Starting a Family Newsletter

If you're old enough to remember Sunday dinners when the whole family would gather, talk, eat, reminisce and play games, well those days are long gone. Family members are spread out across the country, are even in different parts of the world. The 21st Century has put distance and commitments between staying in touch with loved ones but it doesn't have to, you can easily stay connected. One of the best ways to keep in touch with family members far and wide is a family newsletter. Everyone can stay up-to-date on happenings in each other's lives.

Many families use newsletters for current events, this helps family members scattered across the country stay in touch with details of each other's lives. They also can be used in sharing the family's history, family documents, stories, pictures anything that relates to the family.

If you have been thinking about starting a family newsletter, there are some things you need to consider before you start.

First - the name of the newsletter. Will it just be for your family or family relations? The newsletter name should state exactly who the audience should be. It can be a reflection of the family name like, heritage or interests. A nickname could also work. If your having trouble coming up with a name, ask the family members that the newsletter will be going to for some ideas.

Second - deciding what you want to write about. This is the first step in producing a family newsletter and can also be the biggest obstacle course to get through but once you start, you on your way. Here are some ideas that may help you, current events, which include everyday things that people are doing - school, sports, vacations, hobbies, and announcements such as births, weddings, reunions, and graduations.

Third - make a section the "call to action," in this section is where you ask for information from other family members like, photos, documents, stories, births, weddings, and graduations, anything they would like to contribute. The best way of doing this is to just pick one or two topics at a time to ask for. This way it gives you other topics for future newsletter. You can also ask for any family recipes. People always like to get family recipes that have been handed down through the generations.

If your newsletter is basically related to the family's history then your own research will fill a lot of the content but be careful you don't put in to much or you will run out of information for future newsletter. This type of newsletter will keep people up-to-date on what you have learned about the family and what you are presently working on. This will also encourage other family members to give you information that they might have or know of for the newsletter.

Fourth - how often to send the newsletter and how long should you make it. If you have committed to do a family newsletter, for-warned, a newsletter can take some time. So first decide how often do you want to send the newsletter out. You can pick from yearly, quarterly, monthly, or weekly, most family newsletters are sent quarterly. If you chose to send it monthly, be prepared and stick to the time schedule for mailing. This can be very difficult. You might want to keep it to just one page in length.

Fifth - gather a family mailing list. For-warned, there will be family members that are not interested in the newsletter. To make it easy, start with just your immediate family and close relatives. Let them tell other family members about the newsletter and whom they can contact. This is called word-of-mouth, to build your mailing list.

You also can just mail the newsletter to everyone you think might be interested and ask them to respond if they'd like to continue receiving future issues.

Sixth - delivery options have to be checked into. Mailing can cost so this depends on your budget. Copying can also cost and if you have several pages this will affect the cost of mailing. If you have a lot of family members that do not have computers for email then mailing is your only option so you will have to decide how to cover the cost. E-mail the family newsletter is all the go but remember if you have lots of pictures this could affect the person receiving the email, downloading speed. If you chose most of the family newsletters to be emailed you might consider the amount of pictures you use for each newsletters. Many family newsletters are sent using both options, emailing and regular mail.