Monthly Newsletter

(http://www.nwmtbsa.org/wiki/Monthly_Newsletter)

This page is not the current Monthly Newsletter. This article just describes it. Links to the most recent version of the Northwest District Monthly Newsletter can be found on the Main Page or the District News pages, or by following this link.

Adult leaders from the Northwest District meet on the first Thursday of each month to discuss business and activities (unless otherwise specified). At these meetings, an agenda is distributed that gives general information about the topics being discussed. In an effort to make the agenda more accessible, as well as to offer a platform for collaboration, the Northwest District website offers these Monthly Newsletters. They have several immediate benefits, listed below.

Benefits

In the past, the creation of a monthly agenda entailed spending the better part of a day collecting information from a wide and disparate set of sources, formatting it for grammar, styling it to look attractive, and finally printing and copying the end product. People who did not attend the District meetings did not have the option of receiving the information. People who wanted to add information to the agenda had to provide their own word processing, printing, and copying. More often than not, there was no consistent look or feel to the documentation being shared. All of this now has the opportunity to change for the better.

• Anyone with a registered account can now contribute to the Monthly Newsletter.
• Newsletter contents can be communicated in each month's Discussion page (as can this page by clicking on the "Discussion" link in the red bar above).
• Format and styling is now automatic, both for the screen and print versions of the Newsletter. Use the "Printable version" link in the Toolbox or your browser's "Print Preview" option to see how the document will appear when it prints.
• A link to the most current newsletter will be available on the Main Page and the News Hub for anyone with a computer to access, at any time. No email lists necessary.
• NEW!! Most modern browsers have the ability to change the relative size of the document for people with visual impairments. This means that individuals who need larger type and images can easily make adjustments to the document in their "Print Preview" screen while preserving the formatting and layout of the printed document.

Features

The Monthly Newsletter has several Mediawiki templates designed specifically for its use, as well as a generic example called the Monthly Newsletter Template that can be easily duplicated by copying and pasting. Units that wish to develop similar articles for their own use, such as a monthly Troop agenda or a quarterly Pack newsletter, would be able to easily extend these features in a Unit subpage. As of now, the Monthly Newsletter makes use of the following features:

• A template called {{News header}} that standardizes how different subject headings are written, including details for District organization, contacts, and web links.
• A similar template called {{News update}} for ongoing projects that might need special attention due to new information.
• Two eye-catching templates, {{News goal}} and {{News fyi}}, that allow readers to easily identify Council-level targets and details at a glance.

Archives

The best way to find all the different newsletters available on this site is to use the Category:Newsletters link available at the bottom of each Newsletter article. This link is also available on the Monthly Newsletter Template page and this page. The links on the Main Page and the News Hub are designed to connect to the most current version of the newsletter.