K-Factor vision of the future - Think forwards not backwards. .

[Henderson,Eric]

The paper K-factor is a very and much needed document. No doubt about it.

What must be recognized is that the system by which a K-Factor comes to life
is desperately OLD thinking and fails ALL THE TIME! 

To view the On-line-news capabilities as a spin-off of the K-Factor is the
same old thinking. We need to design from the other direction. The reason
that we continually get into trouble with our newsletter is that we put all
of our eggs in one basket and then continually drop it!

To be successful you need to collect and display information as it is
generated. "Speed is life" in today's world, including hobbies and sports.
Once you are gathering reports and categorizing them in, and with, an
on-line system you can produce K-factors or K-Factor equivalents at the drop
of a hat. 

The vast majority of the work is the collecting and editing of the content.
Once posted in the right bucket, it is a very simple task to go through and
pick what is needed to send to the printer. This includes ad's etc. You send
a CD to the printer and let them compile a K-Factor. This gives you lots of
options should there be any Publishing issues or failures etc.

The best part of this type of design is that you can divide the tasks
amongst several people. An NSRCA news team who make sure that content makes
it to the web-site. A district news editor, an advertising editor, a
features columns editor, completion calendar etc.,  all come to  mind. If
one guy drops out then the system does not collapse and you can find a
replacement because the task is not enormous.

The K-Factor editor role then becomes a very much easier job and is divorced
from the other tasks. It becomes an assembly task that is a much easier and
a more pleasant task to perform. The frequency of publication is also much
easier to predict and control.

What you get is a more reliable paper news service than today PLUS an
additional on-line service that is fully supported.

I am looking at quotes to do this computer work that will be presented to
the NSRCA board. In the interim (Because this does not happen overnight) we,
Tom Weedon in particular, have been arranging for help for Brian. This is
being done with a view to taking it over from Brian and continuing to do it
as we do it today. 

Brian asked us for help at the 2002 NSRCA board meeting. He made it very
clear what he could do between then and the end of the year. We will keep
the K-Factor going but you can only expect a couple of issues more this year
and maybe no buyers guide, unless something changes.

The NSRCA K-Factor was not perfect when I came into this office four years
ago. It is still not perfect as I leave this office. I believe that a
radical redesign as outlined above will fix the situation. Whether I can get
new board to continue this work is really up to you all rather than me.

Regards,

Eric. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Glaze [mailto:billglaze at triad.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 3:38 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: K-Factor vision of the future.


A couple of items rattling around in my (almost empty!) head:
The K-Factor is pointed right at the market most of the manufacturers who
are
advertising therein want to hit.  Most of them who are advertising are
interested in selling their pattern products, specifically, even though they
may
be in other, more general markets.  In those markets, they will use other
avenues. (Model Aviation, MAN, etc.)
The point here is synergism; the advertisers want the K-Factor, as much as
the
K-Factor wants them.  This is important.  Sure, you could advertise pattern
stuff in RCM, and waste a lot of money, because of the small segment of the
hobby who are interested in our specialty.  But, it's just not as good a use
of
the advertising dollar.  So, the sum of advertisers + K-Factor add up to
greater
than each alone. 

  
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