Got a letter in the mail the other day and it had the HPOCA logo on it.  Boy was I excited when I opened it up and it was addressed to "William" and I saw it was signed by Terry Allen.  I am thinking I must be pretty important to the club since no one else has been able to receive any sort of communication from our president.  Well, you can imagine my disappointment when I found out it was just a form letter advising that my membership expires in the near future and I should consider sending in my dues.

Okay, maybe the first 3 of the above sentences are sort of tongue in cheek.  However, I do have a question about the wording of the letter.  To my way of thinking it makes it appear that getting the magazine is the main reason to send in you dues.  Being a member of the club comes off as being secondary to subscribing to the magazine.  Well, as a matter of fact I did not think I was subscribing to the magazine (I "subscribe" to Successful Farming) I thought I was paying to be a member of the HPOCA and receiving the magazine is just one of the benefits.  

Maybe the powers that be should consider revising the letter if as stated in the first paragraph of the letter they really believe there is more to being a member than the magazine.  In particular I would delete the word subscription  from the letter and change the last sentence,  quote "Thanks for subscribing and being a Part of the HPOCA." end quote. I would suggest that the sentence be change to read: "Thanks for continuing to be a member of the HPOCA and allowing us to provide The Hart-Parr/Oliver Collector magazine for your enjoyments."

Bill Brandt