I know the days of Danny Newman’s subscription parties has probably long past, but I was clearing out some old files a few weeks ago and came across what might be described as an artifact of better days.

I have scanned the front and back of an envelop that was used by community organization that preceded the current community board we work with. The group apparently got a lot of people in the community to call the previous year’s subscribers and solicit new ones. I appreciate the design of the envelop with bits of information about the organization for the callers.

For some reason part of the scan always comes out a little broken up no matter what I do. The 3rd bullet point under “This Is The Community Concert Plan” reads “Community Concerts offers a non-profit, no-loss plan. All money collected is spent on the attractions in the coming season and the local presentation expense.”

This is the backside with hints for the volunteers. The garbled text at the first hint says, “Go through your address book and greeting card lists for prospects. Are you a member of any service clubs, fraternal or religious organizations? These are excellent sources.”

This hint may be why this particular practice no longer occurs. In this community where everyone knows everyone, it is likely a person would get appeals to subscribe from multiple people which I imagine would become old very quickly.

That said, it makes me a little sentimental for the days when this type of program could be viable. Especially since it appeared to have the involvement of a fairly large number of people. (Or at least aspired to) The idea of many people being invested in getting subscription renewals is greatly appealing.

Assuming this wasn’t the only training someone would get, this little packet could be pretty effective at keeping people organized, on task and equipt with many of the answers they needed in an easily referenced layout.