On Fri, 13 Feb 1998 Jaral48462@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 98-02-13 12:47:39 EST, CobMeister@aol.com writes:
>
> << Gee! Whata surprise to see activity on the newsletters list! >>
Yeah - it must be Friday the 13th or something. Yikes! It is!
> I agree, haven't seen this much activity on the newsletter list since I've
> been on it. The only post I have received was a post chastising me for
> posting my Web Site for the Austin Healey National Conclave. I was taken to
> task for Spamming the list. The Web Site I refer to can be found at
> http://members.aol.com/jaral48462/index.html
> Hope posting the URL doesn't offend any one.
Nice segway...
>
> I sympathize with all newsletter editor in the task of coming up with articles
> each month. Our club has 148 members and getting any of them to contribute an
> article is like pulling teeth. A technical source library on general car care
> and maintenance would be a huge asset to all of us.
I have about 200 or so members on our mailing list (not counting the 35
or 40 clubs and businesses that we send out 'letter to...
I agree about getting folks to submit articles. However a tactic that I
have used sucessfully (to a certain extent) is to directly ask folks to
submit an article. The trick is - I ask them at the event. People do have
a hard time saying "no" when you ask them face-to-face.
Once someone does submit material and they see that the process is fairly
painless (that's the real job of the newsletter editor, BTW - making the
material look good) then they start submitting material in a more regular
manner.
> I've been trying to get all 48 newsletter editors affiliated with the Austin
> Healey Club of America to standardize our Publisher Software so we can
> exchange newsletters via the Internet and save the cost of printing and
> postage associated with putting out editions monthly to other than my local
> membership. By receiving copies of other Newsletters it affords the
> opportunity to use (with permission of course) tech tips and articles of
> interest from other clubs.
Standards are okay, but after almost 20 years in the computer business, I
can say this:
1. In order to get a standard accepted, you have to face reality and go
for the lowest common denominator: text only files please. When folks
send me stuff in Word 6.1 and I don't have any money to buy that version,
I have fits trying to get the submission into my newsletter.
2. Train the submittors to provide unformatted text (that you can scan,
for instance). Tell them that if they submit material in a formatted
manner to submit hard copy to you so that you can see what they are
trying show... this is a tough one - especially when someone gets a CDROM
with 1000's of fonts on it for _fill in your favorite winter solstice
gift giving occasion here_ and they send you an article that has many
fonts. Yikes.
3. e-mail works great, but tell them "no attachments". We've been using
FTP to transfer .jpeg and .gif submissions. I can read attachments, but a
lot of times I don't have the software that produced the images - so that
winds up being problematic.
4. No matter what, if someone sends you something - try to use it. The
positive feedback of having used it will cause them to submit more. Try
to ring a bell when they hand the material to you. That way, sometime in
the future, when you ring a bell folks will start submitting material.
See "Pavlovian Response". For material that is not "self supporting", I
sometimes put the material in a "letters" section. Also - related to
letters - encourage feedback. It actually works - but you have to print
the responses.
> Thanks to all of you for putting some life in this list
Be careful what you wish for!
>
> Ron Mitchell
> "Wheel Spin"Newsletter Editor, South East Michigan Austin Healey Club
regards,
rml
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