[Dx-qsl] Reimbursing the Manager (long)

[Steven Rutledge]

Hi Ron and the group.  I have noticed this with some managers.  Here is
my take on it.  Good managers are hard to find.  The labor involved is
incredible.  I know having managed myself for years (C6AFP via N4JQQ). 
I know what just a small number of cards entails.  Most serious DXers
spend thousands of dollars on gear to become one of the "deserving." 
Personally, it doesn't matter to me how I get the card.  If I spend a
buck and it comes back via that country's postal service, so be it.  If
the manager sends it via the US mail, I can live with it.  The choice as
to whether you go direct is up to you.  If you don't feel good about the
way a manager runs his or her operation, you can always wait for the
next one that will QSL via the buro.  I think your point is valid and
interesting but it all comes down to whatever the manager wants to do. 
BTW, I have great luck with the buro and use it whenever I can.  I also
send a lot of cards direct too if I really need it.  

I am hesitant to criticize any manager who gets the cards out unless
there is really something egregious going on. 

It will be interesting to see what the others have to say including the
managers who are subscribed.  

Happy New Year!

Steve, N4JQQ 

Ron Notarius WN3VAW wrote:
> 
> Bear with me as I lay this out; it's been bothering me for awhile now, and
> I'd like to hear some consensus on how to handle it.
> 
> I'm preparing a bunch of QSL cards to go overseas to various managers.
> Quite a few of these overseas managers are ones that I've dealt with for a
> variety of stations on & off for years.
> 
> Most managers have, in recent years, requested either $2 or two IRC's to
> cover return postage.  Fine; no problem there, considering the cost of air
> mail postage overseas.
> 
> But what I've also noticed is that a certain percentage of the, shall we
> say, "regular" managers who insist on $2/2 IRC's have some method of
> returning my SAE via the US mail.  In short, I'm seeing my $2 go, not to an
> air mail stamp from overseas, but a $.37 domestic First Class stamp.
> 
> Since at present, even with the new job, I have to watch my shekels, this
> concerns me.
> 
> Yes, I know that very often $2 or two IRC's is actually more than enough to
> cover return air postage (but one wasn't) and that the excess funds from
> those occurrences go to help pay misc. costs, like printing the cards and
> the bureau packages and maybe paying some of a DXpedition's expenses.  Fine,
> that's long been understood.  And I understand that sometimes, there is a
> special occasion (such as a relative traveling to the US on vacation, or
> being here for a convention or hamfest like Visalia or Dayton and taking
> advantage of the situation) that permits the manager to take advantage,
> directly or indirectly, of the US mails -- and that in these circumstances,
> some of my funds went to help other transit costs.  Fine; no problem there.
> 
> What I'm wondering about, though is those managers who routinely, every
> month, manage to pull this off?  Some use an APO from a US military base
> overseas, and others have some other "regular" method to do so -- what or
> how, I don't know.
> 
> Understand, as I ask this, I'm not objecting to the manager recovering
> direct postage costs, or indirectly some of the other costs (like card
> printing and maintaining a PO box and such).  Nor am I objecting to making a
> donation, at least not when it's my choice.
> 
> But when I KNOW that the overseas manager is going to somehow return my QSL
> via the US mail system, am I justified in sending an SASE stamped with a US
> first class stamp?  And/or sending the SASE plus, at my discretion,
> additional funds as a donation?
> 
> Remember, every situation is a little different.  DXpeditions and other "one
> shot" managers are not what I'm asking about here; very often, they're
> trying to stretch the funding for return QSL postage as much as possible,
> and find all sorts of ways to do so (many of which have been discussed here
> in the past).  Nor am I concerned with domestic managers... let's even say
> North American managers; I know that many of the Canadian managers live
> close enough to the border to drive over (amazing how many cards via VE
> managers get mailed from Buffalo NY!), but I also know that some of my $1
> helps cover their gas and trouble; no problem there.  I don't mind making a
> donation when I can, but sometimes I can't.  And I don't mind helping out
> some of the best managers stateside by buying excess IRC's when I can, or
> sending them extra stamps I sometimes have sitting around (usually when
> postage goes up and I have more $.01 or $.03 "make up" stamps than I need).
> 
> I sometimes wonder about the "regulars," though.  Again, I know that the
> excess $ is being put to good use (I certainly do NOT think that most
> managers are making a living at this!  Though there's one or two I wonder
> about...), but am I sending some of them much more than either I have to,
> and/or they expect?
> 
> This is not meant to be petty or trivial.  But I need to know, because
> sometimes (like recently, when work was light at the beginning of the month,
> which meant a meager paycheck yesterday) it makes all the difference between
> sending out 3 or 4 direct requests versus 8 or 10.
> 
> 73, ron wn3vaw
> 
> "New Jersey - the most American of all states.  It has everything from
> wilderness to the Mafia.  All the great things and all the worst, for
> example, Route 22."
> Jean Shepherd K2ORS (SK), Newark Sunday News, 11 January 1970
> 
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