President's Perspective
"Communications" Update

(Oct. 4, 2010) At my first Newspaper Guild international convention in 1990, I thought to myself that, for a union of communicators, we don’t do a real good job of communicating among ourselves. We may be doing a better job as a union now than we were 20 years ago, but it’s easy to identify some areas where we fall short: For instance, striking close to home, a member trying to attend our membership meeting in September couldn’t find the address of the local’s Baltimore office on our Web site!

In response, the Washington-Baltimore Guild is reconstituting its Communication Committee under the leadership of local Treasurer Sheila Lindsay.

The committee aims to make our Web site more relevant and find ways to establish stronger links on our site – easier-to-find "click-through" details about the local on the home page, for example, and quick links as well to the pages of WBNG units' sites.

But the effort isn’t restricted to the Internet. The fact that this column (and future President’s Perspective columns) will be simultaneously sent to the local’s Executive Council members, unit chairs, and shop stewards helps ensure that the most relevant information reaches the people who need to see it.

Assisting Sheila in the committee’s efforts are Keith Barnes (kbarnes@wbng.org) and Tiffany Heath (theath@alfcio.org), both of whom serve on the Executive Council. If you’d like to lend a hand, e-mail Sheila at avoiceforallofus@yahoo.com.