[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, Oct.-Nov., 2007

[Elizabeth Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from Oct.-Nov., 2007*

Happy Birthday, Editors' Club! Yep, it's been 30 years since this  
group was formed with--literally--a handful of communicators from  
around the Institute. At one of our recent meetings we chatted about  
how the club has changed and grown (there are currently about 180  
members)....One of us was an original member! Everyone agreed that  
one of the best things about this group is the ability to bring  
together (electronically and otherwise) such a variety of  
communicators from around the Institute, especially since so many of  
us run one-person shops.

*News Office News*

A warm welcome to several new members of the News Office! About a  
month or so ago, the MIT homepage team joined the office. For more  
information on the home page or to request a spotlight, contact my  
NEW colleague Susan Curran at scurran at mit.edu or 3-2548.  We also  
have a new science writer, David Chandler. Some of you might  
recognize David's name; earlier in his career he was a science writer  
for the Boston Globe.

*How to Write Quickly*

Earlier this year Robyn Fizz, editor of the newsletter for  
information services and technology, called with a great idea for an  
Editor's Club topic: could members give tips on how to write QUICKLY?  
Here are some of the replies when I asked this question at our  
October meeting. I'm beginning with my favorite:

"Delegate," said Janet Wasserstein of the Office of Foundation  
Relations.

Tom Witkowski, a writer for Communications and Donor Relations, noted  
that he learned to write quickly when he was a writer with the Boston  
Business Journal. The fast-paced newspaper environment forces you to  
get words down fast. Said someone else: "things take as long to write  
as the time you have."

Another Editor mentioned that "the hardest parts of a story are the  
beginning and the end," so "just getting stuff down--no matter the  
order" can be helpful to begin. "Write everything down, then go back  
for fine-tuning."

My personal tip for writing quickly: don't tape your interviews.  
Listening to tapes and transcribing them--especially if English is  
not the interviewee's first language--takes a LONG time. I've also  
found that even when I have a perfectly good quote in hand, I'm  
tempted to keep transcribing because I'm sure that the *next* quote  
will be even better... and the next.....and the next. Finally, taping  
makes me lazy. Since "everything will be on the tape," I'm not as  
strict about stopping the researcher when I don't understand  
something. The result: I spend even more time transcribing, and going  
back to the researcher with follow-up questions.

*Webmasters: The Job Description*

The MIT Energy Initiative is in the process of hiring a webmaster (at  
least they were when our October Editors' Club meeting was held. Note  
to me: study the tips, above, on how to write quickly for more timely  
minutes). ANYWAY, Nancy Stauffer of the MITEI asked if anyone had  
suggestions for what should be included in a job description. Here's  
a great tip: go to MIT's HR database, do a search for "web," and look  
at the descriptions for similar positions from around the Institute.

*The 	MIT Museum*

Editors' Club member Seth Riskin is responsible for emerging  
technologies at the MIT Museum. That means he's a bridge between the  
Museum and the rest of the Institute, especially with respect to real- 
time, breaking research news and discoveries. How do you give  
visitors a feel for what it means to be at MIT? Or, put another way,  
how do you bring the pulse of the Institute into the Museum?

At our November meeting, Seth told us a bit about how the Museum aims  
to do just that. For example, he said, MIT 360 is a dedicated program  
area capable of expanding the museum's physical space electronically.  
Since all of this is new, I asked Seth if he could give us a tour of  
the new Museum space, and perhaps we could all brainstorm about new  
ways of collaborating with the Museum. He was quite enthusiastic  
about that idea, and will be sending around a note SOON to Editors'  
Club to schedule a tour.

*MIT Editors' Club Digest*

If you'd prefer to receive Editors' Club notes in a daily digest  
rather than individually, you can now do so via the instructions  
below. Many thanks to Robyn Fizz!

Go to http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/editors. You will then  
need to enter your password to change your subscription options -- in  
this case, opting for digest mode.

If you don't remember your password, you can get it from the monthly  
email with the Subject: "mit.edu mailing list memberships reminder."   
Or click on the password reminder button and it will be mailed to you.

*Next Meeting*

The next meeting of MIT Editors' Club is Monday, Dec. 17, from 12-1  
in the News Office.

Happy Holidays, Everybody!

Elizabeth


================================
Elizabeth A. Thomson
Senior Science and Engineering Editor
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
News Office, Room 11-400
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)
<thomson at mit.edu>

<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www>
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