(Am I a person?... and where's the chair?? hehehe
Ok... let me give you a clearer picture of what that position requires. Basically, you just need to--- gather all the articles from all the other officers of the club... the president's message from the president, the treasurer's report from the treasurer, the list of birthdays and list of new members from the membership committee, the articles from the officer-in-charge of the tennis tournaments, bowling tournaments, seminars, and all the other activities, and... the photos taken during the activities from anybody who brought a camera on that particular day. Then, if there's extra space, you search for appropriate articles, jokes, quotes, etc. that you can use as fillers. All you need to do is make sure that the newsletter covers most (if not all) of the activities of the club. Edit the articles a bit and correct the errors that you can see. Resize the photos and match them with the articles. Finally, just do the LAYOUT and get 75 copies. That's it. Simple, yeah? :)
This year, the club released two issues of the newsletter, despite the plans of releasing it quarterly. Maybe because I didn't search for advertisers to subsidize the cost of printing... or maybe I was lazy to do a quarterly issue... or maybe I wasn't motivated enough... or maybe... maybe... I don't know. Somehow I just managed to release two issues this year. Anyway, in the history of the club, the maximum number of newsletter issues per year is two. (hah! alibis!!)
The newsletter has 8 pages. I did the layout of 7 pages because the layout of one full page was provided by an advertiser. You won't believe it if I told you how much time it took me to do the layout! Almost a week!! Since I'm not familiar with any publishing software, I did the layout in MS Word!
After I submitted the draft to the "proofreaders" last Wednesday evening, which is the deadline, they only had a couple of hours to make the obvious corrections on the draft (which means it was not edited properly). Worse, they told me that they wanted one article (the article written in Tagalog/Filipino language) to be translated into English! (I was shocked because the article--in font size 8--occupied an entire A4 page!) Finally, they decided there wasn't enough time... and they didn't have a choice but to publish the Tagalog version because the newsletter had to be distributed during the Christmas Party on Thursday (...quite early to celebrate Christmas, but Dec.2 is the National Day of the UAE and the best time for the members to meet since it's a holiday).
It was a good thing my angelic sister was there to help me in everything... and the supportive president with the helpful secretary of the club were there for me too. What a relief I felt when, at last, the copies of the 2nd issue were distributed to the members of the club this afternoon! :)
Obviously, that's how much I procrastinate!!! How ironic... after reading the motivational books of Walter Staples, Stephen Covey, Zig Ziglar, Napoleon Hill, Robert Schuller, Norman Vincent Peale, and Dale Carnegie, I still procrastinate!!! ...Who knows? Maybe I'm just delaying gratification (which is good, right?... delaying the gratification of getting a job done on time! haha... alibis again!!!)
On a more sober note, I do feel that I haven't done enough. I procrastinated a lot and when the deadline drew near, I realized that I only have 24 hours per day. Everything was done in a hurry and there were some errors on the copies given to the members. Anyway, God is generous and forgiving... and I'm still a work-in-progress. :)
A few hours before the final layout was finalized--at the time when the pressure was most intense--I was surprised to find myself getting irritated over little things... as if I was not myself! I usually like to listen to music, but that afternoon, the slightest sound of the music videos from the next bedroom irritated me. I don't hate hearing the phone ring, but during those few hours, a single ring made me want to scream.
Lessons I learned? You can tell me.
I can listen to a detailed sermon for the blunder I've done during the past week... and still manage to smile. :)
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