Dear fellow Old Bedfordians,
Good news – from now on the OB section of the Ousel magazine will be available free online here to all OBs who have the technology to access the OB Club website. Links will also be available on Eagle Connect, Facebook and our other digital platforms! This means that going forward, hopefully most of our members will have access to this major OB Club publication, rather than just the limited number who see it now.
Hard copies of the full Ousel will continue to be made available by post to all OB Club subscribing members, unless they tell us that they would rather just receive the digital version. Some will, some will not. A number of members of the OB Council, for example, have already indicated that an on line version would be their preference, myself included. That said, we do not underestimate the incredibly valuable support we receive from the subscribing members and have no intention of removing this benefit, which is so valued by so many, unless that is their individual choice.
Why have we done this? In one word, accessibility – not nearly enough OBs see the Ousel at present and this is something that has to change. The Club is currently carrying out a review of its communication with its members – much needed as shown by the recent survey results, given the ever changing ways in which people choose to communicate and receive information now, and the costs and effort involved in producing magazines. More will be said on this later.
A huge amount of effort is put into the production of the Ousel and it should be of great interest to all OBs. We know that the OB Review is very popular, the OB section of the Ousel is similar and contains some interesting articles. So it should be just as popular! Now, we hope, we can reach out to the whole Club with this important publication. Enjoy!
President, OB Club – David Murray (1969-76)