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Newsletter editor: John J. Durkin John J. Durkin To have material posted on the website, click on About this Website at left or Contact Us above. |
About the Newsletter
Although publishing a newsletter circulated to members of the Association was one on the earliest known activities of the Association, little is known by this writer of its early history. The oldest edition available as this is written is quarterly issue No. 125 dated April, 1985 owned by Mr. Richard Utz, the founder of the WesternUnionAlumni.com web site. It contains references to issues published from April, 1984, so there were at least four earlier editions. Beyond that, it is believed that the founder of the Northern New Jersey retirement group, Bob Fults, published a newsletter in the early days of the Association. It is also believed that the older Snowbird group of retirees functioning in Florida that merged with the Northern New Jersey group to form RWUEA had also been publishing a newsletter, and that it was combined with the newsletter published by the Northern New Jersey group and published in New Jersey after the two organizations merged. (See the About the Association clicksite at left for a brief history of the Association.) Unfortunately, no record exists of either endeavor. This history will be revised accordingly if and when additional information is obtained.
The editorial staff is listed in the April 1985 issue as Anne Martin, Trebor Stluf and Rosanna Foote. The pages in this writer's possession are not originals, but the copy appears to have been typed in Courier font, probably with an IBM Selectric, on 8-1/2 x 11 masters and printed professionally. There are few headings and no page numbers. The content is wholly concerned with the ongoing affairs of the Association, with a listing of members who have passed away, dates for coming luncheons, etc. One of the entries reports on the 23rd Annual Snowbird Party held at the Dolphin Beach Resort at St. Petersburg, FL. Association membership is reported at about 4000. There is a thank-you from the president for having supported an increase in dues and for voluntary contributions received to carry the organization through a tight financial situation
By 1993 the Newsletter had assumed a form similar to its current one. Kay Doyle was the editor.The January 1993 edition consisted of 24 pages printed in the motif still in use, with heavy black printing and black and white photos on light orange paper. Its contents consisted of a long letter from president Al Bianco reporting on matters pertaining to the Company's bankruptcy and the Association's efforts in that regard to protect retirees' insurance and pension benefits, which was the subject of much of the content though that time period, but which has nearly disappeared as circumstances have stabilized. It also contained a schedule of coming events much like the format used today, a long section pertaining to the activities of the regional organizations grouped under the heading "Gatherings", still used today, and another long section covering news of individual members grouped under the general heading, "National News" with state by state headings under that. The "National News" heading is still used, but the state by state groupings has disappeared. There is also a listing of 90 year members, and a listing of new members. Also included from time to time was a section labeled Western Union news, which usually pertained to matters affecting members such as information pertaining to the Company's retirees' benefits, and a section labeled RWUEA News, which dealt with matters pertaining to the organization. Surprisingly, issues through that time period did not contain obituaries or a listing of Association members or other former Company employees who had passed away. A listing of that kind first reappeared in the last issue for 1992.
By 1998, Tom O'Sullivan was editing the newsletter. Content at this time remained much the same as in 1993, but the number of pages was drifting upward, with 28 as the norm and with 32 occurring in the Third Quarter 1999 edition.
Tom O'Sullivan passed away during the preparation of the Third Quarter 2001 edition, and John J. (Jack) Durkin, who was the Association president, took on the additional responsibility of editing the newsletter, and remained as editor when he retired as president at year-end.
Jack added a section to the Second Quarter 2002 edition of the Newsletter titled "Memories", which consisted of a long article of historical importance written by a former employee, Anthony J. Silva, concerning the establishment of a union among Company employees in 1918. In the next issue, he continued the "Memories" section, and included an annotated copy of a wall display in the lobby of the current Western Union Financial Services office building in Montvale, NJ commemorating the Company's 150th anniversary. The display consists of photos of important events in the Company's history, and was put together by Warren Bechtel, the Company's retired corporate communications director and now a RWUEA board member. A few short articles contributed by Members were also included, as were several pictures of historical interest. The "Memories" section has become a regular feature with numerous contributions from members, often accompanied by a photo from an earlier period.
The third quarter 2002 issue is also noteworthy because Jack then added a complete listing of Association members and other Company employees who had passed away in the past quarter that he obtained from First Data Corporation and a series of brief obituaries where they were available..
The newsletter now runs to 32 pages in most editions, although the recent one was somewhat shorter due to the holiday season.
Jack collects material at his home for inclusion in the newsletter. His deadlines for accepting material are mid-February, mid-May, mid-August, and mid-November. He passes edited material to a professional copyist who composes individual pages using Adobe InDesign desktop publishing software running on a Macintosh computer. When all pages are completed, she transmits an image of each individual page to the printer. When the printing run is done, the printer physically delivers the printed copies to a Direct Mail house where an address label provided as noted below is attached to each individual copy. They are batched for shipment and individually delivered through the mail.
A computerized database of subscriber information containing, among other things, the names and addresses of members in good standing is used to record subscription information and other personal data for individual members. It was developed over time from the forms that members sent in when dues were paid or changes in their directory entries were requested.
Newly completed forms are received more or less continually which go to the Treasurer, Paul Lohiser, who strips off payments for deposit and forwards them to Board member Loanne Carroll. She updates from information on the forms on a Windows computer using FileMaker software and distributes the revised file to several Board members, including Mike Brown. He then develops a mailing list from the file using FileMaker program and forwards it electronically to the Direct Mail house for printing mailing labels.
Copies of newsletter pages are also forwarded electronically to the Association's website host, Path Computer Systems, where they are stored in its Internet server and can be seen on a page by page basis by Internet users. Copies of the directory are also transmitted electronically to Path Computer and stored in its Internet server. Individual pages can be retrieved for view via the organization's website, WesternUnionRetirees.com.
Images of individual newsletter pages are transmitted to the printer and Internet host as attachments to regular e-mails coded in Adobe Portable Document Format, that is, as data files with "pdf" extensions. The database is transmitted among members of the Board and to Path Computer as an attachment to an e-mail in Text format, that is, as an ASCII file carrying a "txt" extension. All those who use the database are equipped with a copy of FileMaker with which information can be retrieved.
Considerable effort is spent by the several Board members involved in the process described above, all of which is provided on a voluntary basis.
Posted 1/6/05, corrected 1/18/06
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