PROBE Bulletin Editors Forum

Vice President for Bulletin Editors Bruce Anderson called the Bulletin Editors Forum to order at 8:30 a.m. He appointed Dick DeLorm as secretary pro tem for the meeting.

Vice President Anderson then asked those in attendance to introduce themselves and he stated the purpose of the Bulletin Editors Forum.

Vice President Anderson asked each of the Category Specialists present to make remarks about their category and give a brief explanation of that category.

Content Category Specialist Lowell Shank reported that his category had the most amount of points in the contests. He also led a discussion on just what content is and answered questions about bulletins and their contents.

Former specialist Dick Teeters handled the Layout and Reproduction discussion. He related that L&R was the window dressing on a bulletin. He also explained the problem with across-the-page copy, narrow margins, and spacing between columns and stories. He also cautioned those in attendance not to use tags or cartoons unless they have the permission of the author. These are generally copyrighted and to use them would be a copyright violation. He also discussed type size and fonts - noting that an 8 point size in one font may not be the same size in another font. He also touched on headlines and urged those present to use headlines that will make their readers want to read the article, and not to use just short two or three word headlines.

Vice President Bruce Anderson then discussed the need for a committee to produce an outline to be used in Bulletin Editors classes at COTS. He mentioned that the committee was being formed and if anyone wanted to be included they should either contact him or PROBE President Grady Kerr.

Vice President Anderson discussed the need for more judges in all categories and also the need for alternate judges for the IBC. This year, an editor of one of the winning district entries was also a judge, which caused a last-minute hunt for a replacement judge.

Bruce also explained the Bulletin Exchange Program and invited more editors to subscribe to the program.

As the time was drawing near for the PROBE general meeting, Vice President Bruce Anderson adjourned the meeting and invited all those present to attend the PROBE general meeting.

As an addition at the 9:00 hour, those in attendance were invited to stand and join in singing "My Wild Irish Rose." All parts were represented and the sound was great!