Newsletter Best Practices and helpful hints

Toronto Section

Ottawa Section

Kansas City Section

Sample Post Card

Toronto Section

IEEE Toronto Section . A "Best Practice" for Converting to an Electronic Newsletter. 

From 1996 on, we advertised our web presence very heavily in our paper newsletter. This took the form of:

• "For last minute details, please, check our web page"
• "Given the short advance notice, some meetings can be announced only electronically. Please, check our web page for details"

At this stage we used:

• A web page
• Some electronic mass mailings, on an ad-hoc basis for specific chapters or for people who had left their email address
• Postings to local newsgroups

We debated for some length the wisdom of going totally electronic. About 3/4 of the executive committee was in favor of going totally electronic. In 1997 we printed only three paper newsletters. We had a great success with three talks announced only electronically, 3 or 4 days prior to the meetings:

• One on fuzzy logic with 4 speakers
• One on cryptography with 4 speakers
• One on some antenna topic

The first two talks were attended by about 100 people (well above our average) and the third one by some 60+.  Since then, we have published only one paper newsletter per year.

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Ottawa Section

IEEE Ottawa Section . The Section Newsletter - Ottawa Canada - electronic version - has been in use for a few years; it is distributed via a listserv, or email distribution list.

There is also a web version.  It gets updated regularly, and the page is designed to download quickly. It has a summary information at the top, with "anchors" to the detailed information.

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Kansas City Section

1) IEEE Kansas City Section Overview: 
We have both a paper newsletter (NL) and an electronic (e-mail) NL published for the Kansas City Section. The paper NL gives mostly meeting information and some tidbits and is not very big. Each is unique--we don't base one off the other.

I keep a list of items the members need to know about (mostly contribute information), and then send out the electronic NL on an as-needed basis. I don't send out a NL just for the heck of it. It's lean and to the point, but I usually end it with a "Thought for the Day" which has gotten some very kind comments. We even post the electronic NLs on our Web page.

We also maintain updated information on our Web page. We are not eliminating the paper NL because in 1998 and 1999, we got huge revenues from it. The present slump in print advertising is ending and dollar signs are on this side of the horizon again.

2. The e-mail NL:
At the top of each NL is an index of headings. Then, I copy that list below itself and use it as a framework.

When I am done writing, I save the draft. Then I go to our database and open the table I made from a previous query for Section E-mails. This table contains e-mail addresses I have corrected or purged for syntax reasons.

3. Our guiding principles

1. Many of us work two or more jobs and time is at a premium. Thus, it is better to give too little information than give so much that the recipient chooses not to read any of it.
2. Focus is on usability.
3. We use a concise writing style.
4. We try to keep it short enough that people don't feel they must print it out to read it.
5. We include items from various IEEE publications and other sources, if they are newsworthy.

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Sample Post Card

We recommend that you send a postcard periodically to your Section membership, explaining how to update the members’ email addresses and provide the URL for the Section's web page. Sample text for a postcard: