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Archiver > BOARD > 2001-10 > 1002138272


From: "Jana Black" <>
Subject: RE: [BOARD-L] Newsletter
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 12:44:32 -0700


Hi,

Clarifying myself. I am not talking about *duration,* I am talking about
*scope* as the difference between newsletter/s and a Publicity/Promotion
Committee. I think we *are* discussing two subjects. While there certainly
needs to be good communication between the two groups, they would function
separately. On the other hand, it does make sense to me that a Newsletter
directed towards the general public would function under the auspices of a
Publicity/Promotional Committee.

Connie's question brings up an interesting point. Initially, I thought Kathy
was referring to an In-house Newsletter for CCs (which I do think is an
excellent idea). Teresa's post seemed to broaden the idea to involve general
publicity (which is another excellent idea, but perhaps has a different
*scope* than what was originally suggested). That is why I decided to sleep
on it :)

After sleep it seems both Kathy and Teresa are correct. I suggest we need to
do *both* an In-house CC Newsletter PLUS an Official USGW Newsletter
intended for a broader public audience. If I remember correctly, news of
USGW updates are already published in RW Review, correct? Perhaps we would
prefer to publish this information ourselves and further establish that fine
line between collaboration between the two groups and our separate status as
the USGW Project??? RW R could always direct readers to an Archive of USGW
Project Newsletters???

Regarding what would go in a CC Newsletter, Teresa's ideas on ALL are
excellent: "Summary of Board business, past and future. Articles about
genealogy conferences, perhaps written by USGW members who attended.
Spotlighted local, state and special projects, and USGW volunteers. Letters
to the editor, question and answer column. "Tip of the week" or "how-to"
column for html/page design. " I would add that the focus of articles on
conferences ought to address what attendees see as next steps for us to get
the word out and promote the USGW Project.

Regarding a broader scope newsletter directed towards the researching
public, I would like to include: A column on research how-tos using the
Internet. Updates on new data added to various county sites. What you can
and cannot expect to find on sites within the USGW Project. Information on
how to get free lookups and the difference between when you would need to
hire a professional. A Q&A column. Articles on things like why the public
ought to consider volunteering locally to add data to the USGW Project pages
even if they have no research to do in their local area. Articles on why
local GenSocs can create a win-win situation by collaborating with local CCs
to get information to the public in a global virtual library environment.
There are probably more ideas, but this is a beginning.....

Regarding a Publicity/Promotional Committee, I would like to expand on what
Tina began for the last GenTech Conference and help CCs develop county
brochures that could be printed up by the Publicity/Promotional Committee
and offered at conferences, to local societies for distribution, etc. I
still have a vision of an open area on the conference floor; a HUGE USGW
Project sign and pamphlet racks, one for each state, organized into counties
where conference attendees could "grab" brochures for the counties they want
to research and know immediately what was available for them on each site. I
would see members of this committee as people interested in staffing such a
booth on conference floors, etc.

Greg Warren made some excellent points regarding county site content on ALL
today and a goal of the Promotional/Publicity Committee would be to find
ways to support and encourage CCs to really work to build a collection of
excellent content on their sites -perhaps we need a website full of "how
tos" for CCs or a list of the kinds of content researchers would like to see
on county sites?

I like John Schunk's Site of the Week idea in the SW/SC Region and I
understand other Regions have the same. Perhaps it should be the
responsibility of each set of CC Reps to create a Regional website promoting
their Region? I like the dialogue such inside encouragement encourages
between regional CCs and the way it eliminates the feeling of isolation and
helplessness some CCs feel as they approach what may otherwise feel like a
daunting task. I also think Greg's comments regarding the organizational
structure of our pages is worth further discussion...

OK, this got reallllly long. Someone else's turn.

Jana


-----Original Message-----
From: Phyllis Rippee [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 9:51 AM
To:
Subject: [BOARD-L] Newsletter


Actually, all I asked for was clarification about whether there were two
separate things being discussed here.

I agree that the publicity/promotion campaign should be separated from the
newsletter, although one would definitely complement the other, but I cannot
understand one being of any shorter duration than the other.

Connie Snyder asked some interesting questions on ALL...one of particular
interest to me...."What is the target group for the newsletter?"

Phyllis

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