Miata Mailing List: March 1998, Message #68

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BACKGROUND:

I recently volunteered to take over the newsletter for the Greater
Cincinnati Miata Club, Topless Maneuvers.  Up to just previous to that
point, the newsletter editor was also the club president... who had been in
office for four years or so (not a power grab).  The newsletter often
contained only rehashes of previous outings and invitations to the next. 
Guess who had to write those as well as edit.

Whe I took it over, it was not a lamb being lead to the slaughter.  I've
edited them before (in a situation similar to the above) for large clubs
covering a variety of interests.

The first two issues have reversed the trend with writings from 'list
pickings' as well as 'purpose written' articles.  In the case of the items
from the list, I "ASK' permission of the author (ask Jeff Anderson, Hank
Barta, Dan Pedroza, Scott & Woody, Sonja, and Shiv) before publisheing
them.  In two cases, the articles were submitted to Miata.Net (again with
permission) and appeared there before they made into Topless Maneuvers
(gotta' watch that timing).

These articles will be posted on the club website (more on that in a
seperate post) the month following their publication.  (We have to give
people SOME reason to join.)

OFFER:

Pending me going back to the first round of authors, these articles may be
picked off by other clubs for publication in their newsletters (if they so
desire).  You won't have to type the suckers in and they will have been
cleared by the suthors for such publication.  I demand only that the author
be given due credit and I request that 'Topless Maneuvers' be cited as
place of first publication.  A single note rather than notation on each
article in an issue would suffice.

If other club newsletters have material (in electronic form - ain't no
secretary), I would love to put that material in the pot for all to share. 
(With the provisio it is cleared with the author.)

REQUEST:

We would love to publish an article by you.  Pick a subject... suspension,
installing a roll bar, upgrading your shocks, trouble shooting an
electrical problem, specifics on a 'Miata' drive, an idea for a new
product, an evaluation of another.  We (and ALL the other Miataphiles)
would like to read about it.  You retainthe copyright, we ask only the
right to publish and ask that you grant that right to other Miata local
chapters... with proper citations of you being the author.

We have no payment to offer other than the satisfaction of contributing to
the clubs. 

FOOD FOR FODDER:

Why does each insist on publishing entirely independant newsletters?  I
think it might make sense to organize regional publication of newsletters. 
This could be done by having a fixed core, the generic meat, with seperate
inserts from each local club for the newsletters mailed to THEIR members. 
An example... 8 page newsletter - pages 1-2 & 5-6 printed onan 11x17
folded... pages 3-4 (containing local specific) printed on an 8-1/2 by 11
and inserted in previous...  pg 7-8 be a generic mailing cover with
schedules for all (since they're inthe same general area) on one side and
ads/label on the other..

There are many variations of this that would permit the clubs to:

1) Have good technical information as well as 'local only' interest
material
2) Get volumes up to levels that take advantage of 'mailing' economies
3) Attract vendor advertising with larger potential audiences (thus
lowering the costs to the members)

It should also make it much less painful for clubs to maintain a continuity
quality content without begging just for volunteers. This is something that
could go a long way to SUPPLIMENTING the monthly national magazine.

I leave it to your imagination as far as the other things it could lead
to...

Ric Allan
Braveheart 97M
Loveland, Ohio