The
Next Signature Editor?
By Lana
Walker-Helmuth, Managing Editor
With the June issue comes the end of my assignment as editor of this newsletter. In this month's column, I invite people who are interested in serving as the next editor to contact me.
About the position
As all other
chapter opportunities, this is a volunteer position. It is one of the
more demanding positions, requiring several hours per month (more on that
later). Why would anyone be interested in giving up valuable time to serve
as editor? Here are a few reasons:
- For the experience of leading an award-winning, professional newsletter
- For the opportunity of learning new skills
- For personal fulfillment
- To reach professional goals
- For the joy of service
- For a creative outlet
I accepted
the assignment because I wanted to serve the chapter using skills I enjoy
and I wanted to manage a professional newsletter.
Time commitment
At the beginning
of my new assignment, I devoted many, many hours on the newsletter because
we were switching to the HTML format. I designed the newsletter, produced
the pages using DreamWeaver, and wrote a production guide. I also recruited
staff and writers, made a preliminary master schedule, devised new advertising
guidelines, and other tasks. I also put together a style guide and writer's
guidelines. Because much of this work will not need to be repeated, the
new editor can focus on finding staff and writers and making assignments.
The newsletter
has been chock-full of articles, columns, announcements, press releases,
and other items such as the animated Treasure Chest and the monthly poll.
Until recently, I also created a PDF version of each issue, which took
an inordinate amount of time due to a glitch I still don't understand.
To tell you
the truth, I was overwhelmed by the amount of work for each issue. As
a result, the chapter council agreed to my paring down the content. We
decided, for example, that most announcements and press releases would
be posted on the chapter Web site, rather than duplicate the effort in
the newsletter. We also decided that it was up to the editor to decide
on the amount of content—much of which had been driven by meeting
the criteria for the annual STC newsletter competition.
This is good
news for the next editor! You can spend a fraction of the time it used
to take to create the newsletter. I estimate that now it takes about 10
hours each month.
Helpful skills
A successful managing editor normally has these skills:
- Organizational skills
- Time management skills
- People skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Ability to judge appropriateness of content
- Design and layout skills (unless you team up with someone with those skills)
If you are interested in volunteering for this key position, please contact me immediately at lana@pe.net. Your first issue will be September 2003, but you will need the next few months to prepare.
