Hey Makers! I send out a monthly newsletter to something like 1500 members fans and subscribers of MakeICT and it’s a great way to spread the word about good things coming up around the space.
If you want me to tell the world something I’d love to hear it.
When I’m organized, I post up a nice call for newsletter items either here or in the admin list around the 1st of the month, then give everyone a nice week to send me things. I try to send it about a month from the previous newsletter, lately it’s been around the 10th of the month.
Writing up the blurb for me is very nice. If you just say “tell people about the explosion” sometimes I have no idea what you’re talking about, have to go dig for it, ask questions that readers will ask, etc etc etc. I’d love it if you’d just say “Kim please add to the newsletter: There was a great performance by the maker music band Explosion on Friday April 32nd, if you want more info contact James.” Another great idea is to post a forum thread here with all the info, and just remind me to link to it.
When I’m not organized but have something that NEEDS to come out, I write down everything I know, do a check of the month’s top forum posts, and hit SEND. If something got left out, well sorry, but if you bug me in advance I am less likely to forget your thing.
You can get involved by posting great stuff to this forum or sending me articles to include on the blog. Jenni Alonso has done an awesome job at writing up featured makers the past few months!
It might be fun for someone to start writing up posts about “here’s a tool, here’s what to know about it and cool things we made with it” kind of like Jeremiah did last year with the plasma cutter (http://makeict.org/2017/08/24/new-cnc-plasma-cutter/) Anyone want to help out there?
It might also be fun for someone to document/photograph our big events and write up blurbs about how they went, especially all our Final Friday shows.
And finally, whenever a new class is added to the calendar we’d love a post with how everybody’s project turned out, what do you think instructors?
Any other ideas?
All of this is just for me to get the process out to all you, so if you read an email and think “hey Kim didn’t talk about my thing” you’ll know how to get in on the next round.