Commencement--A new Scoop
by David Kintsfather

As a college professor I have entitled this article "Commencement," using the term in the academic sense where it marks the end of one period of life which one leaves with a certain nostalgia, and the beginning of a new period which students are encouraged to embrace with enthusiasm and excitement.

As will be immediately apparent, this issue marks the evolution of the Pyr-A-Scoop from a primarily paper-based publication which we have attempted to distribute electronically, to a web-based publication, which has been formatted in HTML for convenient use by our members who have access to the internet. The front page begins with the familiar masthead, and then progresses to an index of articles, ads, etc., each of which is a separate web page. These can be selected for viewing by clicking on either the small paw print to the left of the title, or the page number to the right. Printing an item you want to keep is as simple as clicking the "Print" button on your browser's toolbar.

The genesis of this transformation came in November, when it became clear that I was not going to be able to produce a newsletter in time to promote the Club's Holiday Party. I volunteered to produce an electronic "flyer" and send it to all members with e-mail. I also printed the "flyer" and mailed it to the 10 households which lacked a viable e-mail address.

When I realized that I was spending approximately 40 hours to format each issue of the Pyr-A-Scoop in MS Publisher (that adds up to one complete month of full-time work to format 4 issues), I wondered if there wasn't a better way.

I proposed to the Board reformatting the Scoop as a web-based publication, hoping I could get it out more quickly and that it would be more user-friendly for the 65 of our 75 households which have web access. The Board supported this transition, and Barbara Bowes facilitated it by obtaining a web account and domain name for the Club (something I have recommended for 10 years). Now members can access all things Penn-Dutch simply by typing "www.penndutch.org" into the address window of ANY web browser anywhere in the world. Please note that this is lower case with no hyphen between penn and dutch.

The model for the new format was inspired by the Alumni newsletter of the College of William and Mary (Nancy and I are both alums). About six months ago W&M changed their basic class news publication from paper to a web-oriented design which I have emulated. I find that I am actually reading more of the alumni news in this web-friendly format. It should be noted that William and Mary was founded in 1693, and the College doesn't jump at every new fad.

Now that the templates have been created (a very tedious job), my hope is to get articles and photos from Club events posted in nearly real-time. The full "issue" will still be promoted by e-mail and distributed on paper to our housholds without web access. I have adopted a seasonal timetable with issues planned for February, May, August and November.

I realize that the Scoop will look somewhat different on different browsers. That said, it has been tested on Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Netscape Navigator 3 and 7, and the latest version of Safari on a Mac. It was very user-friendly in all of these browsers, with articles downloading in seconds, even on a dial-up connection.

Members desiring to print a complete newsletter can maintain the pagination by setting the "Page Setup" usually found under the "File" menu on most browsers, to .5 inch margins left and right, and top and bottom.

So, welcome to the 21st Century and bear with us as we attempt to produce a more timely and relevant Pyr-A-Scoop.

Index