Bulletin - a definition

Bulletin - Webster defines bulletin as: "1. a brief public notice issuing information from an authoritative source, a brief news item intended for immediate publication or broadcast. 2. Periodical: the organ of an institution or association.

In looking in the thesaurus under bulletin - summary, journal, record, digest, abstract, prospectus, announcement, release, flash, tiding and dispatch. A chapter bulletin is all of the above and more. The bulletin serves as the voice of the chapter. Not only does it give information to its members but it also should tell the community what the chapter is doing and give information to the community about our hobby of barbershopping. If we look at several of the synonyms of the word bulletin we can begin to define just what a bulletin should look like.

Summary - A bulletin is a summary of what has happened to the chapter in the past. A bulletin has articles of history of the chapter or the Society. It has articles about a past chapter show. It may have articles about a past local board meeting, a district board meeting or perhaps a recap of the doings of the International Board.

It may contain articles of quartets and their past performances or history.

It may have summaries of articles written by the chapter officers or summaries of a member and how he joined the chapter. It may have articles about the craft of singing barbershop music. It may summarize new regulations affecting barbershop either the membership or our performance. A bulletin is a summary of the chapter and our Society.

Record - A bulletin of a chapter serves to provide a record of history of the chapter. A collection of the bulletins of the chapter provides a look at the past of the chapter and provides a chance to look ahead at what may need to be done in the chapter.

It provides a record of the past chapter shows, a record of the past chapter officers and perhaps a record of the past performances of the chapter. It also may serve as a record of what has transpired in the administration or the chapter. It also may serve as a record of some of the members of the chorus.

Digest - Abstract - A bulletin serves as a digest or an abstract of what has happened in a chapter. An editor could report word for word what happens in a chapter and be a very complete and concise record of the happenings. It would make for a very long article and probably be very boring to most readers. The editor instead takes an article and condenses it into a digest format and thus highlights the important points and gets the information to the reader in a readable format.

Announcement - Flash - A bulletin serves as an announcement of chapter activities. The announcement may be about upcoming performances, which the chapter members need to know about. It may be an announcement of new administrative officers or changes in the make up of the chapter. It may be the announcement of performance of the chapter or quartet in a competition and just how well they did perform. The announcement or flash is not only for members of the chapter, but may also serve to announce the doings of the chapter to the general public or to those who need to know just what the chapter is doing.

Many chapters send their bulletin to people on a mailing list who are not members of the chapter. This serves to keep the general public informed as to the doing of the chapter and keeps the public aware that there is a strong and viable barbershop chapter in their community. Some chapters publish a special edition for the general public to announce a special event in the chapter - their annual show, installation of officers or an anniversary of the chapter.

A bulletin can be a publication that only the members see and can contain very little information or it can be a publication that tells the story of the chapter and binds the chapter together by telling the story of the chapter and what is coming up in the life of the chapter.

As an editor you make the decision as to which way you want your bulletin to go. It takes no more effort to add the articles, notes and lists to make a bulletin one that tells the complete story of the chapter.