Totally Moronic "Always Done it That Way" Practices #1

I'm having a total nervous breakdown because of my workload, and it's Monday so I am allowed to be grumpy, so I thought I would give myself a short break and start a new series of posts (or maybe just one, depending on if I get into trouble) about Totally Moronic "Always Done it That Way" association practices.

Here's number one.

I am currently updating all of my program brochures (we have about a dozen training programs, including a writing program, a cinema program, a theater program, etc etc). The brochures are obviously used to promote the programs, and we mail them out to various mailing lists, we hand them out to various university departments, we ask people to hand them out to potentially interested colleagues, etc.

The same changes to these brochures are then made to the relevant program sections of our website. This is a pain, but makes sense to do, and costs us nothing except my time. The website has to always be up to date, for one, and it may reach random members of the public who google our keywords.

But I then have to do the same updating work a third time, making all the changes to the Member Catalogue, which contains all the same information about each program, plus a member directory, plus a section about the organization as a whole, plus an administrative calendar. This Catalogue goes to our members only, so it's not even used for any promotional purpose whatsoever. (Our members like it, but they also like books they read once then put on a shelf somewhere and never look at again).

On top of that, because our members refuse to give up the printed directory which is part of the Catalogue, we print a SEPARATE "Mini-Directory" a couple of months later so I can include all the changes that have happened since the Catalogue was printed, because of course the directory part of it is instantly obsolete.

We've done surveys which showed that the brochures and word-of-mouth are the two most important ways to recruit new participants. The Catalogue, though? Pointless and a massive waste of money despite all my efforts to reduce the costs of it. The cost of all this duplicated work? I'd say $15,000 for the Catalogue printing and mailing, plus $19,200 for my time doing all of this (worked out from a too-simple and completely arbitrary formula so it's probably way more than that) = $34,200 in WASTED TIME AND MONEY.

But no, we have always done it that way, so we have to continue. And so, I suck it up, as usual.