Road Chatter Wins Newsletter Competition

By Ken & Carolyn Bounds

By now you have probably learned or have read in the V-8 Times that the Road Chatter won first place in the 2007 Early Ford V-8 Club U.S. newsletter competition.  We thank judge Foster Buchtel of the Northern Ohio Regional Group for his selection, but owe this honor to you, our fellow NIRG members.  Without your contributions and stories about you, your cars, and the activities of our fine club there would be no Road Chatter.  We thank you for making this possible.

 Since taking over publication of the Road Chatter in January 2007, Carolyn and Ken have worked hard to make the newsletter interesting and informative to our readers.  We try to keep the content fresh, original, and even fun.  Having been judged as number one the past two years is just the icing on the cake.  We realized in late 2006 that we had some big shoes to fill because our long-time editor, Diane Wrobel, had established quite a legacy.  In case you don’t realize how big that legacy was, let’s take a look at some V-8 Club history.

 In early 1979, barely a year after Diane began publishing the NIRG newsletter, our neighbors to the north in the Badger State group suggested a newsletter competition to Northcentral director Al Egelseer.  Al announced in June 1979 that the national board had accepted the idea at the April board meeting and the competition was on.

 Officially, 12 regional newsletter editors took up the challenge in that first year, 1980.  (Another 30 groups sent their newsletters to the V-8 Times, but did not participate).  When the dust had settled, the winner was declared to be the Rumble Sheet published by Twin Cities Regional Group #46.  Deuce News from Mission Trail Group #32 was second, followed by our own Road Chatter in third.  The judges stated:  “Road Chatter gets our vote for the most infectious ‘editorial style,’ and Diane has been selected as our choice for the ‘Editor-you’d-most-like-to-talk-typewriter-with’ Award.”  The newsletter that started it all, the Badger State’s The Rumble Sheet, was awarded fourth.

 Diane did not rest on her laurels.  Through hard work and dedication, the Road Chatter improved its finish in 1981, scoring second place.  But that was not good enough.  By the third year of competition, Diane had raised the bar to the standard that we have to shoot for to this day.  In 1982, the judges decided that they did not want to simply award 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.  They broke down the judging to four categories:  Best Art Publication, Best Technical Publication, Best Club Activities Publication, and Best Overall – combining the qualities of the previous categories.  Judged #1 in the Best Overall Publication was the Road Chatter!

 The excellence continued in 1983 as the Road Chatter was judged to be in an international tie for best overall with the V-8 Forum from Norway.  During her years as editor, Diane entered the Road Chatter in no fewer than 25 newsletter competitions (there was no contest in 1986).  The Road Chatter was awarded 5th place or better an incredible 14 times along with an honorable mention 8 more times.

 From the beginning, the V-8 Club newsletter contest was intended to judge how well the newsletters fulfilled three purposes:  1) to keep Group members informed of events and activities (news); 2) to share technical data with its readers; and, 3) to entertain via Ford-related stories.  The V-8 Times editor added that he would also be looking at the newsletter’s graphic appeal as well as writing quality and bad spelling.  At the end of the first year of the contest, the three members of the judging committee were unanimous in their praise.  But they also added some minor criticisms:  “The number one weakness of all newsletters – even the V-8 Times – is the scarcity of good, informative technical, or ‘how-to,’ articles.  Clearly there is a need for more of our expert and experienced mechanics and restorers to get literary and share their knowledge and skills with more of their fellow V-8ers.”

 Nearly 30 years later, these observations are still valid.  The Road Chatter is your newsletter and we need your participation and input.  In the past two years we have run a dozen “feature” articles about members and your cars.  We need more of these!  We receive a lot of compliments on these articles and we know there are many members out there who have not been featured yet.  Ron Dopke published the first one in March 1972 – let’s keep ‘em coming. 

 We also need any other materials you can contribute.  These can be on any subject related to our club, our cars, or our members.  Use your imagination.  We also need contributions for our ladies items.  Carolyn comes up with these each month and would love your input.  Finally, that observation from way back in 1981 could not be more pertinent today.  We need your technical articles!  We know you have tips, “how-to” articles, “it worked for me” articles, etc.  Please do not be afraid to send them in.  Your club needs your input!

 The 27th annual newsletter contest is over, but we are already well into the 28th.  While the Road Chatter was judged #1, we hope all NIRG members realize that there are some really terrific newsletters out there.  We hope that the friendly competition achieves what the V-8 Club wanted, “…inspire an upsurge of quality information to V-8ers via the newsletters.”  No matter what awards may come, we just want the Road Chatter to be the best, most informative newsletter possible and strive to maintain the quality standards set many years ago.