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This year's greeting cards.....
Last Thursday, I sent out my annual greeting "cards". For family members and friends with young children, I send out a picture of M, and my annual newsletter, reporting the major events in my life. For everyone else, I send out the newsletter only. A total of 52 envelopes (pictures and newsletters, newsletters only, and pictures only) were sent out this year.
Last year, my tracking spreadsheet crashed, and the file became corrupted. So this year, I decided to simplify the spreadsheet and the scoring system I use. I use these scores to determine who receives cards next year, and who gets dropped from my list. The scoring algorithm I use is as follows:
* If I send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 1 point.
* If I don't send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 0.5 point. (Example: The magnetic calendar I get from my insurance agent, or a note from my realtor.)
* If I don't send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get 0 points.
* If I send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get -1 point.
I then sum up the scores from the past 5 years. If someone's cumulative score is too low (usually below -2), I'll drop them from my list. (But there are exceptions to that hard and fast rule. For example: A few of my relatives don't send out cards. But I keep them in the loop, because they're my relatives, and this is the only time in the year I have any contact with them.)
I've often thought: Wouldn't it be easier to send out holiday greetings via email? It would, but to me, it seems rather trite and tacky to do so. Plus I would be violating the copyright on the photo if I was to do this with my daughter's pictures. Scott at the MotoPhoto in Centerville has done great work taking M's picture over the years, and I don't want to deprive him of potential income.
Last year, my tracking spreadsheet crashed, and the file became corrupted. So this year, I decided to simplify the spreadsheet and the scoring system I use. I use these scores to determine who receives cards next year, and who gets dropped from my list. The scoring algorithm I use is as follows:
* If I send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 1 point.
* If I don't send a card to someone and I receive a card from them, they get 0.5 point. (Example: The magnetic calendar I get from my insurance agent, or a note from my realtor.)
* If I don't send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get 0 points.
* If I send a card to someone and I don't receive a card from them, they get -1 point.
I then sum up the scores from the past 5 years. If someone's cumulative score is too low (usually below -2), I'll drop them from my list. (But there are exceptions to that hard and fast rule. For example: A few of my relatives don't send out cards. But I keep them in the loop, because they're my relatives, and this is the only time in the year I have any contact with them.)
I've often thought: Wouldn't it be easier to send out holiday greetings via email? It would, but to me, it seems rather trite and tacky to do so. Plus I would be violating the copyright on the photo if I was to do this with my daughter's pictures. Scott at the MotoPhoto in Centerville has done great work taking M's picture over the years, and I don't want to deprive him of potential income.