Summit Views and Marty Calendars Now Available!

2013-11-22 16:36:01.000 – Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist

Calendar store front example.

Over the past few years, people would frequently ask if our images were available in a calendar. It is something I have looked into time and time again with limited success. It’s not that there aren’t plenty of available printers out there. The problem comes down to a numbers game. Of all the companies I looked at, the troubles came in one of two ways. The first was a requirement to buy a large amount of calendars to get an affordable price or buy a small amount for a higher amount. Since the Mount Washington Observatory is a non-profit, I didn’t want ask if I could throw our money at buying a large amount of calendar prints because if they didn’t sell, we’d be stuck absorbing the costs of production. If I went the other route, we’d be able to sell our inventory but with little to no benefit to us as a fund raiser. So, I tried and tried to find a viable way to find a viable balance.

At first I was going to do a Kickstarter campaign, but ran low on time. Then I had a “Eureka!” moment earlier this month as several of my photographer friends directed me towards a print-on-demand site called lulu.com. So, over the course of the past off-week I donated my free time to setting up not one, but two calendars and a store front on lulu.com. Going into it, I thought it was going to be an easy task having designed calendars in the past for my family and friends. However, since these calendars had to be a bit more polished then my family/friend designs, I ended up taking a lot more time than I thought and had to ask for help from a few additional individuals from our valley staff to help me get things in order. But now, the time has finally come where I think everything is in order to pull back the curtain and introduce our First Edition Observatory Calendars for 2014 available HERE. And since there might be a few questions, let me try and address a few of the big ones below:

How can I purchase them? Calendars can be directly purchased at the link above; just click on the “Add to Cart” icon to start the checkout process, or click on the “more details” option for a full preview prior to purchase. At this time, this is the only available method to purchase these calendars.

Who is printing them? As previously mentioned, the orders are being fulfilled entirely by lulu.com.

What if I run into trouble with my order or have additional questions? Since orders are being processed and fulfilled through lulu.com, all inquiries should be directed towards them. They also have a thorough Knowledge Database available here: http://www.lulu.com/support.

Does the full purchase price go towards supporting the Mount Washington Observatory? Lulu charges a printing and service fee with every calendar; however, a portion of the proceeds will go towards supporting the Mount Washington Observatory.

When are lulu.com’s holiday order deadlines? All available deadlines for calendars are available in the left-hand column available here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/holiday-deadlines.ep. However, an earlier purchase is encouraged to prevent unforeseen troubles they might have plus it will help you save on shipping costs.

Are there any coupon deals? Ones that we are aware of at the moment are (1) Free Shipping on orders over $50 using MITTE50 at checkout (this coupon ends at midnight 22 November) and (2) 18 percent off a purchase using FBC18 (one coupon per account with deadline unknown). Further specials may become available here: http://www.lulu.com/promos/current-specials or on their front-page here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/home.ep. A few additional coupons may be available if you use a search engine like Google with a phrase like “lulu coupon code”. And if we learn of any additional coupon codes, we will try to share them with you on our Facebook page.

Ryan Knapp,  Weather Observer/Meteorologist