Tata's Bondala newsletter

[eclectica]

My wife Tata is the director of a program at her work known as Bondala, which consists of three subgroups: La Source, Yakaar, and The Next Step. Her program is part of a larger community services organization called Harlem United (http://www.harlemunited.org/). Her Bondala program released a newsletter last year and is due to release their second one soon. The newsletter gives you a good idea of what her program does. At the top of page 3 of the newsletter is a summary of everything that is done. She designed the newsletter and I am proud of her. Originally she had the digital file in a Microsoft Publisher format, and I had her convert it to a less restrictive Adobe pdf format so that I would be able to view it and save it easily. The newsletter is twelve pages long and is printed on six 11 x 17 inch color pages. You can look at the newletter here:
http://www.tatom.org/documents/Bondala-Newsletter-1-1.pdf

[nicobie]

http://wickedweasel.com/

I do worship women

[Dollar_Girl]

The newsletter looks fabulous and the content is great. The introduction to the newsletter and organisation is so welcoming and warm, but still informative. There is nothing worse than dealing with government departments that are filled with people who are like robots... who sound cold and have the attitude of "what's YOUR excuse" or "i've heard it all before". Every person is dealing with their situation as an individual, and it is important to aknowlege that.

Newsletters are fantastic ideas, because they reach many people. Newsletters that are well written and with a strong purpose, fill people with hope and warmth, that someone is outthere to help and someone does care. It promotes the feeling of community and helps fight personal isolation.

The newsletter your wife designed, really is great... it has everything from a warm welcoming introduction, to smiling faces of people that are there to help, and even recipes..

some newsletters are designed in a way where u pick it up and just forget about it, before u read it... that one is designed in a way where i looked at it and started reading it straight away because it looked genuinly itneresting.

hope to see the future volumes also

[badfish_76]

I also really like the diversity of the content. Looks nice and modern as well. I liked some of the things in there that seemed to be meant as messages of insiration. She has done a wonderful job!

[nicobie]

butt

I still worship women.

And and am not a hypocrite about it either.

[Dollar_Girl]

i worship women too. More for their strengths, than for their bodies.

I think women get a bad rap for being emotional and irrational, but women have far more emotional strength than men.

[nicobie]

Men have to start some where....

[nicobie]

"Grow old along with me

The best is yet to be

The last of life for which the first was made"

[nicobie]

"Grow old along with me

The best is yet to be

The last of life for which the first was made"

If u think i'm posting about YOU........


Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa

wad a dillweed

[Criminal_Sniper]

i think women have great emotional strength but do not know how to deal with men always
and vice versa

women have a greater connection with the earth and their environments

but men are better at exploring new ones

women life familiar more

but we both have female and male aspects

some have one stronger than the other

homosexuals actually have stronger amounts of male hormones when in the womb

why are men attractred to women? they are close to them

the familiar aspect of the female side

just some thoughts
would love a womans opinions though
what i say are not fixed ideals but perhaps will give some insight

[eclectica]

Here is the second newsletter:
http://www.tatom.org/documents/Bondala-Newsletter-2-2.pdf

Tata made the design for the first newsletter. For the second newsletter, she had someone else do the design. All that she submitted to the designer was the pictures and the articles, and she consulted with the person. She also submitted the first newsletter as a guideline. The second newsletter has a more professional look, as envisioned by the designer. But it may have lost some of its warmth. Tata is in the process of working on a third newsletter with a different designer than the one who made the second one. She was intending to release a newsletter four times a year, but it appears that one is coming out instead at the rate of twice a year.

It took me a while to get a copy of the second newsletter from her. For her first newsletter, she had the newsletter saved and designed as a Microsoft Publisher file, which I could not open. I had her then export it to an Adobe pdf file so that it would not become locked up in a proprietary format. You can see that the quality of the images in the first one is better than the second one, and the first one is a good enough quality to be printed. This is because whatever the proprietary program that the designer used in the second one, which I think was QuarkXPress (a $700 program which her organization does not have), did not export it to pdf format with a good quality or the designer did not use the right settings when exporting it to pdf and sending it to her. When you look at page 15 you can see how terrible the images look. The printings for the second one came out okay because the original proprietary file was used at the printer rather than the shitty exported pdf file as you see here. But unfortunately Tata herself does not have a decent printable digital version of this second newsletter. To think that after paying thousands of dollars for the design work and printing of the second newsletter, that she still does not a printable digital copy of her bulletin, is outrageous. This is why open standards and open formats are so important and should be demanded by all customers.

I'm looking at the Quark copyright progaganda (http://www.quark.com/about/legal/anti_piracy.html) page and it has this quote:

When you purchase a music CD or a movie DVD, you do not become the owner of that music's or film's copyright. The same is true when you purchase software. What you purchase is the right to use the software under the guidelines defined by the copyright owner.

But this situation brings up an interesting question, which is: what recourse does Tata have now that the work of her Bondala organization, the second newsletter, is locked in a proprietary format? Does that mean Quark owns her second newsletter, or does she? The fact that her work is locked in their format means to me that they stole it from her, and if she "steals" it back by getting a pirated copy of their software in order to do so, that is justifiable.

[Dollar_Girl]

it's really fantastic that you take the time to post links to the newsletters. They are fantastic... but I really disike the lay out on the second newslatter. The first is so 'warm' (as you stated) and readable... makes the community it represents feel more inviting and approachable. I feel as though a newsletter does more than just inform people... it helps pull people from isolation. can't wait to read the next newsletter. Do they plan on having 4 newsletters published next year?

I know after I read my brisbane city newspaper, which is a free paper that is circulated through out brisbane city & surrounding suburbs, I feel inspired to get things on track... makes me feel braver, when I read of community events, and see faces and articles of fellow Brisbane people doing great things in my City.

[eclectica]

It's good timing for your inquiry on the next newsletter. The Bondala Bulletin was printed about a week ago. I just read it yesterday myself. I have a copy of it in pdf format here:
http://www.tatom.org/documents/Bondala-Newsletter-2-3.pdf

It seems to have recaptured the same warmth that the first issue had. That is because a new designer worked on it for this third issue. The colors are nice and so is the font. The second issue had a corporate feel and that reflected the personality of the designer, who is mainly interested in money and sports.

While Tata has said that she would like to release four newsletters a year, it looks more like two or three a year actually get released.

Sometimes I wish that Tata were a member here or were to take more of an interest in this forum. But maybe it's a good thing for me as otherwise I would have to "behave", and instead of being Herr Dionysian Wolf I would instead be the Tamed Apollonian Poodle.