O Club Newsletters

[skybluepete]

Most clubs have electronic newsletters on their websites - some of which are only available to members of that particular club.

Others - I guess the minority - do publish their newsletters 'free' for all to view. I for one find articles/news from other clubs of interest and view other club's newsletters regularly where I can.

The argument that if the newsletter is published on individual club's website then local membership will fall is unjustified. How many people join clubs because of the newsletter?

Should clubs publish their newsletters for all to view?

[roadrunner]

While in general I'd agree, the one argument I can see against letting everyone see them (and it's an important one) is that they may contain committee members' (and even other members') contact details, and making these public is not necessarily a good idea: apart from the "spam" risk, a burglar could target their homes during a major orienteering event (I believe something like this has happened with a walking group). Of course, an expurgated version of the newsletter could always be published, but that's more effort for the newsletter editor.

[ryeland of doom]

Yes, only sensitive info should be hidden. I too enjoy club newsletters.

Many thanks to LEI for their very entertaining ones over the years.

[Safety]

We still use snail mail for our club newsletter. Most members prefered it. I did however publish the back catalogue on the website, removing addresses and phone numbers of people in the process. As roadrunner says it was a lot of effort, to go through each one, but it was quite simple to just turn the text backgorund to Black and then print as PDF.

In hindsight however, I think it may have been a bit of a wasted effort, it maybe useful to people stumbling across the site, but not really to others. In the North West at least, I think there is an agreement that the editors of the newsletters send one to each other so relevent/interesting news can be passed around the clubs. As my Dad edits ours I have had a browse through these and often noticed the same article in multiple newsletters.

[rocky]

My running club newsletter (which once won an Athletic Weekly award for club newsletter of the year) is strictly hard copy only - given that it's about 99% libellous material we don't want it falling into the hands of non-members!

[Angry Haggis]

As roadrunner says it was a lot of effort, to go through each one, but it was quite simple to just turn the text backgorund to Black and then print as PDF.

Are you sure that actually removes the text? Couldn't someone open the PDF, and change the background back to white again? Or indeed just select the blacked out bit and paste into Word?

cf http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/18/trident-nuclear-submarine-secrets-leak

[roadrunner]

As roadrunner says it was a lot of effort, to go through each one, but it was quite simple to just turn the text backgorund to Black and then print as PDF.

Are you sure that actually removes the text? Couldn't someone open the PDF, and change the background back to white again? Or indeed just select the blacked out bit and paste into Word?

cf http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/18/trident-nuclear-submarine-secrets-leak

I think you're right - we had the same dilemma at my place of work a while back, and it was quite hard to truly blank things out. However, I wouldn't expect people to put much effort into getting at the hidden information, so probably not something to worry about unduly. An 0845 contact number and PO box address for club correspondence would get round the issue in any case.