Dear friends
Spirited in Boulder
Board members of the High Country Foundation from around the West braved clear skies and balmy January weather to gather in Boulder, Colo., for the group's annual budget meeting. Eleven out of 16 board members made it to Boulder, and 10 made it to the all-day meeting on Jan. 15. (Board president Karil Frohboese was struck down by flu hours after she reached Boulder.)
The board met in Boulder's Unitarian Church to review financial and circulation results for 1993, and to adopt a budget and circulation goals for 1994. The High Country Foundation is a not-for-profit, 501(C)(3) organization whose only present activity is to operate HCN. The board of the High Country Foundation sets policy, establishes budgets, and hires the paper's publisher.
Staff reported that HCN grew by 13 percent in 1993, from 12,250 subscribers at the beginning of the year to 13,898 at the end.
The paper spent $588,000 on operations in 1993, and took in $626,000 from subscriptions, the Research Fund, ads and grants, putting it $38,000 in the black on a cash basis. In addition, HCN received a bequest of $179,000 in 1993 from the estate of Steve Arrowsmith. The board has put 25 percent of the bequest into long-term reserves, with the rest allocated to special projects. These include putting HCN on electronic data bases and developing new ways to promote the paper.
The 1994 budget projects expenses of $778,000 and income of $812,000. The 1994 budget is inflated by an 18-month grant of $115,000 from the Ford Foundation for a special series on the West's land-grant universities.
The board spent some time discussing with staff how the project will affect the paper's operation. Staff is negotiating with a senior editorial person to take over some of publisher Ed Marston's editorial duties, so that Marston can direct the land grant project.
Some board members were unsettled by the speed with which this projected change developed, especially when combined with the coming sabbatical of associate publisher Linda Bacigalupi, who will be leaving in March for six months. Several board members said they feared that direct mail campaigns - which have helped HCN grow from 3,300 subscribers in 1983 to almost 14,000 today - would falter in 1994. Bacigalupi told the board that she had one large mailing scheduled for late January (it went out a week ago) and that the balance of the promotion budget would be used to do a series of small mailings and to send sample copies of the paper throughout the rest of the year. She predicted that the paper would grow by 8 percent, to 14,974, in 1994.
Non-renewing subscribers have caused the paper's growth to slow as circulation has increased. Each year, 30 percent of all subscribers fail to renew. At a level of 10,000, the paper loses 3,000 subscribers annually. At 15,000, the paper loses 4,500 subscribers. However, HCN's ability to find new subscribers through direct mail remains relatively steady, which means that HCN is approaching a stage where it will be able to attract only enough new subscribers to replace the ones who fail to renew. That is why the board has directed that part of the Arrowsmith bequest be used to seek new ways to find subscribers.
The meeting was attended by the following board members: Victoria Bomberry of Forestville, Calif., Michael Ehlers of Boulder, Tom France of Missoula, Mont., Judith Jacobsen of Boulder, Dan Luecke of Boulder, Geoffrey O'Gara of Lander, Wyo., Farwell Smith of McLeod, Mont., Emily Swanson of Bozeman, Mont., Lynda Taylor of Santa Fe, and Andy Wiessner of Denver.
The meeting was followed by a very well attended and spirited potluck. That wasn't surprising - there are almost 1,000 HCN subscribers in Boulder.
Visitors
Because Paonia isn't on an interstate, and because it lies near the top of a valley, we've always thought of it as a destination rather than a stop-over. But in January, we met two readers who were heading from Santa Barbara, Calif., to South America, more or less by way of Paonia. They were Nancy Weiss and Marc Chytilo, starting out on their six-month sabbaticals.
Correction
Walt Hajduk of the Monticello, Utah, office of the Bureau of Land Management called to say that the story on grazing in Comb Wash by Chris Smith in the Jan. 24 issue misidentified Eddie Dutchie as an Anglo who manages the Ute Mountain Ute's grazing allotment. In fact, Dutchie is the Ute Mountain Ute tribal representative from White Mesa. The Anglo who operates the permit is Cleo Bradford. In addition, Bob Ohmart was identified as being from New Mexico State University. He is from Arizona State University. We apologize for the mistakes.
* Ed Marston for the staff
