Heather Merry revs up Ragged Right blog for IABC BC

Heather and I are taking the helm of a new volunteer position at the BC Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. We are now co-piloting in the role of Blog Editor / Monitor for Ragged Right - and our goal is to keep the blog chugging along with at least one new entry per week.

Heather is an Investor Relations Specialist at Westport Innovations and she runs her own contracting business eye 4 communications - offering writing, editing, and proofing services. She and I kicked off our lively brainstorming session on Monday at The Belmondo Cafe in North Vancouver. We bounced ideas around, drafted an editorial calendar, and now we are turning to our fellow IABC members to solicit volunteer bloggers. What better way to get your feet wet in the blogosphere, if you haven't done so already?

We aren't asking our volunteer bloggers to cover all aspects of an issue or event; instead we want to open up topics for discussion and encourage others to share thoughts and ideas. We could even debate and argue! Heather and I have "story assignments" for volunteers and we are also hoping people will come forth with their own ideas.

Here is our job description: "The volunteer will be responsible for creating an editorial calendar, selecting Members to make the posts on the calendar and following up with managing the submission of posts, editing them for spelling and grammar (without changing the "voice" of the submission) and posting these. He/she will also manage and post any additional postings that come in from membership, aside from the editorial calendar.

"In addition, members' comments will need to be monitored for compliance with site policies."

Partnering in a volunteer position is a good solution for avoiding the over-commitment trap many of us fall into. My partnership with Heather came about thanks to Catherine Worrall, the B.C. Chapter's Director of Marketing Communications and principal of Ideastream Design Inc. Both Heather and I expressed interest in the volunteer position but wanted to make sure we were comfortable with the time commitment. Sharing the role is a great option for us - so thanks to Catherine for the thoughtful delegating!

Heather and I need volunteer bloggers to cover every Chapter event - including an event coming up on March 10 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the YWCA downtown: "A Case Study of Award Winners."

Here's the invite info for the above: "Join IABC/BC professionals who have won and judged Bronze Quill, Silver Leaf and Gold Quill Awards. You'll learn tips on how to create award-winning communications projects and entries." If you can't go in person, you can attend via webcast.

We need volunteers now - so please get in touch by leaving a comment on this blog.