Create structure for community newsletter

[harisood]

Detail

We think it would be a good idea to have a newsletter go out monthly with key community updates on it. This can go to either an announcements mailing list or the general mailing list, and on Slack.

Initial thoughts on what it should include:

• Events updates
• Proposals that want community input

Actions

• Create a template structure for this newsletter
• Create a process for people to contribute updates
• Set up announcements mailing list
• Circulate it with the community

Who can help

@Davsarper @manics

[harisood]

This relies on us having good governance processes, i.e. #18

[KirstieJane]

Turing Way chapter on how we create our newsletters - hopefully useful 😄 https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/community-handbook/newsletters/newsletters-process

[Davsarper]

The need for a newsletter/alternative mailing list has been evident over the last few months, it should be prioritised as possible.

[manics]

We currently have 273 members on the UK TRE mailing list:

There's a list of some newsletter hosts in
https://zapier.com/blog/best-email-newsletter-software/

Most of the free tiers are limited to 500 subscribers, it's possible we'd end up hitting this limit in a couple of years, but we could take that risk and hope that we get some long term funding later.

[manics]

If we send the newsletter to the UK-TRE list, and tell people to subscribe to the newsletter only if they don't want to be on the discussion list, this will greatly reduce the number of subscribers.

[harisood]

@manics to action:

• Creation of newsletter template
• Set up announcements mailing list
• Circulate it with the community

[manics]

@balintstewart77 will have a look

Can also ask at June meeting for community help

[balintstewart77]

Here's my first crack at a newsletter template: https://hackmd.io/@NdKYR7TpS2Kl_0ZvdLz-6g/rknZlIiQA

[manics]

To discuss next week

[Davsarper]

Call to everyone to provide feedback please @manics @Davsarper @hardakerm

[hardakerm]

Template looks good to me.

Is it worth considering a "call to action" header, towards the top maybe? e.g.

• such-and-such survey is live, please respond by dd/mmm/yyyy
• x funding opportunity is live, contact so-and-so by dd/mmm/yyyy to get involved
• national policy y is open for consultation, deadline to respond is dd/mmm/yyyy
• simple embedded surveys/polls for our own CMWG purposes

Would the "Highlights" include signposting to events/activities external but relevant to the community? e.g. interesting new white papers, etc... (I'm floundering a bit for examples, but I'm sure they're there)

Do we have enough content to put this out every month?

Will there be pictures? (I like pictures...)

[manics]

@balintstewart77 Looks good to me! @hardakerm's point about a clear call to action would be a nice addition, but only if there's something significantly more important than the rest of the newsletter and of widespread interest. Ideally I'd like us to have a short concise newsletter that people can easily skim through and follow links to find out more.

[balintstewart77]

Yea I like the idea of a call to action section @hardakerm. Agree we should keep details out of newsletter and link out wherever possible @manics, not only for accessibility but also to reduce the workload on us! If monthly is too frequent, we could go for quarterly and see how we go? Maybe timing it between quarterly meetings...

[Davsarper]

I like how it is looking and that is straightforward, do we want a specific section for quick WG updates or just include them in the corresponding section as pertinent?
How can we quickly collect news from WGs? Maybe doing it by PR and mentioning them? Simple form like RSE does for the community/wgs to send items?

[manics]

Probably after Sep meeting, due to lack of time. Need to investigate newsletter hosting options. Maybe quarterly?

Before that we can send a "newsletter" style message to the exisitng list.

[Davsarper]

Who is goign to send this newsletter? Good idea to do a call out and see if someone is inclined to it.

How to collect the content? We need to do a curation work on everything that goes into the general list, and let the community know we have it so they can suggest.

This is a good thing to include in September updates #84

[manics]

At UK TRE meeting:

• See who's interested in contributing content
• See if people are willing to produce/manage it instead of the CMWG