[Nfb-editors] [NFB-editors] How to?

Wed Jan 22 01:05:20 UTC 2014

It is always a tough call to know whether planting the seed by significantly helping someone sets you up to be an enabler or a builder of attitudes and skills. I've seen it work both ways. The first article I wrote that appeared in the Braille Monitor was started by President Maurer. He told me that what was going on in Missouri needed to receive national attention, and I said I just didn't know how to begin. We were both standing in his hotel room and at that point he began to pace. He suggested I turn on the tape recorder I had proudly brought along to capture our event. He said, "I think it might begin like this." He then began describing the difficulties that blind people were experiencing here, and after about a page of work he stopped, said we were out of time, asked that I finish off the piece, and offered to go over it with me by telephone. He wasn't immediately available when I called to read him my draft, but Dr. Jernigan took the call and invited me to start. At that moment I thought I had some idea of what it might feel like to be the basketball star who has been fouled, has two shots to tie and win the game, and who realizes that, with one second on the clock, his will be the last shots in the game. I only remember one correction he made as I read it to him. I was using the word as when what I really meant was since or because, and he told me this was a common mistake but one I should avoid.

The person who is now in charge of our governmental affairs efforts here in the state was once very shy about writing. I worked with her on a writing project and, in the middle of it, she asked to take my chair and suggested I find another way to occupy myself for the next half hour or so. She said I made her nervous when I was looking over her shoulder, so I came back in half an hour and she had completed her article. She doesn't even bother to run things by me when we are in a hurry to me to legislative deadline. She has the confidence to know it will be good. I think it was time well invested.

Unfortunately, not all of our efforts take. One of our members was elected as the state's recording secretary, a position that flattered him but left him feeling as though he didn't know how to do the work that would be required. I encouraged him, and we started by doing his minutes together. He would bring notes (good notes), and I would help him put them in sentence form with appropriate transitions. After we had done this for a couple of years, I noticed that he wasn't coming with notes. I could get a vague recollection out of him, but he was relying not only on my ability to put things in sentences but on the notes I had taken during the meetings. This was not what I wanted in the way of a success story, and although I had set up the game and made the rules, I felt a bit abused. Somewhere I stopped being a helper and started being an enabler, and he began to take for granted my help in doing his job rather than regarding it as teaching so that he could do it himself.

I guess the best we can do is try and periodically evaluate how we're doing.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-editors [mailto:nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 10:14 AM
To: 'Correspondence Committee Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [Nfb-editors] [NFB-editors] How to?

Gary:

I *love* Tom's ploy. Hafta remember that one.

As for articles, sometimes the editor has to ghost-write an article for someone else he/she has asked for an article which hasn't arrived. Two or three times at this and one hopes the errant article-writer can be shamed into writing what has been promised himself/herself. However, since shame seems to be a vanishing commodity these days, one must set strict limits to this sort of thing.

The NFB of Washington does not have a newsletter for just this reason: I refuse to play that game.

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-editors [mailto:nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Wunder, Gary
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2014 6:32 AM
To: Correspondence Committee Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Nfb-editors] [NFB-editors] How to?

Hello, Darian. I was once the editor of the Blind Missourian, and I now watch as the current editor tries to come up with material. Often she encourages people to make submissions, and they all agree they will. When the deadline is at hand, she asks once again, but normally what she gets is minimal compared with what she has been promised.

I don't think that doing the job of producing a statewide newsletter has to be a job done only by one person, but my experience suggests that it is a job done mostly by one person. You do have to chase articles. You do have to write member biographies if you want them. Since your reputation belongs to you, you can't let it depend on what others say they will do or what you hope they will do or what you know they are perfectly capable of doing and should do.

My friend Tom Stevens was once the editor of our newsletter. He asked for articles, begged for articles, and, when he found that he was short of them, decided he was going to keep his promise about a quarterly newsletter and produced one. It's lead article was on the hazards of smoking. This was about a decade after the Surgeon General's report and the topic was quite controversial. Smokers didn't want to hear in their NFB newsletter about their vice of choice. They legitimately asked why we were spending money raised to help the blind with material unrelated to the struggle. Tom was unrepentant. "I asked you for material, you promised it to me, and you didn't deliver. I did the best I could. If you don't like what you see, please know that I will gladly replace it with what you write, but, until then, I'm going to keep our schedule."

Through this list you have tremendous resources that Tom Stevens never had in looking to fill our newsletter. We publicly say that anything we write is free for using in other Federation publications. Put out your newsletter. If people complain that it is lacking in original content, say something like Tom Stevens said. Try not to let your reputation, your integrity, and your ability to keep a promise be determined by others. Give folks a newsletter, and let them make it different if they want to make a contribution. Have fun at your writing, your reading, your preparation, and your good feeling when you realize that something you have edited hits the streets.

-----Original Message-----
From: Nfb-editors [mailto:nfb-editors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Darian Smith
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2014 8:52 PM
To: Correspondence Committee Mailing List
Subject: [Nfb-editors] How to?

Hello  All,

 As affiliate newsletter editors, how much of the work that you do is done
only by you?   Are there situations where you call upon others to help you
put together the newsletter? do you have committees?  that help you do the work? how do you end  up  Collecting the submissions you get? how much
chasing do you do to make sure you get articles for   folks?
 I'm  giving a go at putting together my affiliate's newsletter and these pointers are very helpful.
   Thanks,
  Darian    
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