So in turn I would like to share some of the information I have come up with.
As Frank pointed out, printing prices can be all over the place. But my biggest surprise, and what I think will be most useful to others, is postage and mailing.
Boy that two years of printshop in 8th and 9th grade really came in handy, as well as my hobby of photography.
What I did instead was mail many copies via priority mail, a few first class, and the rest bulk. It turned out that the cost was not much more than bulk rate, and we avoided the late delivery problem--which we had before. There are known bulk mail bottlenecks in our state. All priority mail was received within a week, and some the next day. The total mailing cost this way was $206 ($97 priority mail, and $109 bulk). All-bulk-mail would have been $189. (If we had folded once more, it would have been $126 plus the cost of folding, $42, to total $168. For those printing to the 5.5x8 format, which we used to use, the fold saves the 6 cents per copy extra.)
This is not really a new idea. Michigan has been doing it, but when I first saw their newsletter report (I happend to attend their meeting), I was puzzled with the listing of first class and bulk mail costs. Much later, a casual remark (that they send copies to all faculty) during an executive committee meeting by our Section Governor, Dave Kullman, caused the idea to register.
The key ideas, which should have been clear to me earlier, are that only those attending section meetings need timely delivery of the newsletter, and that almost all those attending are from institutions where many members receive their mail in one place.
I then looked at the cost of postage.
Our newsletter weighs 1.15 oz. Bulk mail is 13.2 cents per piece (up to about 3 or 4 oz), plus 6 cents if over 6.5x11.5. Priority mail is $3 for up to two pounds, $1 a pound thereafter. The breakeven point is about 15 copies for us. For large institutions, the savings are spectacular. To Ohio State postage cost (which included extra copies for new people and graduate students) was $5, while bulk mail to MAA members alone would have been over $10. The smaller departments were a dilemma. But the savings to large departments made a little extra for first class for the departments in the 5-15 range affordable, IF they had attended meetings.
To make this work, I had to send all copies for a given institution to one address. MAA members who have MAA mail addressed to their home were a problem. I took the time to look them up in the CML, but a better method is needed. Mailing labels which had work addresses, or even just institution name, would be ideal. I have asked Jane Heckler to look into what is possible and not too inconvenient for the MAA. I would settle for a list of names for each institution.
I only had a couple of snafus, mostly blamed on department chairs. I mailed to "Secretary or Chair" with department chair labels supplied by MAA (really AMS). Small departments are the most unreliable. In the cases I ran into, I will send to someone else, maybe someone I know. Dept Liaisons suggested sending to them, which is what I likely will do in many cases.
I mailed about 1000 copies, and hand delivered about 50. In the end there were only about 20 people who had attended meetings fairly recently who did not have an institutional affiliation. I gladly sent first class to them. The trick here is to have a list of attendees, which we do maintain. I also was able to send extra copies nearly free of postage cost.
Our postoffice gladly gave me various sizes of priority envelopes. The main 2# size says you can stuff it as full as you want without worry about weight.
I hope this information will be useful to others. Send me email for more detail.
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