In February of this year the Society membership voted to remove the entitlement to receive the Journal as a benefit of membership. The national council subsequently approved a proposal to change the default delivery mode of the Journal to members, from print to electronic. This initiative was undertaken to help correct the Society’s operating deficit.
The Journal remains available to all members electronically via the Internet, as it has been for the past year or so. However, there will be an optional charge if you wish to continue to receive the Journal in paper form by postal mail.
As a result of this change, the Journal is available in both print and electronic forms:
1. All members are entitled to download an enhanced electronic version of the Journal in Adobe Acrobat format. All members who have provided the National Office with a current email address will receive a notice of when it is available for download. Members can, of course, print out part or all of the issue themselves. It can be accessed at: https://www.rasc.ca/jrasc/recent-issues — when prompted enter the correct username and password.
2. Members may subscribe to a printed and mailed version of the Journal for an additional subscription fee of $15/year plus GST ($15US outside of Canada).
There is a phase-in period, after which you will no longer receive, in the postal mail, a paper copy of the Journal unless you have paid the required subscription fee in addition to your membership fee. This change in delivery method will be phased in as follows:
A. Regular and Youth members will continue to receive a paper copy until your membership expires. You will be offered the option of a paper subscription at the time of your next membership renewal and at each subsequent membership renewal. Many members have already volunteered to terminate their paper subscription early and we thank them for that.
B. Regular and Youth members who paid more than one year in advance will be offered the option of a paper subscription at the time of your annual Membership Statement.
C. Life members will continue to receive the print version until the August 2006 issue. In advance of the October 2006 issue, you will be offered the option to continue receiving the print version by subscription on this year’s annual Life Member Statement and on each subsequent year’s statement.
Please note that due to the extra costs incurred by manually processing and mailing single issues or back issues that are not part of a bulk mailing, each issue will cost $3 plus $3 S&H + GST (read as US dollars without GST outside of Canada). To reinstate a subscription during your membership year, you will be charged a pro-rated fee of $2.50/issue + GST.
Contact the National Office at 888-924-7272 or national office@ rasc.ca if you have any questions.