Workshops for becoming a true Observer

The Heights Observer, published by FutureHeights, is about engagement: helping to keep residents of University Heights and Cleveland Heights informed, and providing a platform to actively share information about community issues and organizations.

It’s a chicken-and-egg proposition: The greater the engagement, the more contributions the Observer receives—and the better informed people will be.

I observe two common barriers to this process:

  1. People don’t want to take the time.
  2. People don’t know how, or don’t feel qualified, to contribute.

There’s not much the Observer can do about the first barrier, except perhaps to convince people that sharing their knowledge doesn’t take a lot of time. We’re addressing that, and tackling the second barrier in depth with a series of Tuesday-evening workshops to help residents figure out what, and how, to contribute information to the Observer.

All of the workshops are at the CH-UH Main Library on Lee Road. They are free and open to the public, though we are asking people to call in reservations as a courtesy, at 216-320-1423 (the office of FutureHeights and the Observer). You may attend as few or as many as you want.

I’ll be at all of them, and hope to see you there.

Tuesday, Sept. 21: Help Yourself, Serve the Community. How to Use the Heights Observer to benefit your team, club or organization, and how to submit information. 7:00-8:30 p.m., Meeting Room A.

Tuesday, Oct. 5: You Too Can Write the News. Basic reporting and writing for community journalists. 7:00-8:30 p.m., Meeting Room B.

Tuesday, Oct. 12: How to Edit (for Community Journalists) Why, what, and how editors do what they do. 7:00-8:30 p.m., Meeting Room B.

Tuesday, Nov 23: Photography for Community Journalists. How to take better newspaper photos, and how to submit them for publication in the Heights Observer. 7:00-8:30 p.m., Meeting Room B.

Tuesday, Dec. 7: The Media Meltdown: What Happened to Newspapers and Magazines, and what’s next. 7:00-8:30 p.m., Meeting Room B.

To be rescheduled: What's the News: How to be an Educated News Consumer, by freelance journalist and former Plain Dealer columnnist Afi-Odelia Scruggs.

Bob Rosenbaum, Chairman of the Observer's editorial advisory committee and member of the FutureHeights board, writes this column to provide transparency and understanding about the Observer. Send questions to bob@therosenbaums.net.

You can write for the Observer by registering at the Observer Member Center: http://heightsobserver.org/members

Bob Rosenbaum

Bob Rosenbaum is a Cleveland Heights resident and chairman of the FutureHeights Observer committee.

Read More on Opening the Observer
Volume 3, Issue 9, Posted 10:55 AM, 08.23.2010