Rock Garden Quarterly

Proofs are signed off now with Allen Press and I hope that members will start receiving the Quarterly in the first week in October!

malcolm

Quarterly is now printed and is being posted out from Allen Press in Kansas so you should be getting it pretty soon. I've had an advance copy and there are no obvious disasters so I'm much relieved! 

Malcolm

Really good that many people have now got the Quarterly and the responses have been very positive. Glad you like the use of pictures and what Rick says is exactly what I was trying to do so that is really good. I want to give the Quarterly a friendly feel which makes beginners feel comfortable and at the same time manage to include properly sophisticated articles.

Thanks to Trond and Rick for posting their congrats and to everyone else who has been in touch - do feel free - I will try and respond to ideas that are offered.

That's one of the things I'm really keen to monitor Cliff so that I know just how long it takes to get to people in different places. Hope it arrives soon.

It's not just the pond Cliff, it's also the mountains and rivers.  No sign of the Quarterly yet here in Western Canada.  Mind you, once Canada Post takes on its part of the delivery chain, canoes do sometimes sink in the rapids.

I shouldn't think it is that your membership has lapsed (altho you could check with Bobby Ward) since the order that people receive the Quarterly seems pretty random. I'm going to enquire of Allen Press sometime about the dispatch process to try and find out why there are such discrepancies.

That would be good fermi - and I haven't received my normal membership copy yet either.

Got mine today!  The  new look is very nice... will start reading soon!

The RGQ has finally made it west of the Canadian Rockies.  It was entrusted to Canada Post in Niagara Falls; probably trucked there from the US to avoid international postal costs.

The layout is excellent and I like the emphasis on actual rock gardening which gives the RGQ a distinctive flavour.  Great job Malcolm.  :D  I suspect plaudits are also due to the NARGS Board for approving the additional printing costs with the use of colour throughout.

I want to start by thanking all those who've posted such positive comments about the way the Quarterly looks and the range of content - more updates for the next issue which I'm deep into now - since the weather here has turned into winter - cold, wet hail this morning and this evening I'm driving a 90 miles across the North Yorkshire Moors to do a presentation - working on the new issue is a really good indoor activity.

The other main run of comments is about delivery time - seems that it takes about three weeks for it to progress from Lawrence, Kansas, to the furthest corners of the US - real snail mail! And to most of Canada and Europe (UK at least) much the same. Canadians copies I understand to be freighted to Canada in a batch before being individually dispatched on. So far Fermi, you hold the record with a five-and-a-half week delivery but then at least it feels like it's a good long distance delivery, and we all envy you being well on into spring. I do know that Todd (October 12th) finally got his copy (and a personal contributor's copy) just before he set off to South Africa. Anyway Membership Secretary Bobby Ward and I are keeping in touch with Allen Press about the process. Their statement to us was that 15 working days should see all US copies delivered. My objective is to have each issue ready for dispatch two months after the deadline date, so for the next issue, deadline was November 1st, and dispatch should be by January 1st. If its ready early that's a bonus but that is my target date.

One last thing to ckarify - going back to a comment by David Sellars (Oct 20th) the Fall issue was managed to come in at the same cost as the average of the previous four issues - 80 pages made up of 32+32+16 being a very cost-efficient form. But with the donations from last year toward more color and pages in the Quarterly it gives me the financial space to make some more changes which will be obvious with the Winter issue - then the only problem is to keep it up !

PLeased you liked the Seedex article - I thought it came out well - hope it does have that effect!

The new issue is now in the post and people should start receiving it pretty soon now - before New Year I anticipate. It seems to take about three weeks from the first person tot he last person in the US, Canada only seems to be a few days behind that.

The printer is very efficient at getting things from me signing the issue off (when I finally say it's ready to print) and actually getting it into the post - no more than ten days. Apart from actually editing the articles, and doing the photo layouts (much of which obviously is well under way before the deadline) the most time-consuming (and unnerving) thing is color-balancing the photos for printing. The nature of the process always makes this a problem stage but I'm not unhappy with what has come through the process. And some of the photographs sent to me are so good that they deserve the very best its possible to give them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - we've now had snow on the ground since 25th November with only about two days when we saw that the was grass and other things under the snow! Just hope the airports are open in Manchester, Chicago and DC so we can get to Washington for our New Year visit to our elder son and family. Last year it was Christmas when we came over and all three airports we used had been closed by snow two or three days before we travelled but had re-opened, do we're keeping our fingers crossed.

First couple of messages from people that they have now received the Quarterly - Phyllis Gustafson in southern Oregon and Mark McDonough in Massachusetts.  Its rather like waiting for your seeds to germinate - but at least you know that it should be in the next couple of weeks.

Happy New Year

Great to know the Quarterly is spreading out - heard from Sue Olsen in Bellevue, WA, that its got to her, so its getting around. And its really nice that people like the new format. Hope its going to start arriving in Europe in the next week.

I just received my NARGS journal last week and have to say all the changes have made for an awesome read.  Absolutely nothing to dislike.

Great work to everyone involved.
Norm

Hi Norm:  As a rather old "newbie", welcome.  Guess, since you have already received the Quarterly, mine shouldn't be long in coming either.  I too like the new format - the old one was great as well but sometimes  a change is refreshing, both for editors and recipients.  Am amazed at all the volunteer work that goes into these things.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

My own copy hasn't arrived this side of the Pennines either, Cliff - but now I'm starting to expect it any day !

And for Mary Ann and Chuck - on the East Coast of US Bill Brown on Long Island has got it a couple of days ago  -and he's often a late arrival. So it can't be long.

I finally got mine on Jan. 13 - lots of interesting reading!  I like the new format - very fresh and colourful, and it is especially nice to have photos within the articles.

Good to know its got to you Lori. And that you liked it.

Still no sign that it has arrived in Europe (including UK) - you're not the only one Trond - hope its close.

My personal copy has arrived this morning so yours should be there any time. Copies left Allen Press on December 17th (for everywhere) so we are obviously all at the whim of US and international postal services. I always used to reckon that it took up to six weeks for my copy to arrive in England after the nominal publication date. Doesn't seem to be quite that long - and this was a difficult issue to judge by because of Christmas and New Year. Apparently foreign copies go to Chicago where they are sent overseas in country batches (perhaps only twice a week) and only then split up and sent on individually.

Just got back last night from family visiting so it's not that I've been ignoring comments - just away.

Really pleased that it's got to you Fermi - and that you liked it so much - it only seems to take about a week longer to get to Australia than the UK which is quite encouraging. And I hope that the next one will get from dispatch to members rather quicker since Christmas won't be a factor.

I quite agree Cliff about posting some pages etc from the Quarterly but I've been waiting for members to get their copies first - I wanted people to see it first when it arrived through their letter boxes rather than on the website. Hope to get some of that posting done this week. As far as downloadable back issues NARGS is looking to digitize past issues and that's a whole different job. But some pdfs of this last issue will be appearing. And then after each issue I'll post some elements once it has reached members.