Hello, P.J. Trotter here and as many of you are aware I am on the Blaser/Stimpson ticket as their prospective Chief of Communications. Several members of this Election2010 list have asked direct and indirect questions of myself concerning the publishing of the Communique, my editorial vision, its potential content, how to adapt it for our visually impaired members, staffing of the department and my thoughts and/or reasons for moving other sub departments under the Communications umbrella. 

These and other questions have come up in the last 3 months and I shall attempt to explain what I think should be done to answer these concerns as follows.

It is my firm belief that we must stop looking at the CQ as merely a bimonthly newsletter. We need to look at it as the niche publication that it is. This publication must be seen as a newspaper/ news magazine in order for us to back up the statement that we are the better choice when potential members begin looking at the various Star Trek fan clubs. Also I want to be able to say proudly that we have content that all members enjoy reading and anticipating in upcoming issues.

We will add to the staff the following positions, News Editor, Features Editor, and Advertising Manager, under the Editor in Chief in order to take some of the pressure off of their shoulders. 

The Editor-in-Chief will be responsible for not only managing all the department heads but also choosing what each issue is going to focus on and selecting which stories best fit the theme and the physical layout of the issue.

The News editor, will be responsible for making sure the copy (articles) have been logged on a news manifest, making sure they are formatted correctly to be easily placed on a page, edit the said copy for typos and grammar mistakes as well as deciding if and where to cut out parts for length.

The next position will be Features editor. This person is responsible for either writing or collecting  articles that would "feature" various programs that chapters have begun on their own or something an individual member is doing. It could also be interviews of actors, actresses, writers, etc that have a tie in with Star Trek, I would also love to see columns from people who have an interesting slant on Fleet and science fiction. I also want to assign someone to keep tabs on what other projects are the cast and crew from the series and movies are doing now. Some people would want to know that and check out the upcoming episodes of Eureka featuring Wil Wheaton or that Patrick Stewart will be in this play on Broadway or London's West End.

By no means are my editors expected to do all this work by themselves. I would love to have 1 or 2 "reporters" helping with the interviews as well as finding the stories, soliciting articles, talking with the members helping the membership getting to know what's out there. I would also like to include letters to the editor, a "kid's” column or page, some sort of puzzle or game and maybe even bring back the comic strip. I also like the idea of focusing on 2-3 regions per issue so we can learn about what is going on in South Africa or Australia and New Zealand.

Finally we will add an Advertising manager to get paid advertisers, not just Roddenberry. com but other advertisers as well who would salivate at the thought of advertising to 4,000+ members. It is my hope that we can use the income to supplement the budget for printing and mailing the CQ.

When we win we have the following plan of attack. Having already spoken with Jon we will work together with his team to get CQ-162 (the December 2010/January 2011) issue at the printers before mid January. As soon as it is at the printers our team, headed by Karen Mitchell Carothers, will be under the gun so to speak because we will have at the most 6 weeks to get out CQ-163. I want to get us back on the schedule that the CQ is mailed at the beginning of the odd month. That is the Feb/March 2011 issue (CQ-163) should be in the mail no later that February 14, 2011. We will need to rethink deadlines as well as how long it actually takes to crank out a 40-48 page magazine.

Yes in the future we may be going to 2 types of publications where the member must choose to receive CQ in either hard copy or as an e Edition. But either way we must stick with the deadline to get the product out. Currently the newspaper I work for (Tecumseh Countywide and Sun, Tecumseh Oklahoma) has started offering an e Edition to its subscribers. The cost to the paper is per page uploaded, and those who choose this option can still be counted as subscribers on our yearly statement of Ownership that must be filed with the USPS every October 1st. Yes this option will cut into our economy of scale option but if the printing on newsprint is not practical we can also look at going to other formats that could give us a comparable cost per issue. But that will be attended to when the membership choices are given. There are programs now, such as the CQ Lottery, that will have to be weighed and measured to see if they are still in the budget.

These are all great plans but why do I feel the need to create departments and take in other departments that haven't been used to its full potential? According to the chart published on the Blaser/Stimpson website I will have the the Accessibility Office and the Document Office under my department.

The Document Office is to help have all "official Documents" in one spot. A place where anyone can come to on the web or at an ftp site and download any and all documents and forms that they need. I know we already have something similar to this already, but we as a team feel that it would be nice that the documents have a "fleet" branding And that is 1 of the goals I will strive to meet as well as designing any new documents should the need arise.

The office of Disabled Accessibility is a project that is near and dear to my heart. This October my mom will be marking the 29th year of being legally blind. Many times she has wanted to read an article in the CQ that has featured me or Greg or the chapter she was currently a member of, but was unable to see the page to read. Her disability cannot be remedy by making the pdf page 500%. She needs someone to either read the article to her or receive the CQ as a "book on tape" Having this background and knowing what she needs, I began noticing that there are other members who are visually impaired that have had to tell the CQ staff to not send them a copy of the CQ since they can't do anything with it. Taking note of this and seizing the opportunity to talk with 2 blind members who were attending IC2010. I asked them for suggestions on making the CQ available in a format they can uses. They suggested that we put out a text only version that they can download or access on a computer. A popular text-to-speech software, Jaws, would then be able to read the articles to them also I have been researching what it takes to record our own "book on tape" or ask that the US Library of Congress certify it for use on any of their tape players, CD players, or downloadable on their newest players. These would be of great use for those who wish to take any academy courses or actually know what the Constitution and Bylaws or the Membership Handbook says. My mother, who is also a Special Education Teacher with the emphasis on visual impairment, also suggested that we could do podcasts for several articles or chapters/sections of a book. This department is not only just for the visually impaired,it can also help to be an advocate for other disabilities as well.

So in summary, I want to give the Communications department a way to make all documents accessible to all members. I have a definitive plan on how to accomplish it from the very beginning of the next administration. I know what needs to be done on my and my Communications team's watch, but I want to also set a standard to allow all members access to every department and has the needed tools to do so. I humbly request that you consider all I have written when filling out your ballots.