So tell me, what do you think of the Newsletter?

[Chad]

I have been working on the newsletter project for over a year now and we have published one introductory issue and three full issues - a full year's worth of issues.

 

It is my nature to periodically analyze how things are going, identify any changes that need to be made, make necessary course corrections, and then go out and operate that way for a while. It must be the engineer in me, but I do this with pretty much everything.

 

As a starting point, these are the simple goals I wrote down almost a year ago:

 

Mission:

To educate and provide hobby news to our membership in an entertaining and timely manner.

 

Vision:

We will create a fun newsletter that we are proud of and that furthers both our own and our member's hobby knowledge.

 

Audience:

Primarily our own WAMAS membership; however, general internet distribution may also occur.

 

Let me hear it, good, bad, complimants, complaints, etc. How are we doing?

 

Edit: Added poll

[Guest thefishman65]

Well, I just finished read it (it took a little while to get started ). I love this statement (see I was paying attention):

The hose had copper fillings which are deadly to invertebrates.

I guess that makes me a volunteer for the next proof reading seesion.

 

I like how they are nice short article, or broken into pieces. It makes it much easier to read rather than having to "find time" to read the whole article. Short and to the point - keep it up.

[RicSG]

It is awesome. great job Chad and everyone invloved.

[surf&turf]

I think they are great!!

[Coral Hind]

I think you and the rest of the crew did a great job!!

 

WAMAS has tried to do the newsletter thing a couple of times in the past and it never really lasted. These past few issues however seem to be much better then past attempts and keep getting better and better.

[matt bills]

I like the

Marine Aquarium Disasters and How to Prevent Them (Part 2) - Scott L. Moore

[Origami]

I think the blog format is perfect for our community and the wider, online audience - much better and more appropriate than paper. I think the work looks good and the article sizes (bite-sized) are also good. Keeping to the regular publishing schedule shows stability - not an insignificant accomplishment in itself. The largest challenge, though, will remain getting the commitment and follow through from contributing authors. I hope that the community will rise up in support making this less and less of an issue as we continue to develop and publish new material.

 

Thank you for your leadership, and for your whole team for putting out a quality product!

[Jan]

The NL is very informative and easy to read. Very well put togehter. I agree with Tom that the blog format is great. The big plus to it is that we are keeping green. Great team work. Kudos to all.Keep up the great work.

Jan

[donnievaz]

I think you're doing a great job. No course correction necessary. Steady as she goes.

[Ryan S]

I think you're doing a great job. No course correction necessary. Steady as she goes.

 

x2

[Chad]

Thank you for the compliments all (I promise this thread wasn't intended to fish for them

 

OK, I will ask a few direct questions

 

How is access? Easy, hard, do you remember it is there a week after we post it?

 

Are the articles covering a good scope?

 

What types of things do you want to see that we haven't worked on?

 

General suggestions?

 

I also added a poll to the post

[Guest thefishman65]

How is access? Easy, hard, do you remember it is there a week after we post it?

Well other than I am not part of the communite it's great. I might remember it if I had the same issue, but I do learn something new every one.

 

 

I think you guys and gals cover a great range of topics. I can't think of anything you should do different, but if I have an idea I ill let you know.

[zygote2k]

good job, can't wait till the movie comes out.

[BowieReefer84]

I think it's good. A future idea for an article would be "do's and don't of plumbing your tank." I am still green in the hobby and have never used a sump before. This would probably help a lot of others as well. Picture heavy would be a must...

 

Keep up the solid work.

[Chad]

Thank's for the idea, Mike, I will put that on my list of topics to work through

 

You also bring up the topic of picture-heavy. How are we doing there?

[Ron]

Very nice...Thanks for doing a terrific job.

[FearTheTerps]

First of all, thanks to everyone that contributes to the newsletter. I think all of the articles have been great, I look forward to reading many more.

 

 

The only thing that bothers me is that the issues are so far apart. I read the entire issue when it first comes out, and probably only read it one more time until the next issue comes out. Have there been any thoughts of increases the number of issues? I think bi monthly would be great, its only an increase of 2 issues per year so it doesnt seem like much more work (although I dont know how much work you guys put into this, and no Im not volunteering either sorry)

 

Another idea I had would be to have out meeting speakers write up a short article about what they are coming to talk about, could get some more people to the meetings to hear about a interesting topic.

[mogurnda]

Very nice issue. Good information for people at all levels, and it's great how it's built on contributions from multiple members.

[Brian Ward]

First of all, thanks to everyone that contributes to the newsletter. I think all of the articles have been great, I look forward to reading many more.

 

 

The only thing that bothers me is that the issues are so far apart. I read the entire issue when it first comes out, and probably only read it one more time until the next issue comes out. Have there been any thoughts of increases the number of issues? I think bi monthly would be great, its only an increase of 2 issues per year so it doesnt seem like much more work (although I dont know how much work you guys put into this, and no Im not volunteering either sorry)

 

Another idea I had would be to have out meeting speakers write up a short article about what they are coming to talk about, could get some more people to the meetings to hear about a interesting topic.

 

There's quite a lot of work that goes into finding and writing on topics. I don't think increasing the number of issues is on the table at this point. This is actually the most consistent we have ever had a newsletter despite several attempts to do so. I have several tech projects that I would like to work on that hinge around the newsletter and if I can ever find some developers we'll probably tackle them - which will make this content more accessible and improve the SEO rating of the site.

[Chad]

With our current contributor base, quarterly is the correct timing. However, on that note, up to this point, we have been releasing the newsletter to roughly coincide with the club's quarterly meeting. What do y'all think of that timing? Keep it up or swap to something different?

 

So from the voting... 13 people read the newsletter!!

 

 

[Guest thefishman65]

Yes, but nobody didn't read it. So I guess that means 100% appeal to the target audience.

[Chad]

Bump!!

 

New material to comment on...

[treesprite]

good job, can't wait till the movie comes out.

Are you going to write the screenplay for it?

 

The only thing that bothers me is that the issues are so far apart. I read the entire issue when it first comes out, and probably only read it one more time until the next issue comes out. Have there been any thoughts of increases the number of issues?

If there are more contributors from among the membership, the issues would be fatter to make up for only coming out quarterly.

 

Something I personally think would be cool, would be a "beginner" featured in each issue. The person could write about what got them interested, what their thoughts and experiences has been so far, what they have found helpful and not helpful, what their future plans or goals are for their new hobby, etc.