IMPORTANT - READ THIS

As you've already read, our Annual Dues have only been increased three times in ten years. In 1984, they were $25 per year. Our KTB Magazine was a tiny little newsletter but over the years, we have seen the size increase from a SINGLE PAGE to the 32 page magazine we enjoy today. Our printing costs have increased ten-fold or more, but we have managed to keep our Annual Dues affordable.

We have seen many Postal Rate increases and usually managed to keep our Annual Dues affordable and even though postage rates have MORE THAN DOUBLED since 1988, our Annual Dues have not changed since that year. SHARKHUNTERS has swallowed one increase after another, printing costs and postal rate increases, without asking our Members to increase our Annual Dues. In fact, for the past few years, it has cost SHARKHUNTERS approximately $50 per Member per year to operate.

Now the US Postal Service is going to raise the rates AGAIN, and it is most likely that we will be forced to increase our SHARKHUNTERS Annual Dues when that happens. This will be a reluctant decision on our part, but one that cannot be prevented if a postal rate increase takes place. So our suggestion to you would be to renew your Membership for 2 years, perhaps more, at one time when your renewal form arrives. That way you will not be affected by any increase for those years.

Bad Tapes

I apologize, but we apparently got a shipment of blank videotapes that had a problem. These are the tapes we use to make the history tapes our Members order and this batch is producing unsatisfactory reproductions. So if a videotape you ordered from SHARKHUNTERS/EAGLEHUNTERS is not satisfactory, please call here, ask for KAYCEE, and we will replace your tape.

FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE

By now, you have received your SHARKHUNTERS/EAGLEHUNTERS SPRING/SUMMER CATALOG and you have seen that, for the first time, SHARKHUNTERS and EAGLEHUNTERS will gladly honor your major credit cards. I know that we have taken a long time before we did decide to honor credit cards, weighing the cost against the convenience to you, our Member. Until now, the cost had been to high to make accepting credit cards worth the added costs, but I am happy to report that we have secured rates that are low enough that we may gladly offer this wonderful convenience to our Members and still maintain the costs at a minimum.

So from this time on - please feel free to use your MASTER CARD; VISA or DISCOVER card for any gift items from SHARKHUNTERS/EAGLEHUNTERS; to renew your Membership; to upgrade your Membership; or for any of our great SHARKHUNTERS/EAGLEHUNTERS Conventions and History Field Trips. We hope you approve of this extra service and that it is helpful.

NIPPON Television

Our Members in Japan will be able to see an interview with myself and with BUD DANA (245-A/LIFE-1987) and STELLA DANA (245 1/2-A/LIFE-1987) sometime in September or October. In mid-May, a field crew was here at our HQ & did interviews all day long. Some days later, they interviewed ERNST ZUNDEL (956-1989) in another state, for inclusion in this show.

The show's producer, MICHI NAKAMURA is a new Member of SHARKHUNTERS and the crew gave us a superb gift - a book with the complete history of the World War II I.J.N. submarines. Of course, the book is in Japanese which leave me lost, but they wrote down the Japanese characters for "I" "Ro" and "Ha" which are the first three letters in the Japanese alphabet, and are the designators for the I.J.N. submarines.

An "I" boat was any submarine in excess of 1,000 tons. An "Ro" boat was between 500 tons and 1,000 tons. A "Ha" boat was less than 500 tons.

Many thanks to the field crew of NIPPON Television for this fine gift.

COMPUTER FUND

As you read in KTB #104 last month, this fund, which has not been used for some time, has been re-activated to offset the debt we incurred when we purchased some new computer equipment. When we announced that the FUND was again open to retire this debt, initial response was just great. When the month began, we owed $3,247.53 on our new computer equipment and with the help of these great Members, it is now only $2,742.53! We are going in the right direction - THANKS!

MIKE HAMRICK (2966-1993)
ROLF ROSELLEN (2985-1993) U-Bootfahrer
ARTHUR JACOBSON (2154-1992)
JOE LISS (3422-1994)
H. J. von KNEBEL-DOEBERITZ (681-1988) I.W.O. on U-99
RICHARD SAVEL (3423-1994)
PAUL ZINSKIE (1317-1989)
OTTO von BULOW (305-LIFE-1987) Skipper of U-404, winner of the KNIGHTS CROSS with OAK LEAF CLUSTER
RICK BUHRMAN (2639-1992)
GUNTHER HEINRICH (1945-1991) Skipper of U-960
CARL DETWILLER (1037-1989)
ARTHUR JACOBSON (2154-1992)
HARRY HALL (1547-1990)
JOSE PEREZ-NAVAREZ (2337-1992)
SHEILA BREVOGEL (1676-1990)

Thanks to these Members and others before them, our debt is going down, but as you can see, there is still a big number to pay off. We hope you will send a donation for our COMPUTER FUND and if you do, your name is placed on our scroll of Member's names who helped with this fund. In advance, many thanks.

And here's a SPECIAL THANKS to BETH SCHIMOLER (129-A-1985) for her very welcome gift of a beautiful new (to us) photocopy machine. It's one of those high-speed, do-anything copiers and we really appreciate it. BETH, many thanks!