club website by far. My congratulations to all the people that made this happen, and it is a lt of folks. It can always be improved, but this club is heading in the rght direction.

[john elder]

Not to drop names or anything, but thank Roger Schulz and Steve Vernon for putting that index together and to Betty Barr, who unlike that deadhead former president, stopped playing with her food, reached in her wallet, and got us the internet help we've needed for years!...and to Matt Wickam, who has stepped up to the plate to help facilitate it all!! A big thanks from all of us!

[Brian F.]

A very enthusiastic "I second that"! and Thank You very much!

[kyreels]

Also have to add that the website could not run without the steadfast and continuous contributions of Brian F., whom we owe tremendous thanks. When I win Powerball, I am going to buy you all the reels.

[colby sorrells]

Wonderful tool for researchers. Hopefully it can be updated on a regular basis. Big time saver and sure it will help sell some back issues also. Thanks to all involved. Colby

[Roger Schulz]

The comprehensive reel news index will be update at the end of each year. The current is through 2015. 2016 will be added in December.

Roger

[colby sorrells]

G R E A T! I use it every day. Colby

[bettybarr]

I am working to get the new Comprehensive Bibliography of all Reel News articles up in several places on the homepage. It is available to everyone but the magazine itself must be ordered on the Store.

To access it on the homepage go to: Member Services
then go to: The ORCA magazine, The Reel News.
Then go to: Back Issues of Reel News. The link is positioned just before the list of years of the back issues.
I am waiting for my code guy at eLink to make this link to the bibliography more prominent and bigger. I can edit now but code is another thing!!

This is a work in progress so if you see anything else to add or correct, let me know.
I have also added a button for access to the ORCA eBay Store from the homepage.

The event calendar has been updated too with a link to Joe's Board.

[Teal]

Hey Fellow ORCAns ... Guess what?

All past issues of The Reel News have been digitized! Well, not ALL ... I need Roger to send me four missing issues I did not have here. But you get the gist.

I am undergoing the long process of making them searchable PDFs -- so before long it will be WORD SEARCHABLE!

Add to this around 35,000 pages of catalogs (also to be word searchable) and you're going to have the finest fishing history database in HISTORY.

-- Dr. Todd

[Reel Addictive]

This will be an absolutely amazing upgrade.
Thank you Dr. Todd and everyone else who has contributed to this process.

William

[scottorock]

Wow! Awesome! Will this only be available to member's only?