Leanpub: Publish Early, Publish Often

The official communication for your association

For many organizations the newsletter should be the bedrock of a successful volunteer association. If you do not have a newsletter, or yours is not motivating volunteers, please give it the attention that it deserves. Most organizations that are having difficulty motivating volunteers either do not have a newsletter, are not using the existing one appropriately, or do not know how to manage a newsletter. Few organizations understand what can be accomplished with a newsletter.

Why is this form of communication so important? As far as members are concerned, this is the official outlet for information about your association. Here, members learn what is really happening in the association, they see who is doing the work, and their own contributions are clearly recorded. This provides a powerful motivation for participation. If you have a large national organization, the people in the local chapters may not identify with an organization-wide newsletter. In this case, the local group should be permitted to have their own publication.

To the best of the editor’s ability, every contribution of the members should appear in the newsletter. The news is seeing who did what. An expression of the editor’s value judgments (other than recognition) is not required—all volunteer efforts are appreciated.

Because of the Internet, associations are debating the format of their official publication. A few effective newsletters are still printed on paper and delivered by the post. This format is easy for the reader to peruse at leisure. It is not clear that online versions offer better experiences than the printed piece. The Internet offers new possibilities (and problems). Your group will probably discuss whether it is better to offer the newsletter on the web, send it out as email, or continue spending the time and money printing, binding, stuffing and mailing.

Without enhancements to the online version, the printed version is much more likely to be read. The compelling argument for web edition is it’s less costly to produce, but it needs to offer something that a printed version does not. People still tend to pick up and browse a printed piece. Think about your doctor’s office or the seat-back magazines on a plane. Although much is changing with handheld mobile devices and wireless Internet, you need to consider value added elements for delivering your newsletter online. If your society is using groupware and most of your members spend part of every day participating in conferences and in online forums, you may find that an electronic newsletter is preferred. Just keep in mind: the newsletter must be read or it will not be working for you.

Simply emailing, or posting on a website a scanned version of a print-designed newsletter using the Portable Document Format (PDF) (especially if there is more than one column) is a poor compromise and is not recommended.

Be sure you know how your members receive electronic communications. Formatted emails (with elements that are downloaded at the time the email is opened) are sometimes invisible to readers who don’t allow graphics to appear automatically. You may not be able to please everyone, but be sure that whatever you decide is the system and format you choose can and will actually be seen and read by at least 95% of your membership.

Now look at your existing newsletter (if you have one). Some editors believe that people will expect to see news about your cause. Editors work very hard to research developments from around the world and to find authors who will write articles that will be entertaining and present knowledgeable views. Material about the people in your local group is not considered the major news unless someone has achieved celebrity status (e.g., received a major award or achieved a major milestone). Such newsletters are nice, but reading them is not essential to anyone.

Everyone is so busy these days that few people have the time to sit down and absorb material that is merely interesting. If the articles are about people I should know and what they are doing (or even about me), I don’t consider that trivial and will be sure I read through the newsletter as soon as possible.

Try using the approach that is recommended here and you will see readership rise and volunteer motivation improve.

The newsletter is so important to motivating the members that the first two points used to quantify the success of the newsletter are identical to the points used to measure the success of the whole organization.

There is an active membership. To quantify this: more than 25% of the membership contributes to the affairs of the organization at least once per year. At least 15% could be described as active members.
People maintain their membership. To quantify this: Less than 10% per year do not renew; and the main reason for leaving is that the member is physically unable to continue (occupational responsibilities, moving or health).
The newsletter is read and back issues are kept as reference. This information can be discovered with a short survey or through anecdotal information.
People want to write for the newsletter. Evidence for this is that there will be no need to appeal for articles—there are always more offers than there is room. Also, there are no problems finding volunteers to work on the newsletter (e.g., writing, editing, proofreading, printing, folding & stapling, stuffing, addressing and mailing, or preparing for Internet distribution). Consider listing all of the volunteers for a newsletter as the production staff for the next letter. If anyone spots a typo or other error, be sure to list them in the next newsletter as ‘proofreader.’

Use lots of photos and mention names

This is the document of record. It means that people who ran, assisted, or participated in anything should be named. Don’t worry, no one will be bored. This is the primary news for the letter.

Use lots of photos, identify people in photos, and mention as many names as possible. Mention names as often as possible and new members will soon see who is active. New members will gravitate to those peoples’ activities—this is an important way that recruits discover how to become involved.

Do not skimp here to make room for that wonderful article by the famous Professor So-and-so. Instead, offer a link to access the article or describe where it can be found in the local library. Use it only if it lends credence or support to your members’ accomplishments.

The rule is: mention as many names as possible, and mention names as often as possible. The advice is widely known but editors seem to have trouble doing it. Treat peoples’ contribution with respect and do not use the cute style of gossip columns. Just report what happened, who was there, and who did what. By all means describe the setting, location, or rationale too.

One of the ways for the editor to investigate recent activities is to call committee chairs and other organizers, and ask for articles on recent affairs. Make it clear that what is required is information on who did what and not poetry about the cause. A little poetry is okay. Let people know that the editor may edit to keep articles short. If the organizers cannot (or will not) write, the editor can call to do an interview, and write that up.

Mentioning names, and describing what people are doing, makes compelling reading. People love to see their own names in print, and they devour information about the activities of others, especially if the subjects relate to their own circle. Mentioning names ensures readership and keeps the back copies out of the recycling bin.

Editorial style

Newsletters should be a quick and easy read. Because it looks like a newsletter, readers anticipate that they have at something in their hands that looks and feels like a newspaper or a magazine. Therefore the writing style should be similar to those kinds of journals.

The design of the newsletter should reflect the style of the organization and its membership. If you are the new editor, take the time to examine lots of newsletters from other organizations. I suggest that you develop a template that includes a masthead that you like and space for regular features. People will become familiar with the layout and will snap to the sections of interest. Likely your budget will limit you to a set number of pages.

The appearance of an organization’s newsletter becomes a matter of tradition. Give any changes considerable thought and include the leadership in your planning process. During your term of office do not expect to produce more than one major overhaul of the design—if that. You probably have more scope with your editorial policies.

Most organizations have a number of specious reasons for not doing what is recommended here. Let me suggest a few that I have experienced that will show the scope of what you may encounter when you choose to address this issue. Perhaps your organization has an academic tradition; and the look and content of the newsletter reflects that illustrious history. No one wants to change the beautiful format, even though its erudite articles do nothing to motivate the volunteers. Or your club is a chapter of a national organization and because there is a national newsletter (that hardly anyone reads, or that says little about the local group), you don’t believe there’s a need to crank out a local sheet. Sometimes most of the membership fee is sent to a parent organization and there is not enough left to service the members with a newsletter. Some organizations have not increased dues for years and cannot afford a newsletter.

Do not allow tradition or financial limitations to be excuses for your organization to fail. Ignore tradition that does not serve you and charge the members what it costs to serve them as members. This is appropriate, and necessary, as long as you are clear that the value of the membership fee is worth the price.

Reporting

Most articles are reports of an event or activity, or a survey of a collection of activities. The essay on how to write a media release is good instruction to the appropriate style, except that there is no need to use headlines that are especially grabby. Newsletter headlines should simply make it easy for the reader to identify the contents of the piece.

The opening paragraph should set the context for the whole article. Each of the subsequent paragraphs should tell one element of the story. By now you know that I am recommending that the story is always about who did what, when, where and why.

The tone should be upbeat and full of recognition for the good works of the participants. Recognition is just that: the story of who was there, what happened and what was accomplished. The editor should not gush with words of thanks and appreciation. Use praise sparingly and only for exceptional circumstances. That is when it will carry more weight and have the most use. In fact, who cares if the editor is grateful? It is better if the reporting quotes someone, such as a member of the leadership, who expressed some words of thanks.

The reporting should be credible. This takes some skill to describe a situation when things did not go well and lots of people know it. The editor does not have to make a point of recording small incidents that are negative, but the major news does have to be told. Try to find that positive spin if you can do it with integrity.

Features

Feature articles are not the point of the newsletter and should not take up an inordinate amount of space. Remember, though, new members will look to the newsletter to see what is going on. From time to time it is worth an article to describe the context for various association activities. If there are any new initiatives, a piece on the history, background, and reasons could be valuable.

Features keep the casual member involved and up to date. Avoid using valuable newsletter space for articles that are just interesting and do not relate to the work of your society.

Amusing

Some writers have a knack for seeing and describing the humorous side of almost everything. It can make for great reading as long as no members (other than the writer) are victims of the author’s wit. Gags are spice in a newsletter and are probably not central to the editorial purpose.

Cartoon strips can add visual interest to the newsletter if you have a talented contributor. Beware of copyright issues if you help yourself to existing material from the other sources.

Pictures

With smart phones or tablets, it is easy to take snaps at events or at gatherings of members and include pictures in the newsletter. This is a good use of space in the newsletter.

Take time to learn how to do this well. The most interesting pictures will be of people that the readers know, or should know. It is even better if the picture, or a group of images, tells a bit of a story. Take photos close enough to the subject so that faces are recognizable. Identify everyone featured in the picture. Don’t make the reader search the copy to find out what the picture is about, use a caption, and don’t make the caption too brief. Use a bright fill flash, and use electronic photo finishing to ensure that the photo doesn’t look dingy. Point-and-shoot cameras with tiny lenses have difficulty in darker locations—there is a reason people pay more for an SLR with a large chip. If you are using paper, can you print on stock that produces a decent looking image? If it will appear on someone’s screen, know that it may have different characteristics than yours.

If you are using electronic publishing, be sure to learn how to produce good, simple, and short videos.

No wall of type

Newsletters tend to be busy with lots of short articles. There are likely to be a couple of headings on each page. This means that there is lots of visual interest. If you find that you have some long articles that leave whole pages filled with nothing but type, be sure to break it up or the reader may abandon the article because it looks too long and boring.

The easiest way to do this is to include pull quotes. Find a few really compelling phrases in the text of the article that can be quoted as a box in the middle of the article.

Illustrations and clip art can help too. Because they can be scaled, these devices are also useful in adjusting the length of articles to fill the columns.

Blank ‘white space’ is a useful design feature. It is not necessary to crowd every inch of the page with copy.

Bylines

At all times readers should know who is writing. If the editor invites an article the author should always have a byline. Be consistent about this.

If the editor is writing, the articles should not be written in the first person unless the editor has a byline. I am always surprised when I see the word ‘I’ in an article and I cannot figure out who wrote the copy. It does not look appropriate for the editor’s name to be repeated throughout the newsletter. Save the articles written in the first person for a few situations where personal observations are the most useful method of reporting the news.

Incisive Journalism

Opinionated journalists should be encouraged to write letters to the local papers and not write editorials for the newsletter. This is not the place for clever articles on such topics as the political activities related to the board. Power struggles should be confined to open and democratic board, general meetings, or lobbying, but never to sniping in the newsletter. People will read the newsletter because they want to know what is going on, not because they want to hear a writer’s opinion. The editor must subscribe to this philosophy, or the newsletter and your association will languish. In this regard, a newsletter is very different from a typical city’s daily newspaper.

The editor can become a powerful person in the life of the society. The primary recognition for volunteer activity is a thoughtful word in the newsletter. People will be hurt if contributions are not recognized in an evenhanded manner. An editor who plays favourites, or takes sides on issues, can alienate whole factions of the membership. The editor may win a political battle, but the club will lose.

A source of useful reference

One of the problems that editors seem to have is finding material for the newsletter. Following are some topics that probably should find a place in your letter. Frankly, it always amazes me that there are busy organizations that seem to have difficulty filling the newsletter. Use the advice here and your problem will be a lack of space.

This list is intended to stimulate ideas for “filler” but never should crowd out the articles about member activities. Don’t let that happen.

List names of:

All of the leadership: board members, committee chairs, any organizers, people in related organizations, significant politicians. Be sure to list telephone numbers, consider including email and mailing addresses too. Repeat it all again after every Annual General Meeting. People will have to keep the newsletter because it is a convenient reference document. Consider listing new members and renewals. If you do this, list the life members from time to time.

How-to articles

One of the ways to encourage people to volunteer for active duty is for an experienced person to write an article on how the job is accomplished. It helps to give the membership an appreciation for the workings of the club. After about five years has past, consider rewriting, updating, and republishing this material. Try to give it a new spin.

Events

People need lots of notice of upcoming events. Be sure that it is clear what is in the future, and why members should be involved and how they can be a part of it. This is a good reason to keep the newsletter simple to publish.

Issues

In a factual manner, report the issues that are commanding the attention of the leadership. The important issues have to do with developments in the community and the related organizational strategies that are being planned or used for accomplishing the mission of the society.

Issues often carry strong emotional content. The editor should not be using the newsletter to participate in a debate or promote a point of view. The object here is to keep the casual membership informed. If that cannot be done without having an impact on the issue, it might be better to wait for the issue to be resolved before publishing. And then there might be nothing to report.

If the issues are ones of internal strife, the newsletter may not be an appropriate vehicle for discussion.

Reading about issues may even draw out members who could make a contribution.

To make the newsletter truly newsy, it needs to be timely. The time from writing to layout, to publishing and mailing (or posting on the Internet) should be short so that it is still news when it arrives at the members’ homes. Use desktop publishing, and forget colour separations unless it is easy. The information content is more important than the look.

If your organization is busy you should probably publish every month. Make sure that the publication schedule (deadline for submissions, deadline for printing, deadline for assembling and mailing) is predictable and regular.

If you are thinking that a blog might serve the this purpose, remember that no one has to visit your blog site. We’ve created many blogs (and other forms of web sites), but this passive nature of the web means you will have to do more to make it inevitable that your members visit it. In addition to publishing blog articles, you’ll probably have to promote each new article with emails to everyone, tweets, something on Facebook, and more. Since the newsletter is considered a benefit of membership, often the online version is protected by a password. This is a huge barrier to readership.

Surely you have seen those newsletters where the editor howls about the paucity of writers of articles, the dearth of help in publishing the newsletter, and the need for assistance on this or that committee. The editorial goes on to lament the fact that all of the work continues to be done by a few people who are approaching burn-out. The climax of the diatribe is to plead for some good people to come forward to share the load. I have never seen this work very effectively. Would you volunteer after reading that? You just know that if you did you would join that pitiful parade marching toward burn-out.

As explained elsewhere, volunteers need to be asked and sometimes persuaded to volunteer. The person asking needs to convince the prospect that s/he would be good at the job, that the job is valuable, and that there will be training and support so the volunteer will not look incompetent.

If this process is in place, there is no need to cry for help in print. It may be reasonable to list the vacant positions and a contact person for each. It is better not to do this if any of those positions are chronically vacant. If the newsletter is read, people will note these vacancies and will not want to be the sucker who takes on the undesirable chore.

For a printed newsletter, there is only one format (in North America) that is easy for members to file: 8-1/2 x 11 inches. This is important because members may want to keep their newsletters. Leave room for a 3-hole punch because some people will want to keep their copies in binders. Anything else (regardless of what the professional designer recommends) is a nuisance for the members, and will likely be trashed. Consider providing the newsletter prepunched—it will encourage members to retain their copies. Keep the binding system simple and cheap so that volunteers can do the binding as part of the publishing process, and the member can pull it apart to copy or file the pages. Use recycled paper. Keep it simple.

If the publication is to be electronic, please avoid multicolumn formats.

If it is a blog, note that many themes have such wide columns that it is difficult for the eye to track from the end of one line to the beginning of the line below. There is a reason that newspapers have such narrow columns—those are easy to read quickly.

With blogs, it is best to publish articles frequently; probably at least one post every few days. Blog articles must be timely, and so if it is about a current event, try to publish within hours of the event’s windup. You may look into live-streaming, live blogging, and live-tweeting. If there is good Internet access available, this can be cheap and easy (once you and your crew learn how). Always think more about how to engage and delight the person coming to your blog than what it is that you want to tell them. As editor, you will hear people say: “this is important, please post it on the blog.” It isn’t important unless it is compelling to the reader. If you cannot imagine the angle or spin to make it compelling, don’t post it!

If you are using electronic publishing, think about the security of your archival material. Consider owning your own domain and website. Then maintain multiple off-line backups.

Print a standard box that lists the people responsible for producing the newsletter, how to contact them, and any significant editorial policies including the publication schedule, deadlines for submission, and what topics are acceptable for inclusion. Point out that the editor has the right to edit or reject any submissions. In fact you will not receive too may articles unless you request that someone report something and write it up. Be sure to ask.

It is appropriate recognition to list the contributors (authors) to each newsletter. Since, at the time of printing you may not know who will volunteer to participate in publishing and mailing, keep track of the names and list them in the next newsletter. I recall one editor who noted the names of anyone who had the nerve to point out a typo or other error, and listed those names in the next issue as proofreaders.

Keep a good record of all back copies of your newsletter. Be careful with newsletters that exist only as electronic files. Ensure that you have all of that backed up with at least one version stored at an off-site location.