[Nottingham] After the 4th July NLUG Computer Fair Stall

[Neil Stevenson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin [mailto:martin at ml1.co.uk] 
> Sent: 07 July 2004 04:33
> To: nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: [Nottingham] After the 4th July NLUG Computer Fair Stall
> 
> ...
>
> 1: It is a bad idea to give anything away completely free of 
> charge/cost. There were very definitely certain groups that were just 
> grabbing for the sake of grabbing and were very happy to grab 
> a "free" 
> CD and crib sheet to then quickly backtrack when asked for a 
> few pence 
> so that we could burn some more CDs;
>
> ...
>

Absolutely right.  Asking for a minor contribution to cover the cost of
the blank CD (even just 50p) can have some interesting effects:

1. It gives the item 'value' - the person taking it away has 'paid' for
it, and is hence likely to use it.  They might even ask more serious
questions rather than making dumb-ass statements like 'its too different
to windows to learn' (don't really want them having a copy of the OS
anyway - they'll need loads of help to install it, and who are they
gonna ask for that help?)

2. You filter out the 'freebie grabbers' who only go round grabbing free
pens, badges, etc.  If you want to cater to these guys, then get some
pens or badges made.

3. You wont need as many copies of the disks.

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!

Neil.