Planning the Newsletter

• 1). Plan the basics. You’ll want to give the newsletter a name, decide how often it will be disseminated and how it will be delivered (emailed or printed and delivered to mailboxes), how many newsletters will be sent out to neighbors, what program or programs you will use to create the newsletter and determine who will be in charge of writing or compiling the information in the newsletter, designing the newsletter, printing the newsletter and delivering the newsletter. Create an email address and determine a phone number and/or physical address neighbors can contact in regards to the newsletter.
  
  
• 2). Decide what will go in the newsletter. Make a list of what the newsletters needs to have in it and some other features you want to include; discuss possible topics at a homeowners' association meetings with other individuals or simply ask your neighbors. Items to be included in the newsletter can include city/county law changes, neighborhood bylaw/covenants changes, a calendar for neighborhood or local gatherings/meetings, contact information for residents to submit information for future newsletters, neighborhood news like births and new neighbors and other features like recipes, places of interest, contests (i.e. yard of the month, best holiday decorations) and pictures.
  
  
• 3). Determine the format. You and the other decision makers need to determine the paper size, number of pages you want the newsletter to be, if it will be color or black and white, if it will have pictures or simply words and what timeline it will cover.
  
  
• 4). Gather information. The first neighborhood newsletter might simply be filled with mostly general information about where future items might go and how residents can submit informational items. You can gather information for the first and future issues by talking to your neighbors or local officials, reading information online or in official documents or having neighbors submit information via email, phone, mail or in person.
  
  
• 5). Establish the layout. If you have only one page or multiple pages, you’ll want to determine where the information you gather will be placed on the page(s). Place more important news items at the top of the paper or on the front page of the newsletter, while less important information will be placed at the bottom of the page or near the back of the newsletter, as many individuals might not read the entire newsletter or might want to determine what they need to read first if they only have a certain amount of time to read it.
  
  

Creating the Newsletter

• 1). Create a template. Using whatever publishing or word processing computer software you decide to use to create the newsletter, use a default newsletter template or create your own. Place the newsletter name, contact information and any other data or graphics you plan to have in each newsletter; also create placeholders for sections you plan to have in every issue. Create a color and design scheme and uniform letter sizes and fonts too. Change the template in the future if you need to, as long as you resave it as your template. Every time you have a new issue, having a template ready to go will save you a lot of time.
  
  
• 2). Start filling up the newsletter. After you’ve opened or created your template, start typing or pasting the information you gathered earlier in the file; add headlines, graphics, pictures, information boxes and other data as needed. You also might find it easier after the first issue to simply place information in the newsletter file as you receive it, instead of filling up the newsletter space all at once. You might have to change the font or letter size or create jumps to other pages to get all of the information to fit.
  
  
• 3). Review the newsletter. Once you think you’ve finished the newsletter, leave it alone for a few hours or a day, if you have the time, and come back to it to read over it in case you have any mistakes or let anything out. Have a neighbor or other stakeholder read over it before you hand it out, too.
  
  

Getting the Newsletter Out

• 1). Prepare the document to be delivered. If you are handing out hard copies to the neighborhood residents, print out the copies on your computer or have a local copy shop make the copies, depending on how large and complicated your newsletter is and how many copies you need. If you are e-mailing it out, make sure the document is a PDF, .rtf file or in another format with which most readers will be able to read the newsletter.
  
  
• 2). Deliver the newsletters to neighbors. Email the document, hand deliver or mail out the newsletters to your neighbors. If you are hand delivering the newsletters, you might want to drive or bike around the neighborhood to deliver the newsletters or have several residents take a few copies by walking house-to-house to deliver, depending on how large your neighborhood is.
  
  
• 3). Talk to neighbors as you deliver the newsletters to get their opinions of the newsletter and gather information and ideas for future issues; they also might offer their help.