Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 26, 1973)
The 1 Whole Eugene Catalog1: 'every thing you want to know about the city1 Photos by Steve Twedt Seavey points out a story for “The Whole Eugene Catalog” on housing renovation—one of the articles in the catalog he hopes will help its readers “take control of their own lives and stand up for their lifestyles.” Where can you find a guide to house-hunting, eating for free and starting your own home business, and a people’s yellow pages of 100 individuals in the Eugene community “with reliable and reasonably priced goods and services?” All this information and more will be available starting July 7 in By PEGGY McMULLEN Of the Emerald the new publication. “The Whole Eugene Catalog.” According to Bill Seavey, coordinator of the catalog, the 32-page booklet will sell for $1 and will contain “everything you could possibly want to know about Eugene.” “I am trying to take all the essential agencies and tell people what their services are so they can go to it at any time. This catalog isn’t something they are likely to throw out or lose,” Seavey said. The catalog will consist of sections on housing (the largest and “most important”), food, work and jobs, money, entertainment, resources, education, and health. Originally Seavey wanted to include a section on the University, but “didn’t know any people with the in formation I needed at the University so I had to drop the idea.” His format for the catalog is to “develop feature stories around the most important agencies and then put the rest of the agencies into a list in a readily accessible form.” While not “the ogre of alternative journalism,” coordinator of the catalog. Bill Seavey, says the emphasis of the publication is to provide a source of information for members of the counter-culture. The form he felt would be the most useful is listing the 100 agencies he considered are the most responsive with their address or phone number and a one-line description of their services. Beside the feature stories and list of agencies, Seavey said he is also “trying to take huge volumes of information and reduce them into one-page information articles.” “I think people will certainly be getting their money’s worth with this catalog,” Seavey said. He noted that the idea for this type of publication has been around a while. “There’s been a need and a desire for a “Whole Earth Catalog” type of thing for many moons. The idea has been suggested to me many times.” Seavey also said other publications have attempted to fill this “Contact,” a recently published directory of community agencies, is the most recent one to do this, he said, but he feels it isn’t as ef fective as it might have been because of the format used. “Unless you know what you’re looking for, it isn’t that useful. It’s so official looking it isn’t something you can just read. It’s just too dry.” Although Seavey admits the catalog is aimed at “the counter culture,” he said it is “being presented in such a way that I think anybody can appreciate what it’s trying to do.” “Eugene has a considerable amount of acceptance for the alternative culture. Previously there has been no one source of in formation to describe what sorts of things are going on.” In comparing the catalog to present publications, Seavey touched on the Augur community newspaper. “I am trying to say something along the same lines but still dif ferently. I have to create my own image but we still cooperate in a variety of things. “I hope to have a wider application than the Augur has. I am attempting to condense a lot of the important things. ” Originally the catalog was to be called “More for Less” but Seavey changed the name “to reach more of the people I wanted to reach.” Seavey printed 1,000 handbills asking for article contributions, “but I really didn’t get very many.” Seavey has been selling the ads and putting together the catalog by himself, mainly because, “most of my projects tend to be one-person-type projects. It’s just easier for me to lay it out as I go along.” The lay out of the catalog is about half-done at this point. For financing the catalog he “originally wanted to get money from some community service organization but that didn’t happen so I went to O.U.R. Credit Union, a poor people’s credit union. I went with very little collateral and a good idea and got a loan approved for $500 which is basically what it is costing me to put it out.” “I have also put in about $50 from my own pocket, I have sold about $250 in advertising so my total budget is going to be around $600. I need to sell through bookstores alone around 750 or so to break even.” Seavey printed 2,000 cards advertising the catalog and placed them on windshields at the Renaissance Fair. He added, “I am donating 10 per cent above costs to the Eugene Sustaining Fund.” The fund is an agency to help fund community service organizations. “The basic idea is to fund alternative agencies like Canterbury Center, White Bird, the Children’s Community School—those not funded or funded by agencies outside the community. The problem is to provides continuous source of income for them.” He added, “I also hope to make a little money from this. This is an organizational tool, a focusing point for the alternative culture. It tries to synthesize all the things happening.” Seavey plans to print 4,000 catalogs which will be for sale through local bookstores or which can be reserved by sending name and ad dress to “More for Less,” P.O. Box 1701, Eugene 97401. The cost this way is $1 plus mailing costs. Although he is only printing 4,000 Seavey feels “it will get to the people who really want it.” “I want people to take control of their own lives and stand up for their lifestyles,” he said. And Seavey feels this catalog will show people how to do that.
