Vol Mag volume 120 April 09

[TillerMan]

What do we all think of the latest Volunteer Mag?

[Heavy Rescue]

FAIL !!

Definitely of a lower standard than when it was put together by CFS staff who actually had an idea. Poor grammer in a number of articles, captions that are poorly worded or just wrong, and more articles stolen from local newspapers than those actually contributed.

This was obviously a slap dash effort to try and keep to their timeframes.

Bring back the CFS staff that actually gave a crap about the Vol Mag and actually spoke to vollies, the SAFECOM staff shoved down on Level 6 just have no clue.

BTW it is interesting that a number of people at my brigade have also commented that this is a dull read.

[misterteddy]

Another Safecom triumph......

It's a double edged issue however.....the current version is produced to its tiemlines and looks (not that word) professional. As you say, it is a dull read, there is really little in terms of real stories or inspiring stuff in it. It definitely has a corporate look about it. The construction of stories look like they are all media releases cobbled together. If we had a bunch of corporate partners, I would say the current magazine is being written to satisfy them

On the other hand....the previous CFS produced version was never produced on time, looked amateurish on occasion and was definitely a more haphazard production. Witness the distinct lack of advertising by companies over the last cpouple of years as they have been constantly frustrated by the lack of timeliness in production.

Maybe we could just convert it to a simple web based (not mega-huge PDF'd version) and make it quickly uploadable and timely....lets face it most of them end up in the bin inside a month or so

[Darren]

Are people submitting articles though ?

If they are and they weren't included then boy oh boy what a poorly put together magazine, its was bad, like has been mentioned, its like the people who wrote it just cut and pasted from several newspapers. No credits for any pics. If that was their final year uni submission I think they would be in strife.

[rescue5271]

Crap, its been Crap for a while and some of the articles are old and most of what is in it have been taken from local papers in that area...time for change and time that media got of its rear and get out and about and meet some of the brigades'groups and do some more work......Or better still bring back someone who has the passion for a volunteer mag.......

[49194]

I have to agree with Darren on this one.

Outside of work, I am the 'Editor-in-Chief' of the weekly newspaper put out of Woomera. In the grand scheme of things, this is tiny compared to the Vol. mag. We have only 3 staff. One who works on layout and design, one on research/writing, a third on post production and print - and myself. It is one fifth of the size of the Vol. mag, however does come out weekly.

As a community news paper, we also rely heavily on submissions from locals, toursits or defence/aerospace. So I can see how hard it would be to put together a magazine like the Volunteer, without substantial submissions from members to add to its content.


-It is very easy to sit back and judge, the real test is stepping forward and participating.  - (and no, don't write nasty letters to the Editor.. We don't like them)..   

[misterteddy]

I have to agree with Darren on this one.

Outside of work, I am the 'Editor-in-Chief' of the weekly newspaper put out of Woomera. In the grand scheme of things, this is tiny compared to the Vol. mag. We have only 3 staff. One who works on layout and design, one on research/writing, a third on post production and print - and myself. It is one fifth of the size of the Vol. mag, however does come out weekly.

As a community news paper, we also rely heavily on submissions from locals, toursits or defence/aerospace. So I can see how hard it would be to put together a magazine like the Volunteer, without substantial submissions from members to add to its content.


-It is very easy to sit back and judge, the real test is stepping forward and participating.  - (and no, don't write nasty letters to the Editor.. We don't like them)..   

the difference is....that if they were volunteers doing it out of the goodness of their heart...i would agree entirely BUT, they are supposedly trained and well paid professionals, whose job it is to provide the service....if they cant, please employ someone who can

[49194]

However, I am sure they have a number of other tasks, than to sit at a desk and publish the Vol. mag every three months?

If the bar needs to be raised, sure, then as paid staff they may need to put in a little more. But, my comment still stands re: members needing to put in a little, to get something back.

The few media liason people that there are, can't be everywhere, nor know everything that is going on around the place.

 

[Pipster]

This edition, and the last, had issues with crediting photographers, and crediting the right photo to the right photographer.....it is not a way of encouraging people to send in their images, if the relevant (and basic) publishing fundamentals are not being met!

We can all bag what we don't like etc, but perhaps we need to say what we actually want to see in the magazine.  What sort of articles do we, as the reader, want to see?


Pip