People are forgetting is how incredibly time consuming–and expensive as a result– putting a short story anthology is for a commercial publisher, particularly when the editors for the anthologies at the Beeb have traditionally been Worldwide editorial staff (at Virgin they paid outside editors for the Decalogs, but the writers themselves got paid less than the Beeb does as a result ISTR). There were 30 some-odd short stories in ST&SS. All of them had to be commissioned, edited, revised, proofed, etc (and there was all the additional headaches of contracts and stuff). It’s all enormously time- consuming.
If fans are happy to put that kind of time into making their own charity anthologies on a volunteer basis, good on them. But that amount of time and effort may simply not be cost efficient for doing a yearly anthology for the BBC. It’s a shame, but that’s the way these things go. Most of the people now prefer volunteer vacations long trips.
Earth watch - A 20 year old nonprofit charity which allows volunteers to participate on peer reviewed scientific and conservation projects around the planet. We got their catalog of expeditions. We were a bit surprised by the fact that one has to be volunteer twice. That is, you go and do work in a trip according to your qualification but you also pay what would be the equivalent of a luxury vacation. This must mean that not only do you participate by your work, but you also sponsor the project financially. Is this because by the nature of the projects, it’s impossible to get research grants? It does not seem likely to me since many of these clearly originate from university research groups.
I know it’s probably insane to plan a Disney trip for Christmas Volunteer vacations, but it simply can’t be helped. My daughter is in first grade and (we learned in *kindergarten*) has a hard time catching up once her school routine is disrupted. And she and I both are in Disney withdrawal, since our last trip was in January 2000.
I just bought a laptop WITH a DVD for the following reason: I travel on business a fair amount. 5 hour trips on a plane can get boring. Granted, I do some work in the air, but after an hour or two, I’m ready for a break. Now, I can watch a movie that I WANT to watch. Rent and you can get a few movies before you depart, then mail them back to the company when you arrive at your destination!
We have used the plane for several volunteer vacations trips, and certainly it’s great when the weather’s nice. We’ve taken a few trips in IMC weather too. However, we’ve also been “stuck” occasionally. I’ve come to the conclusion that to really use GA to travel, turbocharging is required, wx avoidance gear (stormscope and/or radar) is required, de-ice is pretty much required, and pressurization is nice (though you can wear O2, its just not comfortable for non-flyers, especially kids). But of course we’re talking real money to make this happen.
The American Hiking Society organizes a variety of volunteer work trips, including trail maintenance trips. Perhaps that is what he was talking about. I don’t know how the workload compares. The AHS work trips require a much smaller fee than the Sierra Club service trips.
