Proposal #1: Let's revamp CISV News.
I propose that CISV international changes the concept of its main paper publication, CISV News, in the following ways:
- Target group should be CISVers - bringing information to the people that already know about CISV. CISV News should not be a promotion tool - this is something the Annual Report can be used for.
- CISV news should be issued twice a year and be printed and sent out from a country where print postal costs are low.
- A paper version should be sent to everybody, who has registered at the Friends website for a programme within the last three years.
- An electronic version (e-mail containing headlines and links to a website with the articles) should be sent to everybody registred at CISV friends.
- All articles are archived in a searchable internet archive individually for future use.
- The layout should be nice, yet simple. Finalizing an edition should be little work.
- CISV's international committees are responsible for contributing articles. There is no minimum or maximum of articles required per issue, it depends solely on the effort of the respective committee. CISV news should thereby also replace existing committee newsletters.
The power of the printed media remains very high. So let's make more use of it, even if it may cost us some money. Merging committee newsletters into an updated CISV news is a win-win solution: International committees can spare the work editing and publishing their various newsletters and concentrate on writing articles. The editorial team in Newcastle can focus on the editing and layouting and the newsletter will reach a bigger audience. Using CISV Friends as the target group will also serve as an incentive to register in our alumni programme. If a good printing and posting location is found, this updated version of CISV may even be realized with little or no budget impact. An electronic archive of all articles can be used in many different ways, but most of all, a common format, used by many other organisations can be used: Subscribers to the newsletter receive an e-mail with titles, abstracts and links to the articles, and can so read only the articles they are interested in, in HTML format. The PDF format, used by many committees for their newsletters, is quite cumbersome to read on a computer screen, and was originally intended for print media, mainly.
With these changes implemented, CISV News' as well as the committee Newsletters' impact could increase greatly.
Nick (GER)
4 Comments:
Hi,
I agree with Nick, that the CISV news is a nice thing for CISVers, however that it isn't really a good marketing tool like the Annual Review. Money can be saved if printing is outsourced and editing is minimized - yet nice. Postage, one of the main costs factors, can be saved if sent by e-mail, or downloadable at a website, however this would reduce the number of readers significantly. I suggest that the News are still sent to homes in paper format, but that big quantities are sent to NAs and that the NAs then distribute them in their area.
Bastian (GER)
I think the CISV News is due for a major overhaul in design and the way it is produced. The hard copy format should be maintained and an online version should be available.
I don't like the idea of the content being produced by International Committees. As a regular chapter member, I'm curious to know of the stories about CISV and its members -- committee news, quite franly is boring.
The CISV News should be redesigned and re-launched as part of the current re-branding process. Both the design, printing and mailing should be done in a country without such a high cost (i.e. the British Pound makes doing publication work in Britain prohibitive).
anonymous:
I didn't mean that the content should be "produced" by International Committees, just the responibility should be given to them. So, "Committee News" such as "New Guide published" would only be part of this content.
And I disagree that the content of Committee Newsletters is boring:
In the IPP Newsletter we usually publish stories and articles written by IPP participants (not necessarily IPP taskforce members) and also announce the themes and locations of the IPPs for the upcoming year.
My main notion behind this shift in responsibility are the following
a) to merge the editorial work done by IO for CISV News and Committee members for the newsletters and thereby save work
b) to bring the articles of Committee Newsletters to a wider audience
c) Since Committees have an intrinsic interest in promoting their programme, it may be much easier to get good and interesting articles for each issue.
But maybe a revamped CISV News could also continue both: A "General" Section where the content remains quite the same as before, and a "Committees Section" with content, for which committes are responsible.
Hey all
I find it very interesting to read all the above. I agree that the concept behind CISV news should be "rethought".
I find it a good idea to combine the committee infoletters. Right now you have to look in many directions to stay updated on the happenings of all committees and it becomes difficult to organise all information.
The concern I would raise however is that the CISV news reaches most of its readers pretty late (or maybe that's just the case in my NA/ me in general). This might have to do with the many "distribution points/ moments" of the issue published. For committee news it seems vital to me that the message gets "delivered" in time. Something to be aware of..
Combining all this with readability via the internet to me is crucial in today's world. Where to draw the line between sending the "real" print and spreading the digitial version seems like a whole new discussion.
Ingrid (Netherlands)
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