HOWTO Create the Monthly Newsletter
The Monthly Maker newsletter is sent out on the 1st of each month to the Monthly Maker Mailing List. It contains information on upcoming and recurring events, news, announcements, contact information, and how to donate to the space. The newsletter and mailing list are currently managed via Mailchimp.
Signing Up
People can join the mailing list by either:
- Adding their email to the sign up form on our websites, or
- Adding their email to the physical sign up form kept near the front door of the space.
Volunteers giving tours of the space are encouraged to mention the mailing list sign up form.
Development Process
The newsletter is generated from events listed on AHA's Meetup page or in AHA's Matrix Server. The current Newsletter Gnome is SarahB - catch her attention on Matrix by adding @sarah to messages about news or events that should be in the newsletter.
Schedule
- 15th of the month: Call for Events for the next month goes out on Matrix (i.e., The call for March events happens on February 15th). Events should be added to AHA's Meetup. News/announcement details should be posted to Matrix in the Operations or General channels.
- 25th of the month: Newsletter is generated and posted on Matrix in the Operations and General channels for review. People are given until the 29th of the month to request corrections or additions.
- 29th of the month: Newsletter is scheduled to be sent. No more changes or additions will be made, except emergency announcements or egregious errors (e.g., incorrect event dates/times).
- 1st of the month: Newsletter is sent to the mailing list.
Adding Events to Meetup
- Check if you have the Event Organizer user role on Meetup.com. If yes, continue to step two. Otherwise:
- If you are scheduling a one-off event, you can request assistance from someone with Event Organizer permissions to make an event for you, or
- If you will be scheduling events regularly, you can request to be granted Event Organizer permissions. To do so, message someone with the Organizer or Co-Organizer role on the Meetup Leadership Team.
- Click the red "Create Event" button to start the event creation process. You can either create a new event from scratch, copy a previous event, or edit an event that you've saved as a draft.
- Fill out the event details (Meetup provides helpful instructions).
- Select whether the event will be in-person or online.
- AHA has a Zoom account for online events. You can request access to the Zoom to schedule and host your online event on our Matrix Server or by contacting the Board.
- For in-person events, please follow our current Covid-19 masking, vaccination, and distancing policies. There is a place to add these details to your Meetup event.
- When you are done, click the red "Publish" button.
- Meetup will prompt you to announce your event. Please do not do that. If you wish to announce your event to the membership, please do so on the General channel of the Matrix server.