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BY PRAKASH MULLICK, P.ENG.
Fort McMurray Branch
Member-at-Large
In order to ensure that members receive notices of APEGGA
Fort McMurray Branch activities promptly, and to reduce mailing
costs, the branch executive has compiled the e-mail addresses
of a majority (about 98 per cent) of APEGGA members and members
in training.
Electronic communication has the following benefits:
- It's instantaneous, secure and confidential.
- The message can be forwarded to others who may benefit
from participating in APEGGA activities and functions.
- Communication is not disrupted or delayed by postal service
interuptions.
- Information can be entered in members' electronic scheduler.
- There's a significant reduction in cost for printing,
handling and mailing notices.
In a 12-month period, six to eight meeting notices and two
or three newsletters are sent to all members in the Regional
Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Given that we have about 700
members, postage costs would run between $3,000 and $4,000
per year. Canada Post has announced that the price of a stamp
for a first-class letter will increase by one per cent on
Jan. 1, 2004.
Add to this the cost of printing, paper, envelopes and handling,
and it is not unreasonable to say that the cost for mailing
would approach about $5,000 annually. Did you know that the
annual budget for the Fort McMurray Branch varies between
$5,000 and $6,000?
If e-mail were used for sending meeting notices to members
throughout Alberta, the savings in mailing costs alone would
be significant - $15,000 or more, by eliminating just one
mailing. Think about it! Wouldn't you rather have your membership
dues benefit you than Canada Post?
We would like to assure members that the e-mail list would
be controlled by APEGGA and used exclusively for distributing
notices and newsletters about APEGGA activities. In all electronic
communications from APEGGA, the e-mail address will remain
hidden and will not be disclosed to others.
The Fort McMurray Branch intends to start using e-mail for
sending notices, starting this month. We recognize that in
the beginning, there may be some glitches, however we anticipate
that these will be ironed out in due course.
We encourage all APEGGA members and M.I.T.s in Wood Buffalo
to provide their current e-mail address, either by contacting
bjensen@apegga.org,
at APEGGA head office, or me, Prakash Mullick, P.Eng., at
mullick1@telusplanet.net.
We assure members that their e-mail addresses will be kept
confidential and used only for official communications from
APEGGA.
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