producing a Breed club newsletter
SKYE TERRIER BREED COLUMN - MARCH 1995
This column spotlights another of the STCA’s unsung heroes: the Publishing Manager of our quarterly breed club magazine, The Bulletin. It was really nice working with Mike on this task, as one wordsmith to another. Thanks, sir for a job well done.
IN HIS OWN WORDS...
‘Of the many crucial volunteer positions supporting a national breed club, the job of newsletter editor is said to be one of the most demanding. After more than one year on the job, I can attest to the challenges of the position but add that it is also deeply rewarding and exciting. I believe that our newsletter should provide a voice to a broad spectrum of our Club membership and serve as a unifying force in our Club. This is especially important to the Skye Terrier Club of America because our small membership is widely scattered geographically.
Work on each issue begins weeks, often months in advance of the publication deadline and the search for material is never-ending. The main staple of each issue is Club business, including minutes of Board meetings, committee reports, regional club updates and regular columns of health, rescue and a message from our President. Another constant is member advertising. This is an enjoyable element of the newsletter as beautiful color photos of our member’s dogs arrive in my mailbox on a regular basis. When typesetting the ads, I try to make each one distinctive and attractive, reflecting the tastes and wishes of the owner. Here is where I can get creative with my collection of fonts, borders and clip art. I try to devote a portion of each issue to a particular topic such as the stud dog, brood bitch, or history of an old-time kennel. Once the topic is selected, material for this section must be tracked down from a variety of sources. Fortunately, we have many creative, knowledgeable readers who continue to be generous in submitting material to share. My role is to work behind the scenes, providing ongoing encouragement to contributors.
As the deadline approaches, our house becomes ‘Skye Central’ with a frenzy of last-minute phone calls in and out, faxes, and a flurry of overnight letter deliveries. No doubt our letter carrier wonders just what is going on at this strange house with the unusual looking dogs!
I currently produce our newsletter using an Apple Mac Plus computer. With its small 9” monitor and slow processor, this computer, which was state of the art in 1987, today is considered nearly prehistoric. Despite its limitations, I am running a rather powerful page layout program and manage to get the job done. As with most computer-based creative projects, I find I achieve a much better result when I can input material as it arrives and gradually refine the look of it in many sessions rather than in one or two marathon sessions. Once the deadline passes, I feverishly work to finish typesetting all material and muster my creative juices to arrange the layout in an attractive fashion. One philosophy which I have adopted is to keep the layout clean and relatively unembellished, believing in the value of understatement. Design and content inspiration are also derived from the newsletters of The Skye Terrier Club (Great Britain), The Skye Terrier Club of Finland and the newsletters of fellow terrier clubs.
A draft printout is made on my Apple Stylewriter ll printer. Final changes are then made before taking the file to the local print shop. Here I print the ‘camera ready’ output on a 600 dpi laser printer. After printing the copy, I paste up the pages and mail the boards and photos to a fellow STCA member on the other side of the country... Yuba City, California. She and her husband own a print shop where they transform my work into the polished final product. We have developed a finely tuned sense of teamwork in producing this newsletter.
With the Bulletin out the door, you might think I could take a break. Quite the opposite! At this time, I switch gears and work to build the subscription list. You see, our breed is very small in numbers and we are challenged to bring new people into our breed. Coupled with our promotion though, is a strong emphasis on education. Because of this, our newsletter serves a vital role as both a promotional and educational piece. With this dual role in mind, I have gradually worked towards giving the newsletter a multidimensional ‘magazine’ format within the budget constraints of our Club. This effort has been successful as we continue to build our subscriber base. All new Skye owners are eligible to receive a free complimentary copy of The Bulletin and what a thrill it is to see a subscriber grow to become a full-fledged member of our Club!
A deep breath is taken when the latest issue of the newsletter finally appears in the mailbox. Seeing the final product makes it all worthwhile. Our readers are appreciative and many have taken the time to pass on a kind work or two and that certainly helps.
The job of newsletter editor is demanding and it requires a careful budgeting of one’s time, especially if you also work full time and exhibit your own dogs!! But, it can be done and is extremely rewarding. If you have desktop publishing skills and are asked to serve - I’d encourage you to take the challenge. This is an ideal way to give something back to your breed in a positive, tangible way. Good luck!’
Thanks very much, Mike, for providing a column that wrote itself. Now, if only I can figure out how to get my PC to talk with your Mac...
Looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s Specialties. Besides the Spring’s annual Potomac fixture, we have a roving Specialty to look forward to in August in Colorado. From previous experience, I heartily recommend attending both. If nothing else, boy do these people know how to throw a party!!
Lynne A. Kuczynski
1215 Pennsylvania Avenue
Emmaus, PA 18049