USS Albany Association, Inc.

Transcription

1 USS Albany Association, Inc. How to Series Newsletter Editor Guidelines Original Issue Date: September, 2012 Date Revised:

2 Introduction The Newsletter Editor has one function; periodically produce and distribute a newsletter to the membership. The newsletter remains the main source of communications between the association governing Board of Directors and its members. Currently the newsletter is generated on a PC using WORD software and distributed through the US postal service. PUBLISHER software has also been used to produce the newsletter. The option to use either package is open to the Editor. In your first few months as Newsletter Editor, you ll have many tasks to perform. The learning curve will vary based on your experience but help from this guide and assistance from past Editors will help. Experience in using either software package is not a prerequisite but highly desirable and will make the job much easier. The Newsletter Editor is an Appointed Officer of the USS Albany Association, Inc. His responsibilities are described in the Corporation Bylaws. Let s open this guide with some quotes from those bylaws. The Editor shall be responsible for the publication of a newsletter from time to time but not less than four times per year typically in Nov, Feb, May, and Aug. The newsletter shall contain information about association newsworthy items, its membership, annual reunions, and timely articles of interest. The association newsletter is the primary means of communication between the association Officers and Committees with the membership at large. The Editor shall be responsible for all facets of producing the newsletter, namely the assembling and editing of content material from all sources, making contact with a printer for printing the newsletter, assembling the newsletters for shipping, and coordinating with United States Postal Service for mailing the newsletters to members. Other articles in the Bylaws may contain references to the Newsletter Editor and the entire document should be reviewed regularly to ensure your compliance to them. Publishing the SEABREEZE One of the first tasks you re faced with is to find a local printer willing and able to print the newsletter. The newsletter will vary in size from one publication to another. Currently the newsletter runs anywhere from 16 to 20 pages with some possible inserts. You must negotiate a price which falls within the budget, and allows for additional pages over and above the norm. The next task is to obtain a non-profit, bulk mailing license from the US Post Office. Current price for this license is $190 per year. This license allows newsletters to be mailed at approximately 17c a piece rather than at the prevailing first class rates. Minimum requirements are that you must mail at least 200 copies per mailing, 600 copies per year. The easiest way to produce the newsletter is to use the last newsletter as a template for the next. The newsletter folders are organized as follows: USS Albany folder Newsletter folder Newsletters folder YYYY (month) example-2012 August Newsletter Pages These files contain all the back issues of the newsletters. Each page in the newsletter is a separate file and labeled with the page number (May Page 1). Find the most current issue, open each file or page, then save as the next issue. For example, take the May Page 1 file and save as August Page 1 in a folder labeled 2012 August. Since it already has the logo and other information you ll want, all you need to do to get started is make changes. Start by changing the volume number, issue number as well as the month and year of publication. The volume number and issue number are both represented as roman numerals. The volume number represents the first number

3 in the current fiscal year minus the year of our first reunion (1990). For example the volume number for fiscal year is calculated by subtracting 1990 from 2011 ( = 21) making the volume number the Roman numeral XXI. (An even easier way is, at the end of the fiscal year, bump it up by one.) The number is the issue number for the current fiscal year. For example a newsletter prepared in November would most likely be the first edition of the year (I) while one prepared in May would probably be the third (III). The Header for each page reflects a page number and the month being published. The month needs to be updated on each page. The next thing to change is the list of officers and their information, which is on the next to the last page. This information changes more often than you think. If, by chance, an officer has an address, phone number or address change, you must make the changes in the newsletter. Be sure to check this list after each reunion to ensure its accuracy. Some things are common to each issue of the SEABREEZE, for example, the TAPS column. Unfortunately, hardly an issue is printed without having to report the death of one of our shipmates. As you lay out your newsletter, you need to know that the bugler and other such items need to be moved separately. The first time I moved the TAPS column to a different location on the page, I thought the bugler would move too. It didn t happen! Just being aware of this will be a confidence booster. Requests for article submission should be sent out early enough for people to prepare the articles and still allow you plenty of time to place them into the newsletter. You ll need to consult your printer when preparing a timeline for newsletter preparation and the time can vary with each issue depending upon their workload. Write down the date you d like the members to receive their newsletters. Subtract a few days for delivery by the Postal Service. You must then subtract at least one day for you to prepare the newsletters for mailing. Using the result as the date you d need the newsletters back from the printers, you can then subtract the lead time provided by the printer. Allow at least 1-2 weeks for you to prepare the newsletter submissions for the printer. It has been my experience that allowing three (3) weeks is usually sufficient for article submission. The mailing list for newsletter submissions includes the entire Board of Directors, the Membership Chairman, the Historian, the Webmaster, the Reunion Chairman and the CO of the submarine. Many of the articles in the newsletter will be authored by you or reproduced from other sources. These can be prepared while waiting for submissions from others. Submissions usually arrive by and it will be up to you to convert them into a form that can be placed into the newsletter. Many times this only involves changing it into a two (2) column format. Other changes may require you to become more creative or perhaps retype the whole thing yourself. Make all of your changes in the original document before you insert it into the newsletter. Be sure to check spelling, grammar and punctuation. Someone will find your mistakes, believe me! Other submissions will be sent to you by mail and must be retyped or scanned if photos or documents. Inserting documents, photos, etc. into the newsletter, if in WORD, is usually a cut and paste operation. However, there are many exceptions to this statement depending on the source of the material being inserted into the document. If you re familiar with WORD, this should not become a huge problem. I ve found that in general, it is best to lay out the newsletter ahead of time by allocating each article to its destination page in the newsletter. The layout will change as you start editing the articles but it provides a plan to work by. Dues reminders should be run in the May and August issues to ensure dues payments are made by the end of August. The membership Chairman will determine when a Transfer to the inactive list should take place. We don t want to create hard feelings from members by not sending a newsletter when they have indeed paid their dues. This meets the bylaws requirements and reduces the number of reunion packets mailed out as well as the number of future newsletters printed and mailed. In November, an invoice with a payment envelope is mailed by the Treasurer to all members who have not paid their dues. The invoice includes the amount due, the delinquent period, and space to make changes to their membership record similar to the form used in the August newsletter. The payment envelope is pre-printed with the Treasurer s address. If payment is received, no further action is required other than updating their membership record. If payment is not received within 30 days of contacting the member, the February issue will be the last

4 issue of the newsletter they will receive and their membership classification will be changed from Active to Inactive. Their membership record would be moved from the Active file to the Inactive file. A notice would appear in the February Newsletter to this effect If you received an invoice in November and you did not remit your dues, this is the last newsletter that you will receive and you are now considered an Inactive member. I believe that if you used the just change it method of preparing the newsletter that you ve been successful and your first newsletter looks great! At this point, you should print out a copy (single sided printing) and proofread it one more time. The pages are numbered and allow the printer to put them back in order should they inadvertently get mixed up. Now you must prepare the newsletters for mailing. I chose to deliver the newsletter to the printer on a CD. As previously mentioned, each page is a separate file, labeled by page number. Some photo pages need to be converted to PDF format for printing. The printer produces approximately 550 newsletters, folded. Once I receive the newsletters from the printer, there are two operations that must be completed. The first is to put tabs on the newsletters to keep them from opening. The second is to put address labels on the newsletters. Stamps are not required. A non-profit, bulk mailing ID stamp is printed on the cover page of each newsletter. The process for generating address labels is as follows: First, go to the Newsletter folder on the desktop Then. In the list open the ACCESS file containing the membership records. Click on Reports in the left hand column In the list of reports, you ll notice several label reports. Select Labels Albany Membership with ID and Exp date For the Nov and Feb issues, you will also have to print Labels Winter Addresses. Use the applicable labels based on information provided in the Winter Address file These labels require using the Avery 8160 labels or an equivalent. I send approximately 12 newsletters to the submarine using the CO s label. This requires filling out a customs form for the Post Office. I also send 12 newsletters to the Secretary for new members. Although not necessary for bulk mailing, the newsletters are in zip code order. Costs for printing the newsletter can vary greatly. Currently, the cost is approximately $400 for printing 550 eight 20-page newsletters. This price includes collating and folding. Multiples of four (4) pages are most efficient. So if you re thinking about increasing or decreasing the size of the newsletter, do it in increments of four pages. Increasing the number of pages may also increase the mailing costs as well. Paying for the printing and mailing the newsletter can be handled in several ways. The printer bills the Albany association by sending an invoice to the Treasurer. Obviously, the Postal Service wants their money up front. The cost for mailing the newsletters is approximately $85 per quarter. I deposit the money into the bulk mailing account by check and get reimbursed by the Treasurer. Congratulations! You ve just sent out your very first newsletter. Since the SEABREEZE is the main connection we have with our membership, expansion of the newsletter, within reason, is highly desirable. Other organizations produce quarterly magazines or much larger newsletters than we presently publish. Hopefully, you ll have the additional time to devote to such an endeavor. It will be time well spent.

5 Address Service Requested One or two weeks after the mailing, you may get a few newsletters back from the Post Office. The return address labels on newsletters specify Address Service Requested. If a newsletter cannot be delivered, the postal service will either return the newsletter or a notification card specifying why it could not deliver the newsletter. In most cases, the non-delivery is a result of a change in address. In some cases, there is no forwarding address in which case you must start a search by phone, , Internet, etc. to try and locate the missing member. These notifications and undelivered newsletters are returned from the local post office to the newsletter editor who in turn must work with the Membership Chairman to resolve the problem. Once the problem is resolved, the membership file must be updated with all changes, communicated to the other Officers, and a newsletter mailed to the member. Please bear in mind that each notification from the Post Office costs 50cents and sometimes more. It is important to constantly remind members to notify the association on a change of address. Reunion Mailing Labels In an effort to assist the Reunion Chairman and maintain security of our member s information, the Secretary or the Editor may provide labels for the mailing of reunion packages. The process is the same as for the newsletter except the submarine CO is removed from the sheet. Information about the reunion is provided to the sub s crew by others. Another method used to handle reunion mailings is to include the reunion package as part of a newsletter mailing. Typically, the center pages of the newsletter are used for the reunion package. The advantage is that it saves the cost of a separate mailing. Information on members who join after the initial reunion packet mailing should be forwarded to the reunion chairman so that he may send a reunion information package to them. Budget In May of each year, you re required to prepare a proposed budget. The easiest way is to open the current year s proposed budget, modify it as necessary to reflect proposed new equipment or software purchases, increased postal fees, higher printing costs, etc. then save it with a new date. It can then be ed to the President and others when requested. If you choose to use a petty cash fund it is recommended opening a checking account in the name of USS Albany Association, Inc. and paying all expenses by check. This will remove any doubt as to the accuracy of your accounting. The method this writer uses is paying all expenses using personal funds and submitting annotated receipts to the Treasurer for reimbursement. The choice is yours. Asset List The purchase of new equipment or the disposal of old must be documented using the Association s asset list. This lists all Association owned equipment and who has possession of it. Each year you will be asked to review this document and confirm its accuracy or make necessary corrections with an explanation of the discrepancy, if appropriate. Miscellaneous During your tenure, you will have to purchase many different items. They include paper, ink cartridges, labels (Avery 8160 or equivalent), envelopes, stamps, etc. These may be purchased using any of the methods previously mentioned. It is recommended that you back up all your essential computer files on a DVD or flash drive. Keeping a hard copy of sample documents may also assist you in the event of computer failure. When using a flash drive,

6 remember to click on safely remove hardware located in the lower right toolbar before disconnecting the flash drive. Final Word The most important thing to remember is that all of us who have held this position are available for assistance. Of course, the person who held the office most recently is the best source of information. Don t hesitate to call or e- mail us for help. Good luck and thanks for volunteering your time and energies for the good of your shipmates.