Any bulletins that are not collected by members on that club night are posted out that evening, including those for prospective members.

As well as the main events, there may be regular events that occur on perhaps a weekly or monthly basis. Details of these events can often be found towards the front of the bulletin. You will generally also see a future events section which will give information about major and members events that are being planned for the months ahead.

The Bulletin thus forms the heart of the organisation of BNHIVC.  The Bulletin is produced and sent for printing by the Bulletin Editor, who is an elected volunteer Officer within the Club Committee.
 

The bulletin will often contain a list of all the Clubs regular weekly or monthly activities and details of any large scale events and activities run occasionally by the Club Committee.  You will also find in the bulletin, details of some of the national activities organised by other IVC Clubs which you can go to.

Inter-Club (AIVC) activities in the Bulletin
All IVC members are welcome to attend events being hosted by other IVCs. Brief details of some of these events can often be found at the back of the bulletin.

If you are interested in events in other areas, you can either look up the Club contact details on this web site or see a member of the committee and they will provide you with a contact name and number for that area. Don’t forget though that you are invited as a guest of that club and if you do wish to go to one of their events, you must contact them before you attend.

How is the bulletin produced?
There are three Club Officers that are involved in the smooth production and distribution of the Club activities Bulletin.  These are the Activities Officer, the Bulletin Editor and the Membership Secretary.

The Activities Officer
It is the Activities Officer's job to encourage members of BNHIVC to organise activities and ensure that we have a balanced programme of events.  To do this, the Activities Officer will normally be at most Club Nights distributing activity forms for members to fill in with their ideas. 

The Activities Officer will collect all the completed activity forms from members and then collate them into date order for the Bulletin Editor. The Activities Officer also maintains a calendar of available dates and will help members to decide when it will be best to hold their event.

It is also the Activities Officer's role to ensure that activities organised by members on the same day and time are complimentary and will not clash.  For example, two house parties on at the same date and time in a small Club will both probably suffer significantly reduced attendance by members.  By encouraging one of the organisers to re-schedule their party, the Club will get two much more successful house parties.

If you wish to make any changes to your event, you must usually inform the Activities Officer by the Friday of the weekend prior to bulletin distribution. This ensures that the Bulletin Editor has the time to include the changes before the Bulletin is prepared and printed for distribution to the members.

The Bulletin Editor
It is the Bulletin Editor who prepares the artwork for the monthly activities Bulletin and organises the printing and collection.  The Bulletin Editor generally relies on the Activities Officer to generate and collate a sufficient supply of activities to produce the monthly Bulletin.

All activity details in the Bulletin will include one or more telephone numbers you can ring to find out more or book yourself in.

The Membership Secretary
It is the Membership Secretary's job to ensure the activities publicised in the monthly bulletin, arrives by post a day or two before the beginning of each month.  He or she does this by making sure all the mailing labels and any renewal letters for inclusion with the Bulletins are printed and available on the Bulletin Distribution Clubnight.  The Membership Secretary will also often hold the Clubs supply of postage stamps and envelopes for the Bulletin Distribution.

What does a Bulletin entry look like?
The activity entries in the Club bulletin will often look something like the example shown below with a description that 'sells' the event to other Club members.   We present the information in this way so the reader can easily see the main items of information such as date, title, location, organiser(s) name and telphone numbers, start time, cost and any book by date.  

Notice that it is considered good practice to write a bulletin entry in the third party form.  This particularly helpful when there is more than one organiser or host for the event.

Saturday 22nd
STAR WARS PARTY                                                               CITY CENTRE
Bring your light sabre and a full bottle to the party of the year at Justine's House in the City Centre from 8.30pm.  A hyperdrive buffet that is out of this world will be provided to power you through the party.  If you can't rely on The Force to get you there, then call Justine for directions.  There will be a small charge of 12 Imperial Dollars (£3 in Earth money) towards the cost of the buffet.  Please book by star date Tuesday 18th to avoid disappointment, as the party will be limited to a maximum of 40 people.
Starship Trooper:      Justine  (99999) 999999        Time:  8.30pm
                                                                                   Cost:   £3  + bottle
                                                                                   Book by:  Tues 18th

For further advice on organising activities in IVC, see our Guide to Organising an Event in the IVC.