What goes into a chapter bulletin?

As a 12-year judge in the Grammar and Style category I have never had to take particular note of the contents. Still, certain things jump out as one reads more and more bulletins. What exactly should go into a bulletin?

The Content category score sheet lists the objectives of the bulletin; surely what goes into the bulletin should try to advance these objectives.

The bulletin should inform and record upcoming and recent chapter events, it should reflect the views of chapter leadership as to goals and policies, it should recognize accomplishments of members, educate about barbershop singing and current topics of interest to the general barbershop community, promote barbershop events, recruit by providing internal PR on guests and approaches to getting new members and retaining current members. Finally, the bulletin should encourage pride and participation in our hobby as embodied in our Society.

Any editor could do worse than using this as a checklist as he assembles his bulletin. However, many bulletins contain items not to be found here. I see cartoons, jokes, family news, biographies of members and news of ladies' activities. Maybe a generous interpretation of the list above could find a place for these somewhere, but it might not hurt to add a couple of objectives to the list.

How about entertain as an objective? This would encourage humor of appropriate type. Car-toons and written humor are very much in tune with the barbershop ambiance. Most importantly, this objective gives members an additional reason for reading the bulletin. Barbershoppers are not as a rule readaholics. Well-chosen humor, with some amendments to allude to identifiable local subjects, gives the bulletin topicality and makes it a subject of conversation.

How about togetherness? This would include news of births, weddings, engagements, graduations, etc. The late Wilbur Sparks, one of the legends of the PROBE saga, always had room for this kind of "homey" news in his Echo, the bulletin he edited for the Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter for many years.

With advances in technology, we have also witnessed many uses of photographs. This is in my view, a very positive development (NPI). Abigail Adams asked her husband to "remember the ladies." Indeed, they are an important element in our hobby. The togetherness page can be a place where they are remembered. Entertainment and togetherness in a bulletin can provide an entryway for the eight principles listed in the Content score sheet.

What goes into a bulletin? Maybe the question should be: what makes anyone read a bulletin? Try entertainment and togetherness.