OK editors!

We have just finished the 1st complete year under the NAAP (Newsletter Achievement Awards Program).

1. Did you like working with the guidelines?

2. Do you think the guidelines helped you improve your newsletter? If so, how?

3. What didn't you like and what would change if you could?

4. What do you think needs to be added? or changed?

I am posting this as a fellow editor (nothing official here) and was wondering how everyone felt about the NAAP after a year so I thought I would ask.

Judy

Judy, personally, I find the new rules easy to follow. You now realize that if you leave something important out of your newsletter, you can pretty well figure what the point losses will be.

What bothers me now is that so few AACA Newsletter Editors actually view this site or even the Web Site at all. The information we have available on this web site could make the difference between a nice readable newsletter valuable to regional members and a newsletter with just a couple messages and ads that no one will ever read. This situation is disappointing to me and I will address that at Philly this year!

Wayne

Wayne, I am with you on this one! I am very surprised how many never check here. I try to check once a week to see if any thing been posted. My biggest thing is I don't have room in many of my news letters for the AACA Rummage box that I would like to add. Postage wise I try to keep them at the five pages unless we have done a lot with the club that month. That's what I am going for this year. I have not had any complants but keep geting people that say they can't wait to see whats in it and read it from "cover to cover" as some of the ladys say!
Deby

That's great Debby. Some of the Rummage Box articles are short and do not take up a lot of space. Keep that in mind.

Wayne

Wayne,

Unfortunately though the best articles are the longest.

In that case, I would suggest that you pick out some meaningful paragraphs and then point the reader to the on-line version where they can read the full article.

Judy

I will have to try that Judy but I do have about 1/4 that do not have computers or won't go on line only for family emails. I am going to try in the January one and see what happens.
Deby

Debby, When I was an editor up until about 2001, I was able to send 12 pages folded over and stapled for one stamp, but having them printed on both sides. Wayne and Judy also print on both sides. Putting a newsletter into an envelope is nice, but it costs you lots of space in your newsletter. By the way, the 12 page was a half page, with the address on the other half.

Earl

1. Did you like working with the guidelines? yes- as an editor, you know what the committee is looking at/for. Plus you know that the committtee is looking at them the same way. Example: some committee members could demerit your newsletter because of say it was done digest form, while other members didn't have a problem with it. (I know one editor (not me) many years ago (20+) he'd never win anything as long as he did it digest style. It had to be 8.5x11 in size).

2. Do you think the guidelines helped you improve your newsletter? No (was already doing most everything on the list last year)If so, how?

3. What didn't you like and what would change if you could? Nothing

4. What do you think needs to be added? or changed? Would like to see something in reguards to equaling things a little more between the guy that only puts out four newsletters a year and the person that has to go through this twelves times a year. I think the rerquirment should be min. of six issues. At four issues it is easy to come up with events/stories and have plenty of upcomming events to "advertise". But when you are doing it monthly you don't have as many events from the last issue, you now need 8 more member's stories than the quarterly editor and now you need to be selective as to what events you advertise because of cost of more page each month to advertise as much as the quarterly editor did in one issue.

Plus at quarterly, you can't do a really effective job at remindering members about an upcoming event that's 3 months down the road. They'll forget about it by then. Plus your reporting on old news that's up to roughly three months old. Why would I what to read about the New Year's parade we perticapated in when it is late March early April???

Comment:
Overall I give the NAAP a big thumbs up. It is something I've heard was needed for years. It puts the editors and committee members on the same page.

I have to confess...

I forgot about the NAAP...


I admit that at first, Di and I checked the finished newsletter with the NAAP scoring sheet each month, but we stopped after the second month. As with David, the majority of items on the NAAP were the same that we had already been putting in our newsletter for a number of years. I quit counting points and concentrated on making the best newsletter I could for our members; and the NAAP drifted out of my already questionable memory. Judy posting this thread made me think about it again.

I concur with David, that the NAAP guidelines are useful for knowing what the Publications committee is looking for. The guidelines also helps to remove a lot of speculation from the process, which could vary greatly among different reviewers. The NAAP can be an especially good aid for new or fairly new editors.

When I first saw the guidlines last year, my main concern was that it seemed to have limited consideration for quality and creativity. (an Excel spreadsheet can present all of the data but is not necessarily that enjoyable to read). I guess that would move back into speculation.

At this time, I cannot think of anything that needs to be added. I know the committee put a lot of work in the NAAP and it shows. Good job!

Bruce: Did you get a letter?

Thanks Wayne !! Now I can't read my own post!! I use "theblues" style sheet for viewing cause it's easy on the eyes, but your blue don't show up on it very well.

I actually did that for Earl, David.

Heck, you already know what you wrote, right???

Wayne

Can't I forget?? After all I'm over that big four zero mark where everything is suppose to start failing me.

Got twenty years on you, "young fellow"!

And, you think you have trouble remembering.

Wayne

Alright you can stop braggin' about how many years you got over me. Believe me, I ain't trying to catch up!!!

Now what were we talking about?
Think it was ANAP..
no that's the Alaska Native Arts Program

Ah, the AANP..
no, that's American Association of Neuropathologists

The PAAN..
no, that's the Physician Assistant AIDS Network

The APNA..
no, that's the American Psychiatric Nurses Association ( might be useful to have them here but not it)

O the NAAP!!! That's it!!!

You think you funny! That's alright, I'll be calling on you shortly for some "get down and dirty" hard work. I'll let Santa visit you first, assuming you didn't mess up again this year!

Wayne

Got you both beat - Santa already visited me. Left me a half a lump of coal. Said I messed up so bad this year I didn't deserve a whole lump even. He stomped off from here muttering....

Survey should probably be sent to all editors since so few look at the forum. I also feel there should some points given/taken for quality or lack thereof. If a prez gets a few lines in the N/L he gets the requisite amount of points regardless of quality of the article. It seems difficult to get away from the subjectivity in some areas.
Like working on computers, we're getting used to it, and I sure enjoyed looking over all those newsletters this year.
Oh-can we add a deduction to the form for "Staple Punctures in finger?"
Terry

Sounds like one of the evaluators was using improper equipment for the task at hand!

Wayne

Oh! OH!
Terry
Hope one of those staples was not mine!
I do hope they send a questioner, that be a good idea to see what every one likes and disliked.
Deby

Santa said I've been so bad he ain't vistin' me for the next several years. I think Andrea's been lyin' to him about me. (She's mad at me right now.)

The more one starts evaluating "quality", the more unfair it gets and the more speculative it gets, because what is "quality" to one person is not "quality" to another. Further, any Region or Chapter with a "quality" writer is lucky. Many Regions and Chapters have a very difficult time getting anyone to do the newsletter. The name of the game is to "get the right stuff to the members" and to provide true encouragement to the volunteers willing to give newsletter editing a try, and their best, regardless of their ability to write, or to pay for more pages in the product. The idea of the NAAP is to reward effort. The bigger and richer the Region or Chapter the better their ability to produce "quality" in all aspects of a newsletter's production.

Earl,

I don't know what any of the others who mentioned quality might have been thinking, but I was not refering to the quality of writing in terms of phrase and prose.

Maybe quality was a bad word to use. I was thinking more on items such as the logic and use of the newsletter layout and presentation, and the usefulness of the information provided, among other things. In my opinion, a well laid out newsletter not only shows the time and effort put into it, but it also tends to make the members more likely to read the information in it.

For an extremely exagerated example:

1. The AACA is having a tour in Virginia.

2. The Northern Neck Region AACA is hosting a Glidden Tour in Warsaw, Virginia during June 3-7, 2008. For more information, contact Wild Wayne Burgess at 1-800-BIGRIGS.

#1 technically fills the requirement of presenting an AACA news item but has little usefulness while #2 provides the information that is more useful to the reader and wasn't the work worthy of a Pulitzer Prize winner.

The Harford County Region will be expected to help the Northern Neck Region with this Glidden Tour.


Wayne

Not at all what I was talking about Bruce. Basically, your example is a portion of the Calander. The Calander is a 10 point aspect of a good newsletter. This particular entry would be worthy of 5 more points as identifying a National event. However, if six more National events were also in the calander, their total worth is still only 5 points. Now, in example #1, without identification of a time and place, it wouldn't be worth the 5 points. Common sense also comes into play, in that since this event is advertised in the national magazine, were I the evaluator, I probably wouldn't require the contact information to get the value, but of course it's recommended. Naturally there can be a switch point at which the evaluator decides enough information is included to qualify for credit at all. But, if it is decided that the entry fills the requirement, it gets the points. That decision can be made without deciding how good or how long or how pretty the item is to meet the threshold of passing valuable or readable/useful information. I hope I made my point clear.