Usually it took about 8 hours, in two 4 hour sessions, to put the issue together and then about 1 more hour to send off the emails, once I get the email addresses from Mike Vath. Then it took another 3-4 hours to do the postal mailing, because that involved getting the copies made, then stuffing the envelopes and putting postage and labels and then taking them to post office.
It would also depend on whether or not I was writing an article - usually took 1-2 hours to write an article.
It takes LESS time now that we upload the issue, because I only have to upload one file to the godaddy.com account where we store the issue - when we had it printed I had to name and upload each page and then "verify" or "approve" each page before it was printed by the printer.
If someone is comfortable with using Word or similar program to create a page, with graphics, then it would take somewhat less time - the positioning and setup of the pictures was what took me a long time, as I did not and still do not understand how to do that effectively. If it was just text, and all of the articles were supplied to me I could get it done in a couple hours.
Note that a few authors would supply the articles already setup as a word file, with the pictures in the article, and that was a breeze - all I had to do with those pages was to add a page number and decide which pages they would be on. Fred is always very helpful with the Presidents letter and Mike is helpful and on time with the email addresses and postal addresses.
Following with Brent's suggestion - we could always have one person create the newsletter and another person do the email sending (the emails have the info that the CGN is available and the up to date user ID and password to access CGN) and the postal sending. that would cut down on the time needed.
Finally, it does take a few minutes here and there to answer emails and accept submissions, classifieds, etc - and a little time after the issue to deal with email returns - we had two of them this issue, from members who either changed email or postal address without contacting the club.
Hope this helps. I am definitely able to help the new editor if help is needed. Brent was a great help to me when I started out, and Mike has been super to help setup the internet aspects, mailing labels and such. And we do get some great articles and info from members.
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