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40/365 (February 9, 2010) – It’s funny, so many aspects of my life are so digital and have been for ages. Photos are almost all digital, I ripped every CD i own to mp3 format and have downloaded thousands of music files. I am in the process of digitizing all of the remaining vinyl. I download movies, TV shows, and the computer is even my digital PVR (the VCR is just a clock now..and usually wrong). My courses are online, and I write technical documents for the government and never actually print a page. Everything is submitted electronically.

But there is one aspect of the analogue world that I refuse to give up…. reading. I receive my newspaper each morning at the front door, and reading for pleasure? Only on paper. No Kindle or Sony e-reader for this girl.

One of the organizations I volunteer for recently brought up the idea of getting rid of our paper newsletter. I was told later that everyone assumed I would be all for it since I manage the website and I am the resident computer nerd. I suppose I shocked them all when I vehemently spoke out against it. If every one of our members was actively involved, sure, I’d probably say go for it. But for many members the newsletter is the only contact that they have with the Squadron. Email newsletters are impersonal and in an increasingly connected world, who has time to read everything that reaches your inbox…if it even reaches it.

I’m sure many people would say that they would go to the website to get their news, but my question is “For how long?” Like anything else in this world, if it takes effort, it will probably fall by the wayside. And if there isn’t a sheet of paper lying around to be picked up and read over coffee, stuck to the fridge as a reminder…whatever…it is soon forgotten.

One of our ExCom members wanted me to print an essay in the newsletter. It could be summed up in a sentence or two (but he’s not really good at being concise). I turned down his tome and instead asked members to go to the website and take a survey to let us know if they would prefer paper or to visit the site (because I won’t put the effort into desktop publishing for an e-newsletter when I can just simply post the information in html format). A week and a half later…14 people of about 400 members have taken the time to go to the site and do the survey…and it’s 50:50 at the moment. Which supports my theory that the website is predominantly used by our current and interested students, and not by our members…which means that the only way we reach them is by paper.

I prefer paper please.