Duties of the Position of Editor

By Richard Forcier

I thought I would share some of the information I've picked up so far in my short stint as an Editor. After all, I don't expect to be doing it forever!

Objective

Publish the best possible bulletin and mail it in time to announce your society’s next regular meeting.
The bulletin is an excellent vehicle for distributing society news. It's also good for increasing membership, publicizing the society, gathering information on fish and exchanging ideas with other clubs.

To be successful, the bulletin should…

 …be mailed out 10 days prior to the next meeting.

Contain

• A decent cover
• Information about the club (officers, etc.)
• Announcement of meeting and program
• Secretary's minutes and 'Treasurer’s report
• Something from the President
• At least one original article
• At least one article on each species in the upcoming bowl show
• Interesting data on other area clubs
• An exchange column highlighting articles in other bulletins

Accomplish the following

• Get to every member
• Get to other area clubs
• Get to every exchanging club
• Not fall apart in mail

Suggestion

• Bribe, cajole, and entice potential authors
• Assemble a good crew to help collate/staple/address
• Obtain the services of an efficient typist if you can’t type yourself
• Look for good stuff/articles/ideas in other publications,
• Sell ad space.
• Printing is the biggest item In terms of time, money and quality. Any efforts in this direction can save bg money for the club.

Filler Items

Keep a folder of "filler stuff" which could include

• Very short articles
• Don’t forget items
• Cartoons and puzzles
• Addresses and web links of national clubs and specialist clubs
• Items for sale or trade

Use these to fill that piece of empty space at the bottom of a page

Finally

No editor will ever serve out his term without some criticism. Following is a list of sure-fire responses. Just pick the most appropriate.

• If you don’t like it, write an article saying you don't.
• If you could make it better, than you can start as (new editor) (new writer) (assistant editor) tomorrow. Thanks for volunteering!
• I print what I’m given. If you gave me something to print, then I wouldn’t have to put in so much of my own/reprinted stuff. So, when's the last time you wrote something?
• Don't blame  me, blame ( the typist) ( the past officers) ( the printer) (the collators) (the President) ( the writers) (my spouse) ( my fish)

Originally published in January 1992. Edited and updated January 2007.