By GEORGE LEE
Manager
Editorial Services

APEGGA Editorial Services received literally hundreds of positive comments – and very few negative ones – in response to the launch of our maiden e-PEGG, last month. Although we’re heartened and excited by the feedback, the many questions and ideas for improvement we received suggest that this is only the beginning.

The creation of an electronic newsletter came out of two immediate needs. First, we wanted to better communicate timely and critical Association news. The thinking is that the more ways you have of receiving Association news, the better for all of us.

And second, we wanted to group all our bulk e-mails under one banner. Because of the amount of spam and other e-mail traffic these days, we believe it’s important that your Association’s electronic communications are immediately recognizable. We also want to group our bulk e-mailing, so you’re receiving only two or three APEGGA mailings per month.

e-PEGG Equals Event Notification
You’ll receive at least one more e-PEGG in October, around the middle of the month. Its primary focus will be district, branch and other events you and APEGGA are involved in.

Please take note: these two e-PEGGs a month will replace the district and branch e-mail you’re accustomed to receiving from Shirley Layne, Special Events Coordinator. They’ll also replace the M.I.T., professional development event and other event notices you’re accustomed to receiving from Flo Primeau, Professional Development Assistant.

The first-of-the-month e-PEGG will continue to feature news items as well as event listings. But both e-PEGGs are your electronic information source for branch, district and other events.

That’s where we are right now. The e-PEGG is not a replacement for The PEGG, but a complement. It is, however, a replacement for our mailings of event notices.

What About the Trees?
For many of you, that’s not enough. One of the major reader concerns is the environmental cost of printing 40,000-plus newspaper versions of The PEGG, 10 months a year.

We hear this when we survey readers. We hear it when we speak informally with members. And we heard it again, in many of the responses to the first e-PEGG.

Right now, there is a way to read the entire editorial portion of The PEGG, every month, without ever opening a hardcopy. The PEGG Online has existed on your website since January 2003. Every story that appears in print appears online.
That begs the question: why are we still printing a newsprint PEGG?

There are two reasons. One is that The PEGG is named in our governing legislation. Because of that, in order for you to stop receiving a hardcopy PEGG, you have to tell us that you no longer want to be informed about APEGGA events.

The other reason is that advertisers and many members love The PEGG.

Advertising is a source of revenue that offsets a portion of The PEGG’s costs, but more importantly it’s a service to our permit holders and to readers.

Right now, advertising online is not as effective for those who buy it, and we suspect that members don’t want to see advertising on their website.

We hope to make cancelling the hardcopy PEGG easier, as the e-PEGG and the PEGG Online catch on. But we don’t want to eliminate it unless reader and advertiser preferences make a convincing shift to online.

What About Off-line Access?
There’s also a segment of you who want to be able to read your e-PEGG when you aren’t online. You want to download it and take it away, calling it up later on laptops or hand-held electronic organizers.

The way we’re doing the e-PEGG right now is of use only while you’re online. We do hope to make both ways of reading the e-PEGG possible, but we’re still working on how.

The e-PEGG is, as the saying goes, a work in progress. We do want to continue hearing what you think, as we refine and improve it.

Reach me at glee@apegga.org, or phone me at 1-800-661-7020, or 780-426-3990, ext. 2810.