I’m just back from FLIBS where we covered a few things including having a couple of terrific speakers on health care issues and how they will affect the indpendent contractor – that’s most of us.

Writing Contest

I’m happy to report that all 17 categories for the BWI Annual Writing Contest were fully funded by sponsors and I’d like to welcome the newest two – Thetford Marine and Couplemate Trailer Parts.  We had help from two members in securing these sponsors, Wanda Kenton Smith of Kenton Smith Marketing and Kelly Flory of Martin Flory Group – please thank them for bringing their clients into to BWI tent.  Look for the contest brochure on line at bwi.org later this month and a hard copy in your mailbox shortly thereafter. Remember that entries are due (not postmarked) at BWI HQ by December 15. Read more »

Hello and hope all of you are enjoying a summer of good boating. Personally so far, I’ve enjoyed a summer of boat work but that’s not all bad either. I’ve got three bits of news this month so here we go.

First, I’m happy to announce the first of our educational webinars is scheduled for mid-July on the topic of what it takes to start your own blog so you can highlight your work and potentially get more freelance assignments. Past president, Kim Kavin, has volunteered and created content for a presentation entitled “How to start a blog for about $10” in which she discussed all the steps to getting started online from acquiring a URL to managing your Google Analytics. Read more »

I came across three great examples recently of entities that are bucking the down trend and getting things right in the marine industry. I think it’s worth discussing how these unrelated efforts are finding common ways of getting things done.

In each case I found the entities becoming pragmatic, cutting the hype and listening to boater and industry insider feedback on what’s important when time and funds are tight. Each group shed years of conventional wisdom and became agile and able to act and provide a fresh approach – they were willing to change. Finally, I noticed the value of creativity and how thinking in a new way suddenly made things possible. Read more »

In our last newsletter I outlined three points the board will be focusing on this year and one of those was increasing educational opportunities for the membership. I’m happy to announce that we will kick off the BWI Continuing Education Series with new funds donated by Dometic Marine who generously provided $1,000 last week to improve the lives of our writers.

Based on the member survey that was conducted last year, our journalists are interested in mastering social networking and new technologies, improving existing websites and blogs or learning how to launch a new site, and creating more material for online audiences. The business climate is also reflected in our interest in copyright laws, contracts, and legal issues like setting up an LLC to both protect our work and our assets.

Although the first topic is still up for debate, we have decided that we can probably create 2 webinars to start, with the first one debuting in late spring.

The beauty of webinars is twofold: 1) Once a webinar is created, members can log in to participate on their own schedule and/or view the material more than once, and 2) it gives us a chance to highlight a presenting sponsor like Dometic who also sponsors a category in our annual writing contest.

Dometic Marine is delighted to support this project,” says Doug Curtis, Director of Marketing. “The marine journalist community is experiencing a sea change due to electronic media and we wanted to lend a helping hand to help everyone navigate this new digital world.”

Continuing education must be a hallmark of any responsive professional organization and we plan to introduce new topics and possibly even podcasts as a delivery mechanism. Thus far, we’ve had “in person” educational efforts like the appearance of intellectual property and copyright attorney Leslie Lott at the Miami show a couple years ago. Now we plan to expand the topics and the way we communicate them to our members.

We need to keep two things in mind. First, we rely on the expertise of our members to create the content and the delivery of each educational presentation. So please, if you can help with any of the topics above (or others) contact me or any board member to discuss.

Second, we have a lot more topics than we have funds so please help spread the word to potential sponsors who would like to have their message highlighted in front of almost 400 marine journalists.

I’m glad we’re on our way with our first goal and I look forward to your feedback on our efforts.
In our last newsletter I outlined three points the board will be focusing on this year and one of those was increasing educational opportunities for the membership.

I’m happy to announce that we will kick off the BWI Continuing Education Series with new funds donated by Dometic Marine who generously provided $1,000 last week to improve the lives of our writers.

Based on the member survey that was conducted last year, our journalists are interested in mastering social networking and new technologies, improving existing websites and blogs or learning how to launch a new site, and creating more material for online audiences. The business climate is also reflected in our interest in copyright laws, contracts, and legal issues like setting up an LLC to both protect our work and our assets.

Although the first topic is still up for debate, we have decided that we can probably create Read more »

I sit down to write this, my first letter as BWI president, on a chilly morning when my furnace has gone out, and yes, in February you need one of those even in Southern California. The cold reminds it’s still early in the year and we have much to do as 2010 unwinds.

I had the privilege of taking office in Miami which, weirdly, was not much warmer. I took over for Kim Kavin, our tireless leader for the past three years who had accomplished much during a difficult time in our industry.

She kept communications flowing to members and she definitely made BWI look better with a redesign of our logo, newsletter and website. Now, I think about how to keep BWI relevant, timely and visible. We have a very strong board this year with one new member and a reelected veteran and we have already re-examined the committees and how to best push each effort forward. Read more »

Voting is not officially completed yet, but the early results are in. All indications are that we will, as hoped by the Executive Committee, inaugurate Zuzana Prochazka as BWI’s newest president in a couple of weeks.

Thus, after three years, this is my final President’s Message. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of the Directors and members who have supported and helped me, and—at the risk of inspiring drama—I’d like to single out a special few. Read more »

Devastated. That’s the only word I can conceive to describe the way I felt when I learned that Northeast Boating magazine will cease publication on December 31.

My first article for this award-winning regional ran in January 2005, when the magazine was still known as Offshore. The piece was called “Subtle Splendor,” and it included a 2,000-word narrative plus a 1,000-word info box about cruising in Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

The story and its rich, accompanying photography ran across eight pages within the 136-page issue. My last article for Northeast Boating appears in this month’s issue. It’s called “Sweet Spot” and talks about cruising in Beach Haven, New Jersey, with the same word and page counts—only packaged within a magazine that has 56 pages total.

Northeast Boating was never my best-paying gig as a freelancer, but it was always one of my favorites. Former Editor Betsy Frawley Haggerty, followed by current Editor Tom Richardson, always fought to preserve the space that writers needed to develop narratives, bring characters to life, incorporate dialogue, and, in general, do more than just spout boat test statistics at readers.

They encouraged me to write creatively, to write completely, and to write well. This magazine actually let writers be writers—and it won a heck of a lot of awards over the years for sticking to its editorial guns.

It’s hard to know whether to fully blame the title’s demise on the continuing recession. Obviously, when the total page count is a mere 56, ad revenue is all but gone. There is no doubt that advertisers stopped being able to (or perhaps wanting to?) support a regional magazine filled with long-form journalism.

Still, I can’t help but wonder whether and how much the rise of the Web as a primary information resource contributed to this magazine’s end. Long-form journalism just doesn’t seem to be the main attraction anymore for readers. Those of us who write for websites know that 300 or 400 words tends to be the maximum that readers will tolerate (or perhaps enjoy?) on any given day. The way I would re-search and write for Northeast Boating would be considered insane by my online editors today.

My fingers, when not typing out staccato sentences full of search engine-friendly phrases these days, are crossed for Richardson and his colleagues, who are attempting to find financing that will keep NortheastBoating. net in operation. I hope they can find a way to marry the style of journalism that made the magazine so great and its writers so fulfilled with the style of reading that is fast becoming the norm. Godspeed. To us all.

–Kim kavin, BWI President