ustxtxb_obs_1989_05_19_50_00020-00000_000.pdf

4015E TEXAS Available at the following locations: Old World Bakery 814 W. 12th Street Austin Crossroads Market 3930 Cedar Springs Dallas Daily News & Tobacco 309-A Andrews Highway Midland Brazos Bookstore 2314 Bissonett Houston College News 1101 University Lubbock Paperbacks & Mas 1819 Blanco Road San Antonio Student Center Midwestern State Univ. 3400 Taft Boulevard Wichita Falls server continued from page 3 statewide officialsat this point we know that, for example, Atty. Gen. Jim Mattox, Comptroller Bob Bullock, and Land Commissioner Garry Mauro are coming \(and there will be not a little politicking with all Bill Hobby has informed us he will come, at least to the reception at the HyattRegency, provided that he doesn’t get caught in some legislative crisis that Tuesday night. I n Waco our chairman for the event, Bernard Rapoport, has been masterminding the money-raising side of it. The steering committee is composed of J. Richard Avena, Eddie Ball, Herschel Bernard, Warren Burnett, U.S. Rep. John Bryant, Billie Carr, Dr. Ramiro Casso, Ernesto Cortes, Jr., Bob Eckhardt, Ruth John Henry Faulk, U.S. Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez, Rebecca Flores Harrington, former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, Harry Hubbard, Franklin Jones, former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan, U.S. Rep. Mickey Leland, Maury Maverick, Jr., Otto Mullinax, Sally Shipman, and Tom Wicker. In Dallas, Paulia Weaver is seeing that all Dallas-area subscribers are called. In Galveston, Claire Donovan has sent out 50 letters and is following through on them. Otto and Mac Mullinax and Nat and Louise Wells are coming down in a group of ten people from Dallas. In Houston, Sam and Cele Keeper are chartering a bus to bring over people who need to go back the same night to go to work the next morning. And I’ve heard from many other old friends all this is almost more than ought to be packed into a month or so. Friends and allies in the progressive movement have cooperated with us magnificently to help us send out thousands of invitations: Jocelyn Gray helped plan the whole thing and is doing the printed program and certain displays we are planning for the auditorium. In the Austin offices of the Observer located now at 307 West Seventh Street, two blocks from Congress Avenue we have been working day and night since April 7, somewhat as if we are under siege. Bill Simmons has been doing a terrific job as coordinator, reminding Cliff Olofson and me of our deadlines for various tasks, generating publicity through organizational newsletters, collecting data and making checklists of matters for us to decide, all the while handling his regular job, acting as subscription manager in Stefan Wanstrom’s temporary absence. Stefan is back now, having completed the course requirements for his teaching certificate just in time to pitch in to the work before May 23. Mike Lutes and Mari Brennan, who have talked on the phone with many of you, report that enthusiasm and interest are high, although the need to hold the dinner on a weeknight \(because of Senator Kennedy’s ing. Nevertheless, ticket orders are pouring in more than 400 so far as I write this on Thursday, May 11th. Please act quickly, if you intend to come, to avoid disappointment. We are set up to accept MasterCard and Visa telephone orders \(yes, the Observer Why have an Observer benefit dinner? It is necessary that we make some progress; standing still is falling back, and we are now about $35,000 in the hole. Despite the great and reliable generosity of our readers we have not had the financial margin to do enough promotional mailings for new subscribers. The Observer, in such good company as the New Yorker, has a subscription-renewal rate of about 80 percent, the highest in the periodicals field, but even that, rate means that you lose 20 percent of your base each year. We must get far enough ahead to finance these strength-sustaining mailings. Additionally, all the permanent staffers at the Observer receive an annual salary of $14,500. We would like to achieve a new level at which we can raise these sacrifice-level wages at least somewhat while also intensifying our subscriptionpromotion efforts. On Tuesday, May 23 and Wednesday, May 24 we are having Open House at the Observer’s string of offices facing West Seventh Street. We don’t guarantee things will look or be any different from the way they usually are papers, books, and equipment everywhere, desks and other worksurfaces crammed into every space, stacks of newspapers leaning against each other in the editors’ office. But we guarantee we will welcome you and be glad to see you and listen to your ideas and give you ours. Tickets to the Yarborough dinner and a cash-bar beforehand at Palmer Auditorium are $35 per person. We figure that should about pay for the dinner and the costs of organizing it. The cash bar at the auditorium opens at 6:00, dinner starts at 7:30 and the formal program begins at 8:30. We have not had time to organize the kinds of discussions and other events we would have liked to, but we count on friends finding each other and making their own events. Sponsor-level tickets start at $100 per person. Holders of these tickets, who will be listed in the program, attend a 6:00 cocktail party-reception with Senator Yarborough and Senator Kennedy at the Hyatt Regency \(two blocks from Palmer Auditoauditorium. In an Observer tradition that runs back to the fifties, sponsors of these higher-price tickets are invited to be a Supporter at $100 per person, an Angel at $250, an Archangel at $500, or a Patron Saint at $1000. Patron Saints receive eight tickets, that is, a table, at the dinner. We are toying with the idea of establishing this dinner, and the presentation of the Frankie Randolph Social Justice Award, as the base event for an annual three-day spring weekend gathering of the Texas progressive clan. It’s our notion that, with four or five months to plan future events, we would set up debates and panel discussions on social policy issues, perhaps a big picnic and dance, with the editors of the Observer subsequently presenting reports on the debates, panels, and speeches they deemed worthy of publication. At this stage this is no more definite than an idea and a hope. Let’s see how May 23 goes, and let us know what you think about it. We all thank greatly those of you who have already made your reservations. We’re looking forward to seeing you. It’s bound to be a good time for everyone and, just possibly, a financial success, too. And a very special thanks to our friends who can’t come, but nevertheless sent in checks to cover tickets for others who can’t afford them. If you’re broke, call Bill or Cliff or me about these paid-for but unused tickets. So, y’all come! Come home, liberals! See you Tuesday the 23rd. Ronnie Dugger, Publisher 20 MAY 19, 1989