As I start in on year three as editor of AstroTent, here a few notes on the past two...

Just as the newsletter itself has (constantly) evolved over the last two years, so has its press run. The first few issues consisted of 100 copies each until the mailing list was purged! Now only 50 copies of each issue are produced. Needless to say, this has saved the club some money. I always try to keep a few extra copies around though, to give to prospective new members or to members who mysteriously do not receive theirs in the mail!

The Summer 1993 (StarFest) AstroTent had a press run of about 500 copies. It was by far the most difficult AstroTent issue I've produced but I think that it was also the best. Many thanks to Otmar and Elizabeth for undertaking the enormous task of printing it. It took the large part of three consecutive (and very educational) days. Of course we didn't actually set out to produce 500 copies, but by the time we got the press going smoothly and then got it stopped again that's how many we wound up with! Despite record attendance at Starfest and a concerted effort on my part to give away back issues, I still have a couple dozen copies left today!

In addition to being mailed to members and subscribers, AstroTent has been distributed in other ways. About a dozen RASC centres were given a copy of the Summer 1993 issue at an RASC national council meeting I attended. Assistant editor Tony "Toy Boy" Ward has been uploading an ASCII text version of AstroTent to the CompuServe astronomy forum for planetwide distribution. Finally, I have been uploading AstroTent to the Astronomy section of the Stained Glass BBS in Toronto (which also carries the RASC echo). Hopefully these activities will both spread and enhance the good reputation that the NYAA enjoys today.