A staff newsletter is one of the most powerful and creative tools an organization can use to communicate with its employees. Do you help produce one for your organization? If so, what makes it outstanding or unique? What tools and sources do you use to pull it together?

Tell me about it, so I can include your story in an upcoming issue of Personal Report. Either post here or e-mail me directly at admineditor@nibm.net. (If you post on the Forum, make sure you leave your e-mail address, so I can contact you.)

Alice Bumgarner
Editor
Personal Report for the Administrative Professional

Question: Has anyone put together a group program for the administrative assistants at their company to promote communication, education, training, etc? I have been asked to organize a quarterly meeting and I need a starting point. If anyone has done this and has suggestions or ideas, I would greatly appreciate the help!  -- Anonymous

Question: Has anyone put together a group program for the administrative assistants at their company to promote communication, education, training, etc? I have been asked to organize a quarterly meeting and I need a starting point. If anyone has done this and has suggestions or ideas, I would greatly appreciate the help!  -- Anonymous

Question: I am a fast reader, which is an advantage in many areas, but proofreading is not one of them! I have no problem with grammar and punctuation rules, but I seem to miss at least one typo in every document! Thanks for any tips anyone can share.  -- Marilyn, St. Louis

Question: I work with a person who has recently been promoted into the management ranks. My problem is that she over explains the simplest thing. I hate to interact with her because it is time-consuming. How can I handle this situation? Last week, she started to go into a detailed explanation and I cut her off by asking what the answer was. FYI, she isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.  -- Karin

Question: How can I think on my feet when talking to the boss, without looking rather inept?  -- Anonymous

Question: I am the office manager for an HVAC (heating, ventilation & air conditioning) company, We need field people, mechanics and helpers, that type of thing.  The type of workers we are looking for really don’t attend job fairs much.

I have tried advertising for help everywhere: small newspapers, large newspapers, the Web and tech schools.   Does anyone out there have any scathingly brilliant ideas on how to reach this type of worker to recruit them?  I would appreciate ANY suggestions.

Thanks so much.  -- Kelly Hogue, Warminster, PA

Question: We are currently having difficulty getting new sales people.  We have placed ads in a major newspaper and a more local newspaper.  One of the ads also came with an online ad.  I even placed an ad with a local state office.  We are looking for new and better ways to advertise our current job openings in the sales department.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to what’s out there that works?  -- Anonymous

Question: I have taken on the task of creating an internal newsletter.  We have 14 employees (4 professional engineers, 7 consultants and 3 admin staff) located in 7 different states.  Our internal communication is very weak due to workload and the geographical distance.   Our company consisted of 5 employees in the same office until 2 years ago.  I feel that an e-mailed newsletter would be a good way to communicate with everyone.

I created the first newsletter in Dec 2004. The content varied, with Christmas funnies, a calendar of coming events, family information, a note from the president and a few other things along this line.  There wasn't much response.  However, the response I did receive was negative: "The newsletter was not informative."  I spent approximately 3 weeks (on/off) developing the newsletter in Microsoft Publisher.  I'm not giving up yet but would appreciate any advise from someone who performs this task.  -- Tressie Escamilla, Richardson, Tex.

Question: It's "annual review" time in our office.  Each year, my supervisor asks me to write my own review and then we discuss it before he writes the final version.  Since I know my job so well, I work independently and require no supervision.  One of the questions on the evaluation form asks for "outstanding accomplishment(s) since the last review."  I've been working at the same job for 27 years and am running out of adjectives to describe how great a job I do.  There's nothing "new" to report and I'm concerned that I won't get the raise I think I deserve.  How do you handle your annual evaluation without repeating the same things year after year?  -- Anonymous

Question: “How can I get my boss to stop committing to things (such as speaking engagements) that he can’t cover? I’ve tried to convince him to commit someone from the organization, not himself specifically, but to no avail.

“Alternatively, how do I gracefully decline something he has committed to when he can’t make it at the last minute? We try to offer someone as a replacement, but that doesn’t always work.”  -- Anonymous