Why is it...

[altivo]

...that no matter how many times you reiterate the deadline for a regular newsletter, people persist in waiting until AFTER the deadline to submit their stuff? I've been doing this thing for years now, and every month it's always the same.

Anyway, done for this month. Good thing, because the severe thunderstorms are due here in about 15 or 20 minutes, and I wouldn't be surprised if the power goes out.

Comments

[alexfvance.livejournal.com]

With FANG and ROAR, we traditionally receive 80% of the submissions in the last 5% of the submissions window :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That doesn't surprise me so much. You have a longer cycle too, with something like one issue a year for each. In this case, the newsletter is monthly and has a predictable schedule, with some people supposedly committed to supplying a very small piece each time. ;p Typically it's just a paragraph or two they have to provide.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

I don't know why this is, but a simple strategy to deal with it might be to announce a deadline that's a few days earlier than the actual one - so when the claimed deadline arrives and people start submitting things in a frenzy, you'll still have enough time to actually deal with that.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually it seems that the announced deadline is just irrelevant. I can say it's whatever I want, and it will just be ignored. The stuff comes in one to two days before the newsletter is expected to appear, and that's always just a week before the actual monthly meeting at most, so I get no wiggle room at all.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Hmm. In that case, the best option may be to simply say "sorry, you're late" and delay everything that gets sent after the deadline for next month's newsletter.

[hrrunka]

I'm told by my friendly songbook editor that you should always have threetwo deadlines; the one you tell people, and the one after which you'll refuse submissions and the secret absolutely final one you don't tell anybody about.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's good if you have enough lead time to implement it. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with almost no lead at all.

[hrrunka]

Aye. Easier to do when you're starting something up. Almost impossible once it's been running for a while...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think it will take a new guild president for it to change. ;p

[deffox]

If only you were overflowing with submissions, so you could just say "better luck next time".

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's not the problem. I refuse to write the whole newsletter myself. I do the online publishing stuff and an editorial. The events information has to come from other people.

[alexsious.livejournal.com]

My dad has that problem except it is also within the company. He works for a printing company and every tuesday they do the local paper. His job is to get the images for every sheet and plate them to be used in the printing presses. He can do his job; however, until the people up front send him the job. They usually wait until he is ready to leave (about 4:00pm) meaning he has to stay extra hours to get his part finished...and then the poor guys running the presses have to pull an all nighter to get the printing done so it can be distributed Wednesday morning. So on tuesdays we don't get to see him cause we go to bed before he gets home.

People need to get their acts together and get the material in ASAP instead of waiting till the last moment.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's just procrastination and laziness. The stuff that holds me up on this volunteer job never amounts to more than a couple of paragraphs but I can't release the newsletter without it. Even if I prepare the whole thing and hold it waiting for the missing piece, I still end up having to stay up late that night to do the online publishing bit.

I've been doing this task for at least five years, I think longer. Theoretically I'm entitled to turn it over to someone else, but I know that there is no one else in the group capable of doing it at all (not even talking quality here, just talking about getting it done) other than perhaps the person who has been holding me up every month. *snicker* I should run for guild president against her in December, and then if I win, make her take over the newsletter job. ;p The thing is, I don't want to be president, and she does all the other stuff very well.