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The Trees - a plea for e-mail in place of paper mail
If skyrocketing
oil prices, the booming world population and the threat of global warming
hadn't already grabbed people's attention, last week's record power demand
and air-quality warnings certainly served as a reminder that the world
faces pressing questions about its climate and energy use.
While "doing something
for the environment" once meant tossing a newspaper in a recycling bin
or buying organic lettuce, now nearly every aspect of daily life -- from
the toilets we flush to the flowers that decorate our dinner tables -- is
being radically rethought. Entrepreneurs, scientists and thinkers are
working to transform industry so that it functions more like nature,
lessening pollution and inefficiency while propelling the economy forward.
Over in the corner of my
office sits a box crammed with mail. You know, the kind that has stamps on
it, and that Uncle Sam delivers. It's been sitting there for weeks, and guess what? I'm probably not going to read any of it.
After a quick check for personal letters, invitations and greeting Cards,
I'm chucking the rest of it in the recycling bin, unopened.
It's not my fault that trees
sacrificed their lives for this stuff. It's the fault of those who don't
seem to know that the digital revolution has taken place, and that
something called E-mail was invented. So, I'm writing this as a plea to
save the trees, and to save us time and money. We will stop sending chapter
meeting programme by mail,
because there's a good chance it won't get read.
Here's why: by the time mail gets
to you, the programme contained within is most
likely to be subjected to changes. There's a good chance you may not have
time to read it or you know there is a copy waiting for you at the chapter
meeting. Instead we will published the programme
in our website and update accordingly. We will also print a hardcopy as
handout for the chapter meeting.
It costs us time and money to
print that release, fold it, put it in the envelope, put a stamp on it, put
a mailing label on it, and give it to the postman. The paper companies love
us, and the Postal Service loves us, but we might as well have tossed our
money into the trash.
The E-mail is a very
different story. I admit that at first I resisted the E-mail revolution,
but now I'm convinced it's the only way to go. I can quickly scan my
E-mails every day, with no risk of paper cuts. If it doesn't interest me,
it gets deleted with a push of a button. If I need to forward the press
release to a colleague, I can do it in an instant. I can print it out if I
want to. And if I decide to use it in an upcoming issue, there's no need to
key it into my system -- I can just edit it on-screen.
We save all those printing
and mailing costs. Our message gets seen within minutes of releasing it,
instead of days later. And here's the biggest reason for using E-mail: the
chances are very good our message will be read, unlike snail mail.
So, take a look at the SIM1 Toastmasters Club http://www.sim1tm.org/news.htm. Underneath every EXCO's
name is an E-mail address. Please use it. And please take us off your
mailing-fax-Fedex-DHL list.
We thank you, and the trees
thank you.
Karen Tan
President 2007/2008
SIM1
Toastmasters Club
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