•Make one person editor in chief, responsible for setting deadlines, writing or editing articles, and laying out the information in a readable format.
•Have fun with the title. The Waltons of Boise, Idaho, who write their newsletter every Sunday night before they go to bed, titled it "News to Snooze To." The Stepakof-Fays of Cedar Park, Texas, who have a young daughter named Hannah, called theirs "This Week in Hannah."
•Try publishing special issues for holidays (New Year's, April Fools', and so on) or issues dedicated to an older relative, a new baby, or the family pets.
•Include a kids' section, with games, drawings, and stories written or dictated by the children. Don't skimp on the photos. Jazz up your newsletter with photos (then reproduce the pages using a color photocopier). Don't forget funny captions.
•Send a round-robin letter. This isn't exactly a newsletter, but it serves the same purpose (and it doesn't require any editing). Write a letter full of your family's news and send it to another branch of the family. That family then adds a letter to the packet and sends it on to the next branch of the family. Once the round-robin letter has come full circle, you read all the letters, remove your old one, write a new one, and send it on.
•Make a copy of each newsletter and keep it in a three-ring binder as a record of family history.
