The Militant (logo) 
   Vol.64/No.49            December 25, 2000 
 
 
Pathfinder volunteer projects in full swing
(front page)
 
BY PATRICK O'NEILL  
As the Militant goes to press, supporters of Pathfinder have begun work on a project to transfer all inventory and financial records of the publishing house onto an Internet-based accounting program.

At the same time, the Pathfinder Reprint Project leadership is working with its indexing, formatting, graphics, and other teams to bring home a goal, set in July, to render into a print-ready digital form 30 more titles from Pathfinder's catalog by the end of the year.

Both projects aim to advance the ability of communist workers, Young Socialists, and other supporters of Pathfinder to efficiently produce and distribute as widely as possible the publishing house's revolutionary books and pamphlets. A key part of this effort is setting up a network and Internet-based computer system that can be used by a worldwide production team.

The first volunteers set to work at the Pathfinder building in New York December 14 at computer work stations are from Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania in the United States, and Australia and Canada. They will be joined by many others through Christmas Eve when the project will be completed. A social is being planned for Saturday evening, December 16, and a combined celebration and holiday dinner December 24.

The data that has to be entered includes addresses and other details on all of Pathfinder's customers; the current inventory levels; and the basic title, author, price, a and other information on each title. In preparation for this effort, printshop staff and several volunteers from New York mobilized on December 9 to count all the Pathfinder inventory and update records.

The effort is being organized out of the New York Garment District hall, which houses Pathfinder Books in the garment center. In order to involve workers and students who are laid off or taking days off work and school, there is a daytime shift starting at 9:00 a.m., as well as an evening shift so people can come after work for a few hours. Volunteers work in teams of two, reading, typing, and checking all the information entered.

Through this project in which thousands of hours of voluntary labor will be freely given to make possible this stage of the transformation of the production of revolutionary literature, Pathfinder's records necessary for inventory control, order fulfillment, and bookkeeping will be transplanted onto the publisher's computer network. Keeping the accounts and customer records has until now required a number of stand-alone computers running software that was incompatible with the network.  
 
Volunteers still needed
"This project is all about Pathfinder getting in shape to produce and promote the books that workers, farmers, and revolutionary-minded young people need," said Norton Sandler in a December 13 interview. Sandler, who led the team of Pathfinder supporters who set up and staffed a booth at the Guadalajara book fair from November 25 to December 3, has worked since the fair ended to solicit volunteers for the project.

"Although there's been a big response to our appeal last week in the Militant, we still need more volunteers," he stressed. "The New York and New Jersey Socialist Workers Party branches and Young Socialists are organizing forums, classes, and social activities, including a wind-up Christmas Eve social, as part of hosting the project volunteers.

"Pathfinder has an ambitious publishing program under way running through the early months of next year," Sandler explained. "Among other publications in the pipeline, and alongside an ongoing program of reprints, the English-language Pathfinder was Born with the October Revolution has just rolled off the sheetfed presses."

In that pamphlet Pathfinder president Mary-Alice Waters discusses the publisher's role of producing political weapons for workers, farmers, and revolutionary-minded youth.

"Early next year Pathfinder will print Haciendo Historia, the Spanish-language edition of Making History, which contains interviews with four veteran generals in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces," said Sandler.

"Haciendo Historia will be printed in time for the Havana Book Fair in February, where Pathfinder will have a booth," he continued. Through this volunteer project effort Pathfinder will get in better shape to sell and promote its titles.

The Militant and Perspectiva Mundial will also benefit from the new system. Maurice Williams, the business manager for the two publications, explained that the financial records of their distributors will be entered into the new system.

"It will be a big improvement," he said. "We've had a trial run with the new software, and found it simpler and less time-consuming to enter information. Maybe even more important is the fact that a number of people can use the system simultaneously. Only one person at a time could enter data into the old software, and you had to book time in advance."

Williams was particularly impressed by one feature of the system. "Once you've updated a customer's account and prepared an invoice," he said, "you hit a key to send it out by e-mail. That beats printing it out and using the post office." Early next year the publications' subscription lists will be entered into the new system as well.

A number of Reprint Project volunteers have signed up for several days of the project. Maggie Perrier does second or final reads, and has just completed an assignment of a couple of chapters of Teamster Bureaucracy by Farrell Dobbs.

In explaining her decision to join the effort, Perrier said she "was reading a Militant article on the Guadalajara book fair that reported the appearance of youth dressed up in Nazi regalia, and others who were looking for books by Hitler. At the same time the Pathfinder booth sold 570 socialist and working-class books and pamphlets. It gave an idea of the polarization there, and how these books are right at the center of the political challenges facing working people today."

Perrier is expecting more proofreading assignments in the two and a half weeks up until December 31, as the Reprint Project drives to complete its 30-book goal.

"It looks good for making it," said Jerry Gardner, a member of the Reprint Project steering committee, on December 13. Several of the seven titles that remain are close to completion. "We're also starting work to proofread and format the digital files for Pathfinder's edition of Haciendo Historia. It will be done in time to be part of Pathfinder's booth at the book fair in Havana," he said.
 
 
Related article:
Meeting prepares Pathfinder supporters to expand sales to bookstores and outlets  
 
 
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