New Man in the Engine Room

-----The information on this page is outdated.-----

See the current list of volunteer officers for the proper address to send dues and data updates.

Who is who now

Aunt Dahlia's president's message in the Winter 1999 Plum Lines noted Tom Wainwright's desire to step down as treasurer and Erik Quick's volunteering to do the job, with thanks to both. Since then, it has become clear that the duties Tom carried out so well for so long are too much to ask one member to take on unassisted. Since Erik will be working on our legal and tax filing matters, the other officers agreed that the maintenance of the database and membership list should be handled by someone else. I've volunteered to take on the post.

Marilyn MacGregor will continue to deal with inquiries and new-member correspondence; I'll handle your address changes and update the membership list, and I'll receive your dues payments, update your membership expiration date, and send the checks off to be deposited.

What happens to what

Telephone numbers and electronic mail addresses are included in our membership list primarily to allow members to communicate with each other. They are also handy if your issue of Plum Lines comes back with "no forwarding address" stamped on it and the officers need to contact you.

If you wish to have your phone and/or e-mail contacts in our database only, and not included in the printed membership list, request that this data be "unlisted"; the default is to print it. And don't worry about "spam." We don't have the time or inclination to broadcast e-mail messages or to dun you by phone or e-mail for renewals.

How to live long and prosper

A few members have asked how the membership renewal process works. We will continue to use the brightly-colored "Dues are due" inserts with Plum Lines to ask for your dues once a year; we now give you a bit of advance warning as well. The new mailing labels carry a date code at the upper right; this is the Plum Lines issue with which your "Dues are due" notice will appear. (The Spring issue is the first issue of each volume and year.) Thus a new member whose check arrived in February 2000 received the Spring 2000 issue as the first issue of the subscription; the dues notice will be inserted in the Winter 2000 issue, the fourth issue sent. As a matter of courtesy, we send a fifth issue with a "Dues are past due" notice if the renewal check is late, but a late-remitter's renewal season will not change; only the year is updated when you pay your annual dues.

We are now able to keep track of multi-year renewals, so if you've just had a good day at the dog races and would rather slip us a check for $40, we can bump up your renewal date by two years and save you a stamp, check, and envelope next year.

Another impostor at the Castle

In my capacity as keeper of the lists, I have taken the ex officio nom de Plum of "Bill Lister," thus joining Pongo (aka "Webster") in claiming a second nom with a literal interpretation of the surname. (On PGW-Net and alt.fan.wodehouse, I remain "George Bevan.")

What I'm up to

Remember to let me know of any changes in your name, address, phone, and e-mail information. If you have Internet access, you can use our new handy-dandy inquiry and update form at http://www.wodehouse.org/membership/ or you can send me e-mail at neil.midkiff@stanfordalumni.org. Send dues payments and written correspondence to
Neil Midkiff
1056 Lorne Way
Sunnyvale CA 94087-5038 
USA

When I'm up to it

If you telephone, please check time differences before ringing up. From 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific time, you're welcome to phone me at (408) 985-2143. This works out to be noon to 2 a.m. Eastern time, or 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. London time.

--Bill Lister (Neil Midkiff)