 | National American Legion Press Association |
“Message from Your Past National President Jim Leyser” Well here I set wondering where I fit into this wild-wild world of communication. I wonder how some people find the time to do all they do on the internet and in the hard copy world of Post Newsletters, District, Department and National. What a wide-wide world of information! To think some 35 years ago no one gave a second thought to laptop computer let alone a desktop computer in not one but two or three different rooms. We would take hours if not days to find, cut and paste our pictures and ads etc., and send it to our favorite printer who would set everything up with lead type before sending it to press for printer who would review everything, mix the inks etc., before printing. In a few days to a week or two you might have a paper.Today, well we just set down at the computer set everything up in page maker or our favorite publishing program and with the push of a button send our masterpiece off to the publisher who in turn downloads it, edits and sends back to you a proof, you reply ok and he sends it to the printer who in today’s world have super printers and everything is done. But in the mean time you can attach a copy to an e-mail message to your Legion family and friends in your address book, but that’s not all, why not put it in Face book or twitter it and in just a few minutes you have reached hundreds to even millions and your paper has not even been printed. Oh! I forgot send it over your cell phone and with today’s smart phones or laptop you can type it up, edit it and send it around the world from Starbucks over a cup of coffee! Some people are of the idea that this new age stuff will replace hard copy, but I for one don’t think so at least not in my life time. I say this as a member of our National Magazine Commission and from the information provided to us from our editors, publisher and sales staff. Ad sales have hurt us more in the past but is steadily picking back up again. We have 2.4 million members and we only have a small percentage of Legionnaires with the cyber knowledge or the computer skills it takes to produce a letter or a message on the internet. We also have many members that still don’t have a computer in their home. So I encourage you all to continue to promote your newsletters and papers along with the new cyber means to enhance your abilities to produce and reach all your members by any and all means available to you. Our National staff is doing it now, just check out on the National web site. I have Face book and three internet addresses and I received well over a hundred messages a day from National, the Dispatch, Auxiliary, SAL Legion Riders and from Department, District and Post members. Lucky for me most of the spam is caught so it’s an easy push of the button to delete them.We need to educate our Historians about these great tools and programs with photo enhancements that can take an old picture and revitalize them to like new and dress up their History books. Restore old pictures so that the originals can be put away for safe keeping and historic value. Don’t allow the computer programs to intimidate you. Don’t expect miracles right away, remember you crawled and wore diapers at one time, learning programs can be much the same, just be patient and most of all have fun!! Which brings me to the most important time of year is coming near, contest time!! Pick out your best work and submit them by the deadline date of |
