Communications Vision
The Communications Department of The Augustan Society, Inc., is charged with the production of print publications, online publications, reprints, back issues, websites, social media, and email services.
Contents
Periodicals
Augustæum
Proposal: The Society should work toward publishing Augustæum on a monthly schedule, presuming sufficient funding and material enough for four pages are available.
Proposal: The Society should conduct a survey to test the level of interest in publishing Augustæum electronically, and a decision made about the value of devoting the time needed to reformat as HTML (versus publishing as a PDF file).
Headquarters Staff have been authorized by a previous administration to conduct such an email survey. They are presently looking to combine this with a Member Interest Survey under the auspices of the Dean of Studies.
The Augustan Omnibus
Proposal: The Society should reduce the publishing frequency of The Augustan Omnibus to annual; targeting 36 pages/issue minimum, until such time as the Society's finances and the rate of submissions are able to support an increased frequency of the same minimum size.
To aid in fundraising, advertising is accepted. Historically, these have primarily been support ads from members, but there is also a history of commercial advertising of relevant products and services. To date, this has largely been a reactive program, with only occasional calls for ads, resulting in a fill rate insufficient to the need for filler copy.
Proposal: The Society should establish an Advertising Manager under the auspices of the Finance Committee or Treasurer with a charge to ensure that sufficient ad copy is available for the layout needs of The Augustan Omnibus, and that done, to maximize income.
Rosarum
Proposal: The Society should continue to publish Rosarum, the newsletter of the Noble Company of the Rose, at such frequency and size as that group is able to support with copy and funding.
Books
The Society has the capacity to become a publisher of scholarly items, and doing so cannot help but enhance our reputation in our fields. Print-on-demand technology (assuming a reliable small-batch binder can be identified) and pre-publication sales will limit the investment required to that needed for promotion and advertising.
Proposal: The Society should institute a program of book publishing, both leveraging the material already on hand and inviting original work.
The Augustan Society Roll of Arms
The Society's program of Registration of Arms is of limited value if those registrations are not made public in some way. The Online Armorial is one tool for this, but it is not the only one. It is also suitable to use published rolls as a general fundraiser, as has been done in the past.
Proposal: The Society should publish additional volumes of the Augustan Society Roll of Arms as registrations permit.
Proposal: The Society should reprint the first three volumes of the Augustan Society Roll of Arms in color.
Proposal: The Society should publish special rolls for Sub-Groups of the Society, such as the Noble Company of the Rose, as those Sub-Groups request.
A Continuation of Paget's Ancestry of the Prince of Wales
This monumental effort has been published in 24 parts in various publications of both the Augustan Society and the Octavian Society. It will take a substantial effort to scan, OCR, reformat, and publish. The result may run to perhaps 800 pages and require multiple volumes (more if the author continues to submit material).
Proposal: The Society should work to publish Germond's A Continuation of Paget's "Ancestry of the Prince of Wales".
Vigil: A Knight's Training Program
This would be based on the Van Dusen program of the previous century, after a substantial edit. It would be best if the Rose Training Officer were on the editorial group, or better, headed it.
Proposal: The Society should work to publish Vigil: A Knight's Training Program, and if possible, to do so in support of the Knights Training Program of the Noble Company of the Rose.
Augustan Lineages
This would be a series, each volume containing a number of descents from some worthy (or perhaps the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem). These would be a combination of lineages published and those submitted to qualify for various Sub-Groups.
Proposal: The Society should work to publish a series of volumes of collected lineages from those submitted or previously published.
Guide to Orders of Chivalry
This valuable guide has been withdrawn due to the data within having become obsolete over time. It should be a straightforward matter to edit, and if each Order were to get a separate page or pages, keeping it up to date in future should be easy.
Proposal: The Society should publish the Guide to Orders of Chivalry and see that it is updated as necessary.
The Little Manual of Heraldry
This work is poorly organized, eccentric in coverage, and printed in black & white. It deserves a thorough revision and color artwork. The existence of a large backlog of the third edition should not discourage this effort.
A new version, once the structure has been determined, could be printed in The Augustan Omnibus in chapters as each is completed.
Proposal: The Society should work to publish a new edition of The Little Manual of Heraldry that is better organized, more comprehensive, and in color throughout.
The Augustan Society Roll of Arms
The Society's program of Arms Registration is of limited value if those registrations are not made public in some way. The Online Armorial is one tool for this, but it is not the only one. It is also suitable to use published rolls as a general fundraiser, as has been done in the past.
Proposal: The Society should publish additional volumes of the Augustan Society Roll of Arms as registrations permit.
Proposal: The Society should reprint the first three volumes of the Augustan Society Roll of Arms in color.
Proposal: The Society should publish special rolls for Sub-Groups of the Society, such as the Noble Company of the Rose, as those Sub-Groups request.
Sales
Back Issue Sales
Proposal: The Society should convert all former publications to electronic form; first as PDF files, then as text files with improved illustrations where possible.
The PDF files will permit us to reprint both the whole magazines, and individual articles on demand. This will eliminate the need to keep a backlock of stock.
Converting these to text files will permit us to bring them up to modern standards, enhance the photographs and illustrations, and make large-print editions available. This will also be a requirement if we are to develop full-text searching in support of researchers.
Proposal: The Society should create independent issues of back issues published as part of the Augustan Society Ominbus so that they may be sold separately.
Reprint Sales
Proposal: The Society should continue to offer Reprints, creating and expanding reprints on a topical basis. Single-article reprints should be phased out as stock is exhausted.
It may prove prudent to develop a system whereby individual articles may be ordered, but this may take substantial work to develop and deploy.
Internet
The Augustan Society Website
Proposal: The Society should monitor and update the Main Website on an ongoing basis to ensure that it remains complete and correct.
The Augustan Store Website
Proposal: The Society should monitor and update the Online Store website on an ongoing basis to ensure that the offerings are complete and correct; that they have full contents data; that the genealogical titles have surname lists; and that pricing reflects current costs.
The Forum; an Online Forum
Proposal: The Society should establish an online forum in some suitable venue, possibly the Main Website, wherein public conversations about the Society and Augustan topics are encouraged, as soon as a moderator and suitable rules may be established.
Email Systems
Proposal: The Society should obtain an email server that is tailored to the unique needs of the Society. This may be a commercial product, or a custom application running on a Society server.
The email server should support the current email addressing scheme, perform spam filtering, and encourage the creation of groups (such as Directors or members of various Study Groups).
If possible, it should also permit Headquarters to receive most mail in a common inbox accessible by all HQ staff who could either deal with each, or transfer it to another staffer more suited to respond. It must also allow for the storage of emails sent and received in a structured manner so that any staff member could research conversation threads without regard to who participated in them.
