stewart@cis.udel.edu (John Stewart) (06/24/91)
Woody [and other interested student chapters],
I just finished up a year of being chair of the University of
Delaware student chapter of the ACM, and am going to be an officer
again this coming year. I like the fact that you are asking for
suggestions -- it sounds like you are pretty motivated. We had
high hopes for a newletter ourselves. We made quite a few plans
for our newsletter, we even formed a spot for a dedicated officer
(Communications officer). I think that in most cases this would
work out, unfortunately, our Communications officer was very
unmotivated, and ended up quiting. However, this brings up the
point that in order for this thing to work out, you need to have
a dedicated person (officer or member, it doesn't matter). Even
if your group isn't very active, most other officers (especially
chair and treasurer) are too busy to take on anything else.
In terms of content of the newsletters:
> frumpy in depth research reports
> research reports of other (not CS) departments applications of
> computers
> new hardware, software etc.
In the area of technical "stuff" you can copy articles (giving
credit to original author and publisher, of course) from
publications (magazines, proceedings, books, etc.) or ask students
to write about their area of concentration to introduce other
students to the subject (neural networks, artificial intelligence,
computer networks, operating systems, etc.).
> a short story series (like a soap opera -continued next issue-)
> Computer joke of the month
As long as you have a very creative author, but this may be more
trouble than it's worth.
> UNIX/DOS/VMS/whatever tip of the month, tricks, shortcuts etc.
Definitely -- we did this in the beginning of each semester for
using mail and reading news. That way, new people to UNIX (or
whatever OS your school uses mostly) can communicate with the
chapter.
> Personals??????
Good luck getting people to post.
> notes from the presidents desk (come on, it's got to have this!)
> which would be local ACM news.
Yes -- this is also a good tool to motivate members with.
> tales of a co-op hell - experiences from students just returning
> from co-op jobs.
This suggestions brings a whole slew of possiblities -- and they
don't have to be hellish experiences. They also don't have to be
students -- get an active senior to write a short article about
the "real world" 6 months after they've been working...
I would also suggest a "Calendar of Events."
> Anyway, these are some of my ideas for articles, however, it looks
> like I'm going to be the principle author/editor/publisher 'till the
> group gets rolling.
Like I say, I _strongly_ suggest having a dedicated officer.
Good Luck,
John
-----
John Stewart, University of Delaware Student ACM President
Computer Networks, Operating Systems, Open Systems
E-Mail: Stewart@udel.edu
Snail-Mail: Computer & Information Sciences
103 Smith Hall
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716