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REPORT OF THE PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

GENERAL

Apart from an interesting analysis of its activities, the schedules of sales, the preparation of campaigns and individual pieces of literature of an advertising nature, the preceding Publications Committee asked in its annual report the pertinent question, "Why are 82 per cent of our Class A members not buying the Commercial Section's publications!" The report closed with the optimistic prediction that in time more companies would be purchasers of the Committee literature.

The gratifying realization in part of this prediction is reported. A tabulation of the member companies who have purchased booklets through your Committee shows a total of approximately 300, an increase of 13 per cent over the number reported last year. But even with this gratifying increase in general distribution to member companies there is still a large percentage of our Class A members who have not subscribed to our publications. Fortunately the percentage is a decreasing one and we feel that we can safely predict a continuance of this decrease in the proportion that our publications become known and accepted by the membership.

It would seem to your Committee that the sale and resulting use of our advertising literature is largely a matter of education. To bear out this point, an interesting case that occurred during the sale of the Christmas booklet last winter might be cited. A large number of the companies subscribing for the booklet took less than 1000 copies. One company in a small community in Maine subscribed for only 150 copies. This showed a progressive spirit on the part of the company to which no doubt the expenditure was proportionately as much as, if not more than, the cost of 25,000 copies would be to one of the large companies. This incident, to our minds, clearly defines the general awakening among our member companies to an appreciation of the excellent character of the publications prepared by the Committee. The educational feature that is involved is the principal justification for the existence of your Committee. It is our main desire to show the smaller companies that are not able to maintain an ad

(FOR DISCUSSION SEE PAGE 754)

ing staff the advantages to be derived from high class ad bterature, in the proportion that we are able to secure cooperation of the large companies, are we able to produce stema at small cost, thereby placing the printed matter at the sal of even the smallest central station companies in the

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SALES

alysis of sales covering a period of several years is matter of interest, and your Committee in submitting swang tabelation or the past four years does so with a to showng the healthy financial increase over each preg year in the sale of business getting literature.

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rng the extensive activities of the preceding Com sordable work in corne,tion especially with -a ི་བའི་སྐྲུན་ཨ༅ servire campaigns, it was the consensus of t'e pre est Committee should entire its activities ail inventoried literature to which it 1-1 heir, to publish anh tricly pieces of advertiseg matter 24 he net led and to encourage a wider use of this eral rather than to attempt a more imposing plan of revan g the men bership for the purchase of literature of a more slar cara ter

en't of this p'in we are able to resort the following pre sired by preceding Commiffres

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sales represent publications that had previously been eliminated from the assets of the Committee.

Christmas Booklet

Because of conditions the details of which it is not necessary to mention, the present Committee was not organized until about the 1st of October. It was immediately compelled to provide a publication appropriate to the Christmas season. This was done at once and an initial edition of 100,000 copies of the booklet entitled Useful Christmas Gifts was prepared by the Committee, but was so quickly exhausted that a second edition of 100,000 was printed and then a third edition of 50,000, making the total issue of this one booklet, 250,000. Of this number we are glad to report that the actual sales totaled 238,300 copies which, together with the number issued gratuitously for circularizing purposes, made a total disposal of 240,000 booklets. It is pleasing to report to you that the sale of this unprecedented number was effected by only a single canvass of the membership together with one advertising insert in the National Electric Light Association Bulletin. Your Committee is very much gratified with the result of this single canvass and feels that it is indicative of an increasing support by the membership of the publications prepared for it. We might add that the publicity resulting from the Electrical Prosperity Week of the Society for Electrical Development stimulated the demand for electrical household appliances and without doubt assisted the Committee in disposing of such a large edition.

Electric Range Report

About this time considerable agitation arose as to the publication of the Electric Range Report prepared under the auspices of, and presented before, the Eighth Annual Convention of the Northwestern Electric Light and Power Association at Portland, Oregon. There seemed to be such a widespread call for this publication that after considerable deliberation on the part of the Chairman of the Section, a decision was reached to print an edition of 10,000 copies. After this was decided upon the matter was turned over to the Publications Committee for issue and exploitation. Of the 10,000 copies issued we are glad to report to the Association that the entire edition was soon exhausted, and since then quite a number of inquiries have been made as to the

of obtaining extra copies, but, the expense being so , and the call so relatively small, your Committee did not feel ed in un lertaking another edition.

Verchandising Report

The same is true of the Merchandising Report prepared by e Lor mattre on Merchandising and Recent Developments in Fetal Appliances last year and submitted at the San Fran

A venition A limited edition of 1000 copies has, however, teen peited, of which 471 copies have been sold The remainor are available and can be purchased at 40 cents a copy.

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It is very pleasing to the Committee to report to the Section e cortilence that is shown in the Commercial Section by the general organization At the beginning of the present fiscal year wen t'e control of Rate Research was taken over by the Public inda Committee, that Committee gave to the Commercial Section nr 1 of the sale of this magazine with the request that i; ↑ to secure a larger use of this very excellent and imFulletin The Executive Committee in turn instructed the Pub ations Committee to do what it could to increase the ription list. During the early part of the year it was made on that an increase of even fifty in the number of subscribers be very satisfactory to the Managing Committee It is Caretan pleasurable, therefore, to report to you that up to April Committee has secured 110 new subscribers to this magaTh is is in addition to the very large number of renewals men hers whose subscriptions had expired

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* him, & Manual

ong the practice of the past year or two. Cuihin ʼn of 1916, has been given consilerable, problem its wale is now in progress Up to the time of writing t truet 723 copies of the Manual have been woll Special in te the male regarding this 1916 edition that the present wing e has been ra-l ally changed from preceding years The 1916 m1des not only the complete revised code, bit m al it has a chapter on Concentric Wiring pre; ared by the Cee on Wiring In fact, it is only in those cess!!

through the National Electric Light Association that this descriptive account of concentric wiring and its method of installation will be found.

House Wiring Booklet

One of the publications this Committee decided upon was at new booklet on House Wiring. It was our expectation that this booklet would be issued about the 1st of April so as to be in ample time for the spring house wiring campaigns of the various member companies. Before our plans were perfected the Society for Electrical Development undertook its "Wiring of the Home Month", and as we desired to co-operate as much as possible with that Society, the booklet was hastened to completion and put out more quickly than had been intended. The booklet All Houses are Easily Wired for Electricity followed and as a result of this campaign 137,817 copies have been sold. Furthermore, the entire edition was sold as a result of one campaign letter only and no advertising in the Association Bulletin. In fact the Committee sold not only the entire edition but had orders aggregating approximately 15,000 which it was obliged to decline.

A second edition was considered impossible at this time because of the unprecedented condition of the paper market and the impossibility of securing deliveries of paper in much less than six to eight weeks after order, or about the middle of May or the 1st of June. Even at this late delivery date the cost would have been considerably increased. However, the plates are available and if a demand arises another edition can be prepared.

PROPOSED PUBLICATIONS

The foregoing outlines the actual work done in the way of preparing and selling publications during the present year, but it should be borne in mind that it covers statistics to April 1st only. Industrial Lighting Booklet

The Committee has before it at this writing complete data on a new booklet on Better Industrial Lighting which it hopes to be able to present for your approval at the Convention.

We feel that there is urgent need for such a publication and we hope the booklet will meet with the success that it merits. One Thousand Uses of Electricity

At the beginning of the present year your Committee con

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