An email will summarize the content, with separate links to the CCA web site for each article or item and with a link at the bottom of the email to a full PDF of the issue. That PDF is what will be printed and mailed to members who pay extra to get the Cruiser that way, but only a handful still do. The PDF will have less of a newsletter look—this is because newsletter formatting makes for very awkward reading on-screen. As for printing, members can print individual articles from the web page (toolbar with printer icon hovers on the right) or can print the entire PDF themselves (but beware of the ink cost, as there are lots of color photos).
The email has photos, treatment of which may depend on your browser and/or email application; you might have to click or right-click on an icon to enable download. Moreover, photos are stored in the cloud, so depending on web traffic, they can be slow to download—but they should appear eventually.
A note about navigation (email/web, not river): As the home base for clicking through to articles and other items, readers can use either the email or the "In This Issue" page. To browse to the "In This Issue" page, from the left pane of the CCA site click on Newsletters to arrive at The Cruiser overview page, and then click on the issue date. (From The Cruiser overview page, for the full PDF, you can follow the link to the Document Library, then select the Newsletters folder.) Alternatively, you can use the Next Page button at the bottom of each article to move through the articles and other items sequentially.
Let me know how this format works for you—email me at newsletter@canoecruisers.org.
The Cruiser is your voice, and your contributions are not only welcome but vital. Please do contribute articles and photos; you also can suggest article ideas you'd like to see someone else tackle. Two features in particular will benefit from reader contributions: if you see a news item elsewhere of interest to paddlers, a link to it can be highlighted in the News Briefs; and you can get in the last word by offering a photo for the Enders page (also known as the page at the end). See Submissions to the Cruiser for more details on format, etc.
What the heck, you can even submit paddling poetry. Don't worry that our standards will be too high for you. For example, on behalf of our new Chairman (who did not request it!), I offer this:
Thank you, Barb, for leading us
And more than once for feeding us
I'll do my darnedest not to be rotten
My name is Dave but you can call me Cotton
I'll make the mighty moguls shiver
If they block access to any river
I'll bet that they will rue the day
They incurred the wrath of the CCA
I'll try to be a friendly Chair
And not to get into everyone's hair
When I move on I'll not be forgotten
My name is Dave but you can call me Cotton
So if I'm willing to publish that, the pit is truly bottomless!
And the final order of business is one additional round of thanks to several members who have helped enormously with newsletter content: Alf Cooley, whose moniker you'll see on many of the articles and who also will be rounding up contributors; and Barb Brown and Gary Quam, talented photographers whose work you'll see on various pages.
P.S.: I've included a photo not out of vanity but to allow those of you I don't know to recognize me on the river—or my boat, at least—and bend my ear with article ideas.
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