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Some tips and advice:
- Type WHH each week in Microsoft Word. You can format it however you'd like within Word, including changing colors, styles, fonts, etc.
- Copy the entire edition. Open Eudora (do NOT use Outlook or Netscape -- Eudora is the only mail program that will allow you to send formatting text properly). Open THREE compose windows, and paste the edition into each one.
- Open the Excel file with this week's address list. Copy about a third of the list, paste within one of the "compose" windows in the BCC field. After a few seconds, Eudora will change this list so that commas separate each name. Do the same thing with the other two thirds of the list into the other two "compose" windows. (It must be split into three sections in order to send properly).
- Make sure you have this setting in Eudora: Go to Tools > Options > Styled Text, and make sure "When sending mail with styled text" is marked "send both plain and styled." This ensures that any recipient who cannot read HTML will get a plain text, legible copy, but that those who can read HTML will get all the formatting.
- As a rule, I copied information out of the calendar for the upcoming week's events. If any staff or student wanted something included that was not listed in the calendar, they had to e-mail it to me by Thursday afternoon. I then typed the edition on Friday and send first thing Monday morning.
- I included only events occuring in the upcoming week and any events in the future requiring an RSVP. Again, if a staff member wanted somethign else included, they had to let me know by the deadline each week. One of the perks of writing this is being able to include your own programs, so I always checked my calendar for Res Hall programs or tabling that wasn't listed on the calendar already.
- There was always a trivia question, but the type varied. Sometimes I would try to relate the question to something in the news, an event at Hillel that week, or a Holiday. I asked the rest of the staff to give me a list of 5 questions at the beginning of the year that I could refer to whenever I was stuck for a good question. Toward the end of the year I started doing "coded" questions that were hidden throughout the e-mail -- these were simple questions but required work to figure out. I got a huge response to this type of trivia. As for prizes, we usually gave out coupons to the Bagel Cafe or Fitness Center, but at times other prizes became available. You should always check to see what might work.
- There were a lot of problems with the OSU server at the end of the year. You should check with Joan to make sure all these kinks have been worked out. There may have been some changes made to how WHH needs to be sent to avoid the problems; hopefully it will be easy enough for you to do.
- I handled "remove" requests by replying with a generalized message, something to the effect of "We will remove you from our lists, but please note it may take up to two full weeks to do so." Then I forwarded the message to Yvonne so she could remove them from CIVIC.
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