Communications Committee Annual Report - 2004-2005

Objectives:

1. Coordinate and facilitate communications between MDMLG members.

2. Maintain planned production schedule. One full issue of the MDMLG Newsletter is to be published on the web site before each general business meeting and summer luncheon.

3. Meet all scheduled deadlines. The newsletter is to be made available two weeks prior to the General Membership meetings.

4. Produce one story per year, non-time sensitive, to be used at the editor’s discretion, in the event planned stories to not result.

5. Maintain and update MDMLG web site and listservs.

6. Publish the MDMLG Directory 2004-2005 on the web site in HTML format.

Active Committee Members:

Note: Active committee members (excepting the Webmaster) submit at least one article per year. Announcements and brief news items do not count toward committee membership unless they are regular columns.

Carla Caretto
Nandita Mani
Juliet Mullenmeister
Valerie Reid
Marie-Lise Shams
Christina Wallace

Accomplishments:

Four issues of the MDMLG News (Vol. 31, Issues 1 - 4) were published on the MDMLG web site in conjunction with the MDMLG Webmaster (Valerie Reid). The issues appeared online two weeks before each general membership meeting.

Each issue published brought relevant and timely information to the membership. The Communications Committee Members stayed current with topics of interest to the membership and have several requested articles in the works for the next issue of the newsletter

Valerie did an excellent job of maintaining and updating the web site and listservs, as well as the directory.

The Committee got many general members involved in submitting news items and articles. This diversified our content and improved communication to the membership. Other contributors to the MDMLG News include:

Diana Balint
Karen Tubolino
Carole Gilbert
Nancy Bulgarelli
Cherrie Mudloff
Nancy Rusin
Annette Healy
Marilyn Kostrizewski
Jennifer Bowen

Work Yet To Be Completed:

The Committee Chair has also begun writing a style guide to standardize and make consistent the appearance of the online newsletter. A basic version will be complete this summer. Future Committee Chairs will add to the style guide as needed.

Respectfully Submitted By:

Christina Wallace
MDMLG Communications Committee Chair
June 16, 2005