Weekly Bulletin / Monthly Magazine

This activity is being progressed by Alan Jelley, Sak Wathansin and Bob Tinley

OBJECTIVE

The implementation of the Weekly Bulletin has been a major success in the Club and has become the single source of information on what is happening in the club  communication for many people. From it’s orginal purpose to communicate the upcoming rides for the week it has become a weekly mini-magazine with a whole range of information.

However to many people the growth has overwhelmed their ability to go straight to the information they want on what is happening the coming week – rides and social events –  and to the static or repeat magazine content has become an annoyance. To others the social cohesion that flows from the magazine content is an important aspect.

Allied to this is the factor that delivering so much editorial content each week requires a significant effort by the editors. 

The proposal to try to address these contrasting needs is to try an approach of publishing a smaller focused Weekly Bulletin with ‘live & active information’ alongside a larger Monthly Magazine with all the longer-term programme and sociable information.

 

COMMITTEE ACTION REQUIRED – It is possible that as an initiative the direction is unduly influenced by Alan Jelleys personal views and actually it is a major change to something that the majority of people think is working well … and if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it ! It would be a good checkpoint for the Club Committee to review this activity and to decide if there is really a need for this change before moving through the implementation actions into a Pilot stage.

 

CONSIDERATIONS

• Regular features such as the Quiz would be done once per month rather than Weekly … thus reducing the effort required from contributors such as Dave Hearn with his Quiz.
• An editor will be required for the Monthly magazine. Alan Jelley has volunteered to take on the role dureing the initiql rollout.  He will go on the Bulletin@ctccoventry.org.uk mailing list so there will not need to be any change for contributors.
• Alan and Sak/Bob will need to co-ordinmated to ensure that any contribution is assigned to the Weekly or the Monthly
• The Bulletin is such a vital component of the operations of the Club that we must make sure that we do not ‘break’ anything.
• The current Road Closure alerts  could be distributed via the Ride Leader Group WhatsApp and to Facebook
• The Weekly Bulletin could have a pointer for New Members as to where to go to get information on engaging with the Club

 

WHAT INFORMATION WILL GO INTO EACH EDITION

General principles or guidelines 

• • • • If it is something that a member has to take action on that week (possibly fortnight) it goes in the Weekly Bulletin
      • If it is an addition or update to an ongoing Activity Programme it goes in the Monthly Magazine
      • If it is a Long-term Rolling Programme (Clubroom programme, Tours Programme)it goes on the Website
      • If it is static data it goes on the website
      • Immediate social media information with a short pweriod of relevance e.g. Day Ride reports go into the Weekly Bulletin
        
      • Tour reports, Womens Event Reports, Social Events Reports, AdvocaCy Reports go in the Monthly Magazine,

 

IN THE WEEKLY BULLETIN

Rides information

• • • This weeks rides
    • Any specific road closures relevant to the week 
    • Any Special rides key events relevant to the fortnight

Tours

• • • Any Tour key events
    • Upcoming Deadlines for bookings

Womens Group

• • • Any Women’s Group key events

Social

• • • Social events with upcoming deadlines
    • Imminent Winter Clubroom events

Advocacy 

• • • Any upcoming deadlines for currently active campaigns
      

Ride Reports

• • • Any Rides reports from the previous weeks rides

 

IN THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE

New Riders

• • • Welcome / Namecheck to the New Riders who have recently ridden with us

Rides Programme 

• • • Any Upcoming Special Events
    • Ride Leader Group News

Touring

• • • Reminder link to the Tour Programme
      
    • Reminder of Tours close to their booking deadline
    • New tours recently added / amended
    • Completed Tours and pointer to Reports further on in the edition

Women’s Group 

• • • Reminder link to Women’s Group page
    • Womens Group News
    • Upcoming Womens Events
    • Completed Womens Events and pointer to Reports further on in the edition

Social Programme 

• • • Reminder link to the Social Programme 
    • New Events recently added / amended
    • Completed Events and pointer to Reports further on in the edition

Advocacy

• • • Reminder link to Advocacy on the website 
    • Progress on Current Campaigns
    • New Advocacy campaigns

Ride Leader Group

• • • Acknowledgement of extraordinary RL efforts
    • New Ride Leaders
    • Things the RL Group is working on
    • For Rides / Tours change to rules, policies, riding guidelines, etc

Club Management

• • • What the Committee is doing 
    • Link to the latest Committee meeting minutes

Articles of general interest

Articles on our area, memeories, information on new cafes, etc … Submitted by members (Alan Jelley has the ouline of a number of articiles on topics such as the different charcteristics of the regions we cycle through (Arden/Feldon/Dunsmore/Cotswolds), The river systems that shape our countryside, Roman Roads that cross our area (FosseWay, the Salt Road), Windmills in our area, different building styles to be spotted, Via Beata)

Technical articles

• • • Request articles on Technical Matters, Navigation devices, etc. (Kevin Rourke has been contacted and is willing to produce a monthly ‘column’)
      

Reports at the back of the Magazine

• • • Any rides reports from the previous month  not published in the Weekly Bulletin
    • Tour Reports
    • Womens Events Reports
    • Social Event Reports 

Quiz

• • • If Dave is interested in carrying on

ROLLOUT SCHEDULE 

The following is a possible phased Rollout approach

OCTOBER	NOVEMBER	DECEMBER	JANUARY
Carry on with current Weekly Bulletin format At the end of the month  produce a draft Monthly Magazine copying the appropriate longer term programme and sociable content information from that months four Weekly Bulletins. Review with the Communications Working Group	Carry on with current Weekly Bulletin format At the end of the month  produce a draft Monthly Magazine copying the appropriate information from that months four Weekly Bulletins. Produce one or two draft copies of previously issed Weekly Bulletins with the Longer term programme and Sociable content removed so they would reflect the new focused version Review with the Communications Working Group Review with the Committee for Implementation	Carry on with current Weekly Bulletin format Announce the change to the Club . Attach draft copies of the new focused Bulletin and the Monthly Magazine that were produced in November as examples. Confirm Rollout with the Committee	Start issuing just the new focused Bulletin each week Collect up the Longer term programme and Sociable content and produce a Monthly Magazine at the end of the month. Confirm that nothing is falling through the cracks