I'm going to put in my two cents  worth - have we bored or frightened the
new members yet (I remember when
I first got on this list, I was overwhelmed with the number of messages as
I did not realize what I was actually
joining !).

I can understand that doing a survey has some cost associated with it, and
it does seem unfair for
an organization to pay for one, and let some that aren't will to share in
that cost, also take part in it.

That said, now I must say that I often thought that the rates for
membership in a NOT-FOR-PROFIT
organization seem like it was FOR-PROFIT.   And I had dropped my
membership, as the magazines
I was getting seemed to be my only benefit and when they seemed to be going
over to the dark side (UNIX),
I wasn't getting my moneys worth.

 Then I thought that I saw that you had to have an Interex membership to
be a member of a SIG, which I did want to participate in - which brings to
mind the statement that some
surveys were mailed out to the SIG members, wasn't that still just mailing
to Interex members??

So I signed up again, and after receiving a phone call telling me about the
benefits of a higher cost membership,
I tried a higher level (can't remember the name of it offhand, but last
invoice it was $195).   Now I'm dropping that
because it is stupid for me; a contract programmer who does not own an
HP3000 computer; to be paying
for a membership that sends me the CSL tape.   So I'm going to drop down to
something like $35 when I
send in my payment.

So to sum it up, I understand why the survey could be done by an exclusive
club, I just don't like the prices
of the membership, nor am I sure that this exclusive club is even
advocating for the HP3000.

Well I certainly can say that this group (hp3000-l) does advocate FOR the
hp3000 !

Paul D. Christensen
PC Enterprises Inc.
Osakis MN.