WSI Connection Committee Manual

This manual outlines the purpose, responsibilities, methods, and overall operating procedures of the WSI Connection Committee. The manual is updated as needed to keep the information current and is intended to serve as a reference tool for committee and subcommittee members, as well as for anyone in FA interested in understanding the work of the WSI standing committees.

Table of Contents

1.  Connection Committee Roles and Procedures
1. Committee Procedures
2. Service Positions
2. Print Magazine Production Procedures
1. Monthly and Yearly Timetables with Production Summary
2. Articles Subcommittee Procedures
3. Art Subcommittee Procedures
3. Digital Magazine Production Procedures

Connection Committee (CC)

The CC is responsible for shepherding the content and production of the fellowship’s magazine, Connection. Responsibility for all member writing, editing, illustration and production planning resides with the committee and its various subcommittees. 

Committee Procedures

Meetings

• Main CC meetings take place monthly, on the 1st Sunday of each month at 11:00am ET for one hour, unless the CC decides on other dates due to holidays, breaks, etc.  
• Subcommittees meet periodically and provide updates during the monthly main CC meeting
• A calendar of meetings are set for the year in January of each year and made available to the committee by the Administrative Subcommittee Chair.
• One week prior to the committee meetings, the agenda and the Zoom link are sent to the committee members by the Administrative subcommittee.
• Minutes of each meeting are taken by the secretary and submitted to the  Administrative Subcommittee Chair within 48 hours of the meeting.
• Meetings will be held over Zoom (Zoom Address:  Connection@foodaddicts.org, Password Magazine1; the FA office manages and pays for the Zoom account)
• All members of the committee with 90 days or more of continuous abstinence will have a voice and a vote at meetings.  Every opinion, including minority opinion, will be given an opportunity to be heard.  Every attempt will be made to make decisions by consensus, but votes will be taken when there is disagreement over any decisions affecting committee members or publication of the magazine.
• Members who are subcommittee chairs are expected to treat the committee meeting like the business meeting of a committed FA meeting.  Every effort should be made to attend every  meeting.  If  unable to attend, subcommittee chairs should notify the chair as far in advance as possible and provide a subcommittee update as necessary.  Subcommittee chairs are responsible for communicating updates to their subcommittee members and may determine that certain subcommittee members attend the monthly meeting either on a regular or ad hoc basis.

Service Positions

Chair

• Facilitates and attends monthly committee meetings.
• Monitors Connection@foodaddicts.org email inbox and responds to inquiries about Connection.
• Oversees the work of the larger committee and keeps apprised of issues related to each subcommittee.
• Attends monthly meetings of the World Service Board (WSB)
• Is responsible for all administrative tasks related to CC as assigned by the WSB (committee reports, budget request, etc.) and represents the CC at the annual business conference.

Vice Chair

• Supports the chair position whenever necessary, including acting as chair in monthly meetings when chair is not available.
• Attends monthly committee meetings, keeping apprised of the workings of the committee as a whole and providing input on larger issues related to the committee including roles/responsibilities and production schedule.
• Acts as Connection Rep Contact, holding monthly meetings with Connection representatives to keep them apprised of the needs of the magazine.

Articles Subcommittee

The Articles Subcommittee is responsible for everything related to article collection and the processes related to article selection, magazine content, and publication.  This includes article solicitation, selecting articles for each of the 10 annual issues, editing each article, and proofreading.  The Articles Subcommittee is also responsible for creating and/or streamlining the process for routing the magazine through the publication process.

Articles Subcommittee Service Positions:

Subcommittee Chair:  responsible for coordinating the subcommittee.  Holds regular meetings, determining how often they are necessary and the best mode of communication between meetings.  Identifies and resolves all issues related to articles and written content.  Prepares report and briefs committee on content-related issues at monthly Connection committee meeting.  Determines whether, and how often, members of the subcommittee are required to attend the CC main monthly meeting.

Issue Draft Team:  Chooses articles from the archives to be used for each issue and creates titles.

Editor:   Edits contributor articles for grammar, punctuation, content, flow, and style using the Connection Editor’s Guide and FA Style Guide; Creates headlines for articles and confirms articles are in accordance with the CC and FA Policies and Procedures, as well as the Twelve Traditions.

Copy Editor: Copy edits the magazine a total of three times -- after articles are selected, after the designer provides the initial layout draft, and lastly before the final draft magazine is approved for publication by the Chair. 

Router/Articles Archivist: Assigns submitted articles to editors. Maintains and organizes a catalog of submitted, edited, and used contributor articles.

Writing Coaches: Understands the needs and guidelines for publishing articles.  Works with FA members interested in writing and creating new articles. 

Connection Rep Contact:  Meet with Connection reps monthly and take information from the CC to distribute to meetings (filled by the Vice Chair).

Writing Sessions Subcommittee Chair:  Reviews and revises formats for online and in person writing sessions.  Schedules writing sessions approximately quarterly or when requested, coordinates facilitators, and trains new facilitators.

Art Subcommittee

The Art Subcommittee is responsible for everything related to art collection and the processes related to art selection.  This includes art solicitation, and selecting art for the cover, back and inside of each of the 10 annual issues. 

Subcommittee Chair:  Establishes an art team, from within the worldwide FA community, to create an archive of artwork ready for the designer.  Responsible for coordinating the art  subcommittee.  Holds regular meetings, determining how often they are necessary and the best mode of communication between meetings.  Identifies and resolves all issues related to artwork in the magazine.  Prepares report and briefs committee on art-related issues at monthly Connection committee meeting.  Determines whether, and how often, members of the subcommittee are required to attend the CC main monthly meeting.

Art Gatherer: Working with the Art Subcommittee Chair, selects and edits art submissions for size and other changes, names files, and solicits art for specific stories from regular art contributors.

Art Archivist: Working with the Art Gatherer, maintains art archives by adding and removing art files from the shared drive as they move through the various steps from submission to production. Sends confirmation of submission receipt to artists and confirms contact information.

Administrative Subcommittee

The Administrative Subcommittee is responsible for creating the annual calendar of meetings and other committee events, maintaining committee member lists and contact information, creating and archiving meeting minutes, and assisting the chair with other administrative issues as needed. 

Administrative Subcommittee Chair:  Creates annual meeting calendar, keeps it up to date, and adds special events as needed.  Send a reminder to the chair each month to create a meeting agenda.  Sends meeting agenda to committee members.  Creates and maintains committee member contact list.  Maintains archive of meeting minutes. Publishes Digital Issue to Website.

Secretary:  Takes minutes at all CC meetings and disseminates minutes to all members for approval.

Connection Designer

The Connection designer, currently Tickled Plum, is a paid professional graphic designer who creates the layout and prepares files for print and digital subscriptions; the final print draft file is sent to the printer and the final digital PDF is sent to the office The Connection designer sends invoices ($700 per issue; $950 per double issue) to the connectionadmin@foodaddicts.org for approval via Google Drive. The Connection Admin approves the invoice and sends it to fa@foodaddicts.org to remit payment.

Contact information:
Laura Bodensteiner, Designer
1002 Turnstone Rd
Carlsbad, CA 92011
Phone: 310-498-5515
Email: laura@tickledplum.com

Printer

The printer, currently MailRite, is a paid professional business that prints and mails the print issue of Connection to subscribers. See invoices in Google Drive. Invoices are sent directly to fa@foodaddicts.org, and then sent to connectionadmin@foodaddicts.org for approval. The invoice is input into the Connection Costs spreadsheet for tracking and verification.

Contact information:
Erin Withrow, MailRite     
Mailrite Print and Mail, Inc.
4251 Gateway Park Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95834
Phone: 916-927-6245 (office)
Email: erin@mailritemail.com

II. Print Magazine Production Procedures:

Table A provides a summary of the due dates for each step in the production process; e.g., by the 19th of March, the copyeditor proofs the first layout draft and sends changes to the designer.  

Table B lists the dates by which the copy editor sends the first draft to the designer and for which issue; e.g., the copyedited first draft for the May issue is due to the publisher by January 1st. 

In order for this to happen, the Issue Draft Team must compile and send the first draft to the copy editor three to five days prior, which means their job starts in the previous month. 

See the Connection Production Schedule Google Sheet.

Table A

By the ____of the month:

Table B

Production Summary:

The Connection team works with a four-month lead time. From the time an article is pulled from the archives, it takes four months to show up in an issue; e.g., previously edited articles that are pulled from the archive in March will be printed in the July/August issue (See Table B). 

The editorial team uses two documents: the FA Style Guide (FASG), which addresses grammar and style and is used for all FA conference-approved literature; and the Connection Editor’s Guide (EG), which addresses all editing procedures and issues regarding formatting and editorial practices specific to the committee. These two documents are in the articles subcommittee shared google drive Current Guides_Resources.

Articles and Art subcommittees work in tandem, but their individual procedures are both listed.

Articles Subcommittee Procedures

1. SUBMISSION – FA members with 90 days of abstinence, who are working with an FA sponsor, may contribute articles to Connection Magazine.
   1. Members with a Gmail account can submit articles using this Google Form. An email notification is sent to articles@foodadicts.org to review the article in this folder:Connection Article Submission Form
   2. Members without a Gmail account can submit articles as a Word doc to articles@foodaddicts.org, (with the submission form embedded into the link on the website. This is forwarded to the router/archivist. An automated message (see EG) is sent to acknowledge the receipt of articles.
2. SUBMITTED ARTICLE ASSIGNED – The router assigns and provides a file name (see Editor’s Guide) for the article and assigns the article to an editor.
3. ARTICLE EDITED – The editor edits the article for grammar and flow, assuring it is in alignment with the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. The editor may contact the writer for clarification or additional information, or they may suggest the writer work with a writing coach.  The editor assigns a rating, to the file name, of A for the best articles that should be used ASAP, B for good articles, or U for unusable articles (see EG) before returning the edited articles to the router to be archived. This letter rating is included in the file name of the article to assist the Issue Draft Team (IDT) in choosing quality articles. Editors are encouraged to check with a Writing Coach if an article's usability is questionable.
4. WRITING COACHES – Writing coaches provide help to FA members at any point in the writing process.  Members don’t need to have any writing experience to submit, so editors may refer them to a writing coach to work on their articles.  Any FA member may request a writing coach by emailing writingcoaches@foodaddicts.org.  The process of how editors work with writing coaches is covered in the Editor’s Guide.
5. ARTICLE ARCHIVED – The current router also serves as the archivist and manages the Connection Articles shared Google drive: Articles for editing contains submissions, Articles for selection contains edited articles, and Used in magazine contains chosen to be printed in the magazine.
6. ART ARCHIVED – The Art Archivist receives all submitted artwork and maintains the art archive.
7. FIRST DRAFT – Issue Draft Team (IDT) retrieves articles from the archive to create a draft document in Word.  Because the Connection team works with a four-month lead time, the articles being pulled in any particular month will be published four months later; e.g., articles pulled in January will be published in the May issue. Each IDT member is responsible for specific magazine columns and must coordinate efforts to reach a 6,000 word count for single articles and 7,500 for double issues. Articles are sent to the titlist a. The IDT sends the first draft to the copy editor, cc’ing the art subcommittee chair and the router, who pulls the articles out of circulation, so they won’t be reused.
8. FIRST PROOFREAD – Copy editor sends proofed Word file to the designer, cc’ing the Art Subcommittee Chair.
9. ARTWORK SELECTED – (See below for full procedures) Art subcommittee chair selects a magazine title and color artwork for the front and back covers, soliciting feedback from the A.R.T. (Art Review Team) on all of these choices. The Art subcommittee chair sends all this information to the Designer, who sends back color and font choices for the text on the covers. The Art Solicitor selects interior art to be printed in black & white and may contact the group of regularly contributing artists to provide artwork for specific articles. Once all art decisions are made, the designer sends a draft to the Art subcommittee chair who approves all inside and outside art.
10. MAGAZINE LAYOUT & SECOND PROOF – the designer who creates the draft layout and sends it to the Art subcommittee Chair and the copy editor, who proofs the layout draft and sends corrections.
11. FINAL DRAFT – Designer makes necessary corrections and finalizes call-out quotes and artwork.
12. THIRD PROOFREAD & FINAL APPROVAL –  Designer sends final draft to copyeditor for final proof to Connection chair for final review and approval.
13. MAGAZINE PRINTED – Designer sends approved draft to printer. Printer sends PDF file to Connection chair for final approval, then prints and mails print subscription to subscribers.
14. DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION DISTRIBUTED – See below for process.

Art Subcommittee Procedures

1. SUBMISSION  – FA members with 90 days of abstinence, who are working with an FA sponsor, may contribute art to Connection Magazine.
   1. Members with a Gmail account can submit art using this Google Form. An email notification is sent to artarchive@foodaddicts.org and connectionadmin@foodaddicts.org to  review the art submission in this folder: Connection Art and Images Submission Form
   2. Members without a Gmail account can submit art to art@foodaddicts.org, (with the submission form embedded into the link on the website. This is forwarded to the archivist at artarchive@foodaddicts.org. An automated message is sent to acknowledge the receipt of the art.
2. Archivist adds phone number/contact info to Artist Contact Sheet in Artists Folder/ Artist Contact Info.
3. Archivist puts art in the Art for Cleanup folder. Archivist labels art according to archiving procedures below. If the artist didn’t have 90 days when they submitted, the art goes in the   “Doesn’t have 90 days” folder. Archivists can delete the original email with the art.
4. Images must be 2MB for quality purposes. If the images sent through are less than 2MB, images are filed to “Image Too Small” folder.  Artist receives a reply to thank them for artwork and review guidelines. Art Gatherer will follow up with artist as required.
5. Art Gathering Process
   1. Art Gatherer checks “Images Too Small” folder in Connection gmail.
   2. Art Gatherer contacts artist if any sizing or other changes are needed.
   3. Art Gatherer sizes the artwork as large as possible without changing the dimensions, just cleans up the art.
   4. Art Gatherer puts cleaned up artwork in the “Art to be Archived” folder. The Art Gatherer names each image by category, artist’s first name and initial, state/country, year of submission. eg Abstract1 Sandi D ME 22. If an artist sends three abstracts, number each image eg. Abstract1 Sandi D ME 22, Abstract2 Sandi D ME 22, Abstract3 Sandi D ME 22. The categories are: Abstract, Animal, Bldg (Building), Drawing, Flower, Heart, Misc (Miscellaneous), Painting, Path, People, Quilt, Scape (Landscape), Sky, Text, Tree, Water, Winter.
   5. At each stage, once the art has been moved on to the next folder, remove that art from the previous folder. For example, once art has been cleaned up and is ready to be archived, remove the art from the Art for Cleanup folder, and place it in the “Art to be Archived” folder.
6. Art Archiving
   1. The Archivist files art from Art to be Archived folder to both under ‘Art Available’ and ‘Artists’ folders
   2. In the Art Available folder, use the file name given by the Art Gatherer. For example Abstract1 Sandi D ME 22
   3. In the Artists folder, art is filed by artist’s first name and initial, state/country, subject, year of submission. eg Carol H NM Sky1 22. If an artist submits several images of the same subject, number each image eg Carol H NM Sky1 22, Carol H NM Sky2 22, Carol H NM Sky3 22
7. Proposed art
   1. Art Director creates a folder of proposed art for cover and back of each issue using either new solicited art or art from the archives. Once the art has been moved to the Proposed folder, remove that art from both the Artists folder and the Art Available folders if it came from the archives. Folder is named with the month of the issue and Exterior Art. Eg 4.22 Exterior Art.
   2. Labelling for Front and Back Cover of magazine: The front is labelled FRONT with the artist’s name and state, country, and the back is labelled BACK with the artist’s name and state, country. Eg FRONT Margaret O MN and BACK Deb H MA
   3. A word doc of articles for each magazine issue is emailed to the Art Gatherer. The Art Gatherer reads each article and looks in the archives for suitable art. The Art Gatherer can also solicit art from FA members.
   4. Art Gatherer makes a folder of proposed art for the art that goes inside each issue. Each folder is named with the month of the issue and Interior Art. Eg X 4.22 Interior Art (the X keeps the file at the end, separate from Exterior Art).
   5. Art Gatherer names art in the Proposed Art folder with the artist’s name, initial, state/ country and the article number. For example Meredith M ME 5464
   6. Once the art has been moved to the Proposed folder, remove that art from both the Avail. Art by Subject and Avail. Art by Artist folders if it came from the archives.
   7. Art Gatherer and Art Covers make a copy of the art in that month’s Proposed folders and moves them to the same month’s folder in the Issue Production folder
8. Final Draft of Magazine
   1. The final draft of the magazine is sent by Laura, our paid designer, to the Issue Production Folder on the 23rd of the month.
   2. Art Director MAKES A COPY OF the artwork that was used for the final draft from the Proposed art folder and moves it to the folder named Z Art Published. Leave the Proposed folder as is.
   3. Art Gatherer does the same for the interior art.
   4. If any art wasn’t used, put it back in both Available Art by Artists folder AND Art Available with original file names.

III. Digital Magazine Production Procedures

1. PUBLISH to WEBSITE  –  See Connection Digital Issue Process
2. CONTACT FA OFFICE  – Connection Admin emails ops@foodaddicts.org to notify them that the issue is ready. The FA Office will send an email on the 1st of the month to all digital subscribers.