Dear members,
First, a very warm welcome to our new members this month - thank you for joining, and thank you for your support. Then, to our existing members, thank you too for joining, and thank you for your continuing interest in the Apostrophe Protection Society. I'm thrilled to see the member numbers rising steadily, and that gives me reassurance that this is all worthwhile!
As I noted in my last email to you all, I've added a section to the Apostrophe Use page on the website for "attributive nouns". In English grammar, an attributive noun is a noun that modifies another noun and functions as an adjective. Most examples of this involve a singular attributive noun - for example, "a government official", "a bottle opener", "business ethics". However, when the first noun in a compound pair is plural, it can become difficult to decide whether the first noun is acting as a noun that ought to be showing possession, or as an attributive noun acting as an adjective. The example I've used in the guidance is "Farmers Market" - it's one that generates quite a lot of discussion about whether it needs an apostrophe. I hope you find the new guidance section to be clear and, hopefully, useful.
I mentioned the new Twitter feed last month - I'm enjoying posting topics to this feed, and I'll continue to post (tweet) whenever I have something good to put out there. For those of you that use Twitter, please do have a look and follow our posts - it really is appreciated, and it's a good way of spreading the word. The user name is "@Apostrophe_Soc", or just search for "Apostrophe Protection Society", or follow the Twitter link on our website home page. Also, don't forget to join our Facebook page - the link is also on the website.
I'm considering whether I should add a Store page to the website to publish a set of affiliate links to apostrophe and grammar related merchandise (T-shirts, books, etc). This would help raise a small amount of revenue to assist with the costs of running the APS (largely website and email hosting), as well as making people aware of related products. I would welcome your thoughts on this, as well as any suggested products for possible inclusion.
That's it for now - thank you again for becoming members.