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Dudes!
Dudettes!
Did you miss me?
Nevermind, you don't have to answer that.
No, I didn't have an intense New Years hangover.
I thought I said no one had to answer that.
Oh, that was me.
So another holiday bites the dust. Not to mention another year.
::: Yes dear? Oh I know this one just started. I meant last year is gone.
Yes dear, I know some of them won't get this. But they know they have to read the newsletter archives to understand.
No, I didn't tell them.
Think I should?
Now, now. No need to get testy. :::
Ok, the little woman said if you don't get the jist of the comments, you can read the newsletter archives on our website. She
just told me to remind you. But she didn't tell me how to spell jist, or gist or whatever that word is.
:::yes, dear, they certainly do know you are smarter than me.:::
::::Yes dear, I know almost everyone is.:::::
::::Yes dear, I meant everyone is. How silly of me:::::
sigh...
Anywho, on with the news! After all, this is a newsletter.
I think.
What's new? Lots. New colors, new styles almost here.
By the end of January 06...
::::AGGGHHHH! Please honey, not so loud::::
(Hang on, I have to check some checks)
Ahem, I'm back.
By the end of January 07...
Dark t-shirts in red, royal, brown and charcoal
Light t-shirts in natural, light-blue
Women's dark t-shirts in red, teal, violet
women's light t-shirts in light yellow, light blue, light pink
Women's v-neck shirts in white, black and heather gray
Heather is gray? Wow. Seems like only yesterday she was blonde. Then again, yesterday everyone was blonde.
What's that? oh yeah... it's February.
ANNOUNCING! Some time soon new stuff will be here. (Don't you just hate when that happens?)
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And, I forgot another crew. A great and proud crew. Vietnam vets. Brothers, someone please slap me. How I could forget these courageous brothers (OUCH!) (Thanks) is beyond me. Of course, in retrospect... darn near everything is beyond me.
:::sigh::: Have I mentioned lately that old sucks? Oh, I did huh? Well, old sucks. (there's an echo in here)
But, you now have something I hope you can be proud of. Check out the military section. I hope it pleases you. And I didn't forget the OES either. Which is kind of strange. I usually can't remember my name. Good thing for wallets and photo ID licenses huh?
I keep telling you, if you don't see something ask. I'll make it.
I do keep telling you, don't I? Well, I think I do. I hope I'm not getting delusional again. Old suc... oh... nevermind.
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Ok, we're slightly back to normal. Well as normal as I can get anyway.(Please let's not go there)
I wrote in the last... or second to last... or somewhere newsletter... that I couldn't do custom work except for maybe adding some names to existing things because of the holidays. Well, now that we finally have some breathing room after the holidays, you can start sending those special requests again. We'll see if we make something special for you. We... hah! Me, myself or I. Hey, I guess that's we, ain't it? Of course it is. I'm never wrong. (cough, cough)
Anyway, I like doing something custom. It makes me think (which is quite painful, but I bear the burden for you) and I get new ideas for new designs that is beneficial to all of us. So please don't be afraid to ask.
(In other words, I'm not smart enough to think up all these designs by myself)
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Tips on affiliation. Some of you have been going gangbusters! Cool! But some have said it's slow. Well... Let's do a quick affiliates 101.
First, what do we do well as Freemasons. We help others. To the tune of a million dollars a day donated to charity. So, how do we do it? Fundraising. The normal one's like dinners, breakfasts, dances, maybe bingo, raffles or whatever. Lots of work, but it's worth it. Besides, it's a good feeling to meet with our friends and just share quality time. So why do we want to get into even more by affiliating and selling Masonic (or other) items?
Easy. It's painless. No investment. That is, you don't need to buy 100 cases of chicken and worry about running short or, maybe, having too much left over. No pots to clean, no tables to set up and take down, no cooking, no cleaning, no nothing. Members aren't afraid to come to meetings so that they won't get stuck serving or cleaning up or whatever.
And why would it work for my Lodge, you might ask? Well, IT WON'T. Not unless you are willing to do a little to make it work.
Still no cooking, cleaning, cash outlay (unless,of course, you decide to put out a few flyers) or anything of the sort. But you do need to let people know about what you have to offer. You can't sell it if they don't know you have it. Kind of like having a chicken dinner and not telling anyone about it.
Look at it this way. You have a dinner and you make say... $400. With a lot of work and man (and maybe woman) power as above. Not to mention the initial outlay for supplies you had to put up before you did anything.
If you have say... 100 members in your Lodge and you have a custom something for them. The "official your Lodge item". Say this custom thing sells for $20. You make... $400. No clean up, no extra food laying around, no pots, pans, no tickets to print or worries.
Don't sell 100? No loss, you didn't order them. Sell more than 100? No problem. We'll make more. No cost whatsoever to you. Just your time to let folks know about it. Worried about sizes if it's clothing? Worried about a damaged product delivered? Don't. We'll just exchange it. Again, no cost to you or your customer. If they see something else they like while shopping? You get the commission. So you could end up with more than the $400. In fact, you most likely will.
Need something else? You don't need to limit this to Lodge members. Doesn't have to be a Masonic item either if you would like something for the general public. Local charity or organization need help? Put their name on it and sell for them. Just let us know what you need. Simply put it on your web site and send them to your item. And of course, if you don't have a web site, we give you a one page simple site (also free) so there is no extra money to be spent there either.
Have a retired salesman in your Lodge? He'd probably make a great man to head up a marketing committee and would most likely welcome the challenge.
So if you are an affiliate and it's slow for you, it may be time to re-think your marketing plan. If you aren't affiliated... whatcha waitin' for? :)
WoW. That was a lot of serious stuff. Sorry. I'll try to keep logic to a minumum in the future.
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Coupons? Since some of you are forgetting that there are usually coupons available even when you don't see them on the cafepress site, we gave you some links to find them below. But if you hit our main page, you'll see we have a new feature that shows a selection of coupons you can use. Just pick the one best for you. And, they are re-useable. You can use it on one purchase, then go back later and use it on another purchase. We're easy.
I'm actually looking for a site that has re-useable coupons you can use on the same purchase. I'm thinking I can buy a pack of bubble gum and use 1000 coupons on it and they'd have to send me the gum and about a billion dollars. Then I could semi-retire. Oh, wait. Nevermind, I am semi-retired. I forgot. Again.
Old s... aww you get the idea.
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Coupons, we got coupons!!!
See? I told you there was info about coupons below up there down here. (No, it's not you. That sentence made my head hurt too)
If you don’t like the one currently on Cafepress (or maybe there isn't one at all) you can check this site out. Sometimes they have others not listed anywhere else.
http://www.cpcoupon.com/
or
http://cpcoupons.com/
If one doesn't work, the other should.
(They are actually two different sites)
(Maybe I should have said check these sites out?)
(Nah. Too easy.)
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Did you know...?
If you need graphics for your trestle board or maybe a flyer for a fundraising project... all you have to do is ask. Just about ALL of the graphics in The Masonic Shop are available for your Lodge use. Just tell us what you would like and what size you need it. We'll make one you can use for printing flyers. Obviously we wouldn't want you to start printing items for sale with them so it will come with our copyright on it. But you can't beat the price. Free! :)
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The linky stuff ________________
Need fund raising?
Check out http://gbp.net/masonicshop/affilli.html
Links to other shops you may enjoy... http://gbp.net/masonlinks/
http://gbp.net/rtj/ (Unique Masonic coins, dogtags, lapel pins and more. Including Vietnam coins coming soon!)
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Don't forget to check out our wallpaper page. We still add to it once in a while. (and we do take requests and yes, there is a new Vietnam vets wallpaper)
http://www.gbp.net/valleylodge/graphics/WP/
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Ok, I'm outta here. In the meantime... Keep it square!
S&F
Gary
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