October not only means an established rhythm to football season for most of us, but also time to renew our commitment to each other with our membership in APSE.
It's never been easier — we're accepting credit card payments at http://apsportseditors.org/registration/ in addition to the standard method of returning a check with a printout of the form that was emailed in early September.
A few clicks on the Website are the easy part. The hard part can be convincing our superiors and colleagues that this is all worthwhile.
And that's where this comes in. We want to become a bigger and better organization going forward, and we can't do that without you and everyone else in our industry.
My goal is to be of service this fall in APSE membership, and would like to personally reach out to anyone who knows of a potential member or needs some help themselves. Let me know if you know of anyone who might be interested, and I'll be happy to call them and let them know what we can do for them. So often people leave for other opportunities and the new person in charge doesn't know how to join, if they even know who we are.
Likewise, if anyone needs help convincing their upper management of the value we offer the newspaper, I'd be happy to do some lobbying (or pleading as the case may be) on your behalf. Just tell me who to talk to and what they'll want to hear.
This is as important now as ever, as we fight to reinvigorate our membership in a tough economy and keep our overall organizational clout strong. Smaller papers, not just the ones under 20,000 or 40,000 circulation, but those under 100,000 are the bulk of this great organization.
Something relatively new available to everyone is the second year of the Web contest, with its upcoming Oct. 8 deadline. We've added a third category, giving more members a chance to get recognized for their outstanding work. We've also added an under 20,000 circulation category in the traditional contest. We'll also continue critiques at this winter's judging in Indianapolis, giving the smaller papers some valuable feedback to use for improving their sections and perhaps winning a political struggle or two with management.
I'm also looking to revive section critiques for those attending next year's convention, which is also expected to have a lower-cost drive-in component for those unable to say the full four nights, but details will emerge on that later. Some regions are also making their workshops accessible to those who cannot attend, such as the Northeast putting its meeting this spring online. We can work toward making that available for all regions so we can learn from all our members.
These are some of the benefits we can offer each other. But that's all they are, a listing of benefits. Delivering service is what counts. We in the news media are in a service industry, and our job is to inform the reader. APSE is a service organization meant help us enhance the profession.
The first question any good service person asks is, "What can I do to help?"
So I ask all of you, what can I do to help?
