After a recent conversation, I thought I'd share the time commitment that goes into creating the GFC newsletters.
Each article is intended to be thorough and correct, which means that a lot of research is needed to obtain the correct information. This includes online research, speaking with people, verifying in person, looking through manuals, testing products, etc. Much of the information available was conflicting or incorrect. My hope is that these newsletters will increase GFC membership/participation and provide new Fiero owners with the information they need.
Although the newsletter topics are planned in advance, I have discovered through experience that the topics must be fleshed out to provide a framework, prior to being offered for an article. For the articles to fit in a given newsletter, they need to cover certain aspects. This means that I can't really have an article ready to be written until I start working on that newsletter. The time to write an article is limited--basically 3 weeks--but I have also discovered that, if the article isn't done by then, it does not get written.
This is my schedule:
Week 1 (last week of the month):
The next month's draft is proof-read and sent out for approval. Final edits are made. The newsletter is posted and sent out. This gives everyone who knows more about Fieros than I do the opportunity to find my errors. Notes are made for things I'd like to do differently, next year. Each newsletter starts out with the basic form: the home page, the featured items page, the info page, 3 blank pages formatted for pgackerman's article, an event page, a blank page, and the 2 vendor pages. The home page is basically just the header and side text, at this point. Adornments to be used throughout the newsletter are added, fonts are selected and applied, and the upcoming events list is updated. Usually, the blurb for the upcoming meeting is written at this time. Topics are copied and pasted in from my planner, which increases the number of pages. Below each topic, questions are added. Partially-written articles and pertinent images are added for that month. I reach out for articles. Work is done on member spotlights. This takes 35-50 hours.
Week 2:
I start adding things that happened the previous month. I reach out for images/permissions, as needed. I write the newsletter info blurb, and create a research strategy, including lists of what I need for each article. If I have something for the home page, I start working on that. Vendor updates are completed. I look back to the previous year for anything I'd like to re-use, and refer to my notes for things I'd decided to do differently. I research the topics online and in various manuals, trying to find answers to the topic questions. Notes from this research are added to the newsletter as phrases. This research often turns up information for other topics, which are captured separately. As part of the research, questions are added to my list, and picture needs are identified. Corrections are made to prior newsletters. This takes 40-50 hours.
Week 3:
Pictures on my list are taken and edited. In-person, phone, and email research is done, from my list of questions. Notes are condensed and sorted into orderly groups. Additional pictures are taken/added. Article submissions are added. The member spotlight is completed. Testing and final verification is done. Info from the meeting/event is added. The newsletter is worked into a first draft status. Excess content is separated and saved. The article plan for the next month is updated, as well as for the next year. This takes 40-50 hours.
Week 4:
Editing is done to make everything line up, and fit. Filler articles are created/used to eliminate empty spaces. Usually, there are still some outstanding items, so decisions have to be made about content. Usually, there are 2 more drafts. Sometimes, I end up with 2 versions of the newsletter for a given month, developing them in parallel; one is put in the failure bin, and the other gets used. Over time, this has happened less often. This takes 35-50 hours.
That breaks down to 5+ hours, each day.
For April's newsletter, for example, the original plan looked like this:
ICM issues - Brands, thermal compound
Spring maintenance
Living with a Fiero enthusiast
Member spotlight - fierofool
Light chart
Window seals, door weatherstrip seals, sunroof seals, wing stand gaskets, trunk seal, windshield seal, mirror gaskets, dew wipes
Pre-flight checklist
ECM diag pic, all about diags
Front page - Charlie behind fence, text
The theme was an introduction to Fieros, and a checklist for the rest of us.
The pre-flight checklist went well. The original intent was to author this article myself, but this article that was very close to the intended article. After obtaining permission to use this article, a few tweaks and updates were made. Although authored by someone else, that took more that 3 hours to include. The front page went through several iterations, totalling more than 5 hours of work. The Spring Maintenance article was expanded from last year, but took about 30 minutes to update and include. The Don Hulse Memorial Cruise article was written by someone else, and took about 15 minutes. The Living with a Fiero Enthusiast article never materialized, but there was time providing a structure for that, also. The member spotlight article took about 30 minutes. Honestly, the light chart was started a year ago, and has barely been touched, since, but is still not ready. There was no time for the seals articles, although I obtained seals/gaskets and a set of wing stands. I went through my stock and found OEM gaskets to use for comparison. Maybe next year. Still, I got some pictures, so have probably an hour of time into that. The ECM article took about 3 hours of work, but did not fit with this newsletter. The short article on the heater resistor required online research, a trip to a non-local store, about an hour in the store, plus about an hour to write the article and edit the image. Fortunately, I had a new OEM heater resistor from which I got part numbers. The headlight motor article was authored by someone else, but took almost 8 hours to edit as it appeared in the newsletter, because there were updates that had to be made. I tried tracing down some of the references, and they were no longer valid. For example, Ed Parks is no longer the contact at The Fiero Factory. The adornments, colored fonts and things take about 2 hours to do. The Idiot Gauges article took more than 3 hours.
Now, the bulk of the time.
There were trips to hardware and plumbing stores, time actually at stores, going through parts bins and drawers. Again, it helps to actually have the OEM parts for comparison. The Taking a Gander article sortof took on a life of its own. The idea started as an expansion on the Spring Maintenance, with a focus on potential new Fiero owners, then expanded from the Pre-Flight article to an article on checking for rust, which was planned for last year. The article didn't materialize, so I wrote one for this year myself. As I wrote the article, I found that the article needed to be expanded upon, which dramatically increased its length. The article had to be broken down into segments, so most of that article is yet to come. More than 60 hours went into this article, thus far, including research, pictures/editing, and actually writing the article. The fluids article took about 12 hours to research and write, but was later split into parts. The fuses article was more than 7 hours of work, but less than half of that is here, because I was unable to get a piece for the remainder of the article. The ICM article is about 20 hours in, but was not included this month. The lubrication article took about 11 hours for research, pictures/editing, driving to stores, testing, etc.
Separately, I have been working on diagrams for various things, but am missing some key pieces. This month, I have about 12 hours into that project.
As I write and edit these articles, I encounter the need for additional articles. Web pages to which I referred vanish, or are found to be incorrect. There are several newsletters from last year that I had to go back and correct. That took about 6 hours.
I'm working on articles through the end of this year. To this end, I have obtained pictures/permissions from a variety of people. 2 members sent me parts I needed, and let me take some pictures of their Fieros. I have drafts or research notes for about 18 articles for this year, that will actually appear; there are other articles that may never be completed. Let's say these articles take 5 hours each. That's 90 hours of work, over the last 9 months or so.
There have been a lot of recent changes with the vendors, and I've been in communication with them, to the tune of about 5 hours, between phone calls, emails, and editing. There have been some review articles that had to be pulled, because of issues that arose with a given product, or because something changed. In some cases, a product was shipped back and forth, several times.
For any given month, therefore, I am working on getting info from the meetings/events, expanding on topics for the current month, planning topics for future months, researching topics into notes, taking pictures, obtaining pictures/usage permissions, editing pictures, expanding notes into articles, working with other authors, editing articles into the newsletter, working on the overall look of the newsletter, then getting the newsletter approved and out. Article submissions also take time, because I have to edit for spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency, accuracy, and format.
There is no set length for the newsletter, but the intent is to keep the newsletter short, but informative. In that light, each newsletter is geared toward pertinent information for a given month. The articles are generally designed to be a package, where each article is an integral part of the whole newsletter, meaning that the loss of one article is a loss for the newsletter.
Most of the articles I write are on the V6, because that is what I have, but that is what most of the club members have, also, so that works out. As I write articles for the V6, keep in mind that I'm working in parallel on articles for the L4. This takes hours of research, because I do not have any such vehicle. I have tried to get info/pictures from some people, but those efforts did not pan out. I cannot put a number on this time, but this effort has been more than a year in the works, and I don't have much to show for it. Honestly, I do not expect that the L4 articles will ever be completed. It isn't as if people will let me take the pictures and things I need at a car show, and the amount of time and effort that went into the October 2018 newsletter was...incredible.
Newsletter length/size varies throughout the month, but this particular newsletter was 121 pages of raw material, and 856Mb in size, at one point in time. The planned length was 24 pages, so some things were pushed off or split up. April's newsletter contained 8 articles of various lengths that I authored, plus the member spotlight.
Yes, I do continue to work on my Fiero, in addition to working a full-time job and other responsibilities. I try to be active on this forum on a daily basis. The newsletters are self-serving, in some ways, because I'm working on/learning about my Fiero, and the newsletters track along with that.
That's my part. Let's call it my level of committment, and it seems to be working. We have more members, and the number of people engaged on the forum has increased. I hope all current and former GFC members have a sense of pride in this newsletter, which is distributed around the world, and to which people from around the world have contributed.
What I need is specific Fiero pictures, pictures from meetings/events/technical sessions, pictures of Fiero work, some technical help, and an occasional article. Fortunately, we have had contributions from a number of people. These contributions are very helpful in the creation of the newsletter. Many of the things long-term Fiero owners take for granted are unknown to new Fiero owners. I would venture to guess that there is new information for many of us in some of the newsletters. All the articles are basic things, designed to ease the reality of Fiero ownership.
