Jubilee Grapevine - seeking editorial team
We are seeking a person or a team to take on the editing of our national
magazine 'Jubilee Grapevine' (JG). For those of you who are not familiar
with it, JG is a magazine of articles and other reflections by students
and friends of the ASCM. It has been in an A4 black & white format, 32
or 36 pages per issue. Back-copies are available at this
website or we can mail you one.
ASCM aims to produce JG three times each year. As there has been no
editor found since Clare resigned the position in April, there have been
no more JGs this year. At the General Committee meetings in Perth in
July it was agreed to appeal for an editor or editorial team, in the
hope that the magazine can be kept alive. If we are to get an edition
printed in time for Orientation Days next year, we need to act NOW to
get that underway. O-day editions need to be in the mail the first week
in February to reach O-days in all states.
Also, if you are able to send in a contribution for the next issue
('Tenting'), that would be great. The reflection questions are at the
bottom of this page.
I have been asked to produce a break-down of the tasks involved in JG
editing, to assist anyone considering getting involved. This list is
below. If you are keen to take on just a little of the job, please let
us know which bit/s you might be up for. Ultimately we will still need
someone to put their hand up to be the central coordinating editor,
however many volunteers there are to share the workload around. If a
team can get going by the end of the year we might just pull off an
O-day 2008 edition.
Please consider whether this is a way you can contribute to the ASCM.
Thank you,
Clare Menck
Development Worker (WA) and outgoing JG Editor
Australian Student Christian Movement
What's involved in producing an issue of JG?
- Come up with a 'theme' and produce reflection questions on this
theme to help people think about what they will write [for inclusion
in the previous edition. The theme advertised for the next edition
was 'Tenting']
- Gathering material for inclusion. This includes:
- chasing up people who offer to write;
- inviting guest writers on specific topics (sometimes from outside
ASCM);
- leaning on students & others to suggest they write (a big
component, as outright offers of articles are not always
forthcoming);
- chasing up all ASCM delegates to WSCF events to ensure they
contribute a reflection to JG on their return;
- chasing up state reps for local news;
- liaising with the Friends network to keep up with Friends news,
including gathering obituaries;
- liaising with ASCM officers to include news from events and
projects (eg. Human Rights officer; women's officer)
- being a member of all ASCM e-mail lists to keep up with what is
happening nationally, and following up with individuals where
something mentioned on a list sounds interesting for expanding in
JG.
- Checking contact details and other material in the Template is up
to date.
(For the 'Tenting' edition, we already have two 'tenting'-themed
articles, a report on national conference, an introduction to our
new national coordinator Annabel Dulhunty, two book reviews, and a
handful of Friends news. Two WSCF-event delegates are yet to write a
reflection, and one promised 'tenting' article has not yet been
written. Chasing is needed for Friends news, local news, more
'tenting' articles/ contributions, possibly a guest writer or two,
and ASCM officer input)
- Editing the material that is submitted for content, grammar and
style. (Editing guidelines have been produced and are available for
potential editorial team members).
- Sourcing photos and other pictures to illustrate the magazine -
especially finding an appropriate cover image. (This is a
surprisingly time-consuming aspect of the job, and one that could
easily be taken on by one person as a simple contribution)
- Doing the layout for the magazine. (I developed a template,
which is in Word and uses mostly columns and text boxes, and this is
available for potential editorial team members) The electronic
document is produced as a pdf for the printers.
- Getting material into a form that can be linked to the web -
text versions of articles; photos as separate files; pdf magazine -
all to be sent to ASCM Web Weaver.
- Delivering pdf file to printers; managing print order (inc.
ensuring recycled paper is used; liaison with ASCM treasurer re
payment of account); picking up finished magazine.
- Arranging mailout. This includes:
- Printing labels for mailout (ASCM Database Coordinator currently
does this and sends them all to whoever is doing the mail-out).
- Printing 'renewal' slips for those whose subscriptions have run
out. (Template available)
- Ensuring sufficient stamps and envelopes are purchased in advance.
(I have some spare to hand on)
- Mags into envelopes; labels to envelopes; renewal slips in the
appropriate ones; stamps on envelopes; ASCM return to sender stamp
on all
- Post-office run: arranging overseas and bulk mailings.
In addition to these specific tasks for a particular edition of the
mag, there are also a few ongoing tasks:
- Editorial oversight: ensuring the mag is in accord with ASCM's
core values (open, active, ecumenical, critical) and, within the
parameters of not being offensive, allows many different viewpoints.
This is both about keeping an eye on what IS included in the mag,
and also watching for gaps and, if necessary, soliciting articles on
specific issues to ensure it stays roughly representative of what we
are about.
- General admin - being the point of contact, answering questions,
liaising with other ASCM officers.
How much time does that translate to?
I can only comment on how much time it took ME. It is quite possible
that a very good magazine could be turned out in less time than I took,
as I am something of a perfectionist around it. The first issue I
produced took at least twice this time, as everything had to be learnt,
so I would recommend that anyone taking it on does at least three, to
build on what they learn the first time.
For most of the year JG is a commitment of about an hour a week, which
includes general admin as well as picking away at soliciting articles
for an upcoming issue.
In the week of a submission deadline this stretches out to prob a day or
more - chasing up those who have promised articles, chasing state reps
for news for the mag, checking contact details for the mag are correct,
etc.
It then usually takes me about 2 days to edit what has come in, which
can stretch longer where I need to go back to the author.
Turning all that material into an actual document takes 1-2 weeks, which
I guess is about 4-5 days of full-time work spread over that time.
Usually at least a day of that is sourcing pictures (from the web,
mostly) to illustrate articles, and chasing up copyright permission to
use images in book/ movie reviews. Finding an appropriate cover photo
almost always takes longer that I anticipate, and writing reflection
questions for the upcoming issue can take a while too.
Once the mag is at the printer, there is usually a 2-4 day wait to pick
it up, then a 3-4 hour session preparing the mail-out (much less if
shared by a few volunteers - six of us got it done in half an hour
once!) The post-office run takes about an hour to sort out all the
international and odd weight letters.
The Word became a human being, and pitched [his] tent among
us.
(John 1:14)
The next issue of Jubilee Grapevine will explore the topic of
Tenting. We would love to include your thoughts, articles, poetry,
artwork, photography, or random ramblings around this topic. To
get you reflecting:
