Hi. My name is Bob Goodman and I am the volunteer newsletter editor for the California Men’s Gatherings. We call it “Binky’s List” in memory of one of our most beloved elders, Al-Binky Hoch.
What is Binky’s List? Besides official CMG news and events, we also publish notices directly from our members and readers. Have you wished you could use the CMG mailing list to tell men about the stuff you think they’d be interested in? Well you’ve come to the right place, because this newsletter goes out to EVERY email address in our database.
Tell us about things like community news, events of interest in your own area, statewide, or online, workshops you are promoting, items you‘re selling, apartments for rent, jobs wanted or offered, community links, marketplace classifieds, and even personal notices. Almost anything you can think of.
We hope you enjoy what you read and we are excited to see what you have to offer. All the details you need to know are below. Thanks for contacting us about putting a notice in our monthly newsletter.
Here are the Submission Guidelines:
1. Any Item of General Interest to the CMG community, including things like:
● news
● events of interest in your area
● items for sale
● apartments for rent
● jobs wanted or offered
● community links
● personals/classifieds
2. What We Won’t Publish. This list is pretty short. We’ll certainly take a look at any offerings you send in for our community. Keep them in good taste, keep them legal, and keep them in line with CMG values and principles.
3. A Single Paragraph Description of your listing. Keep it around 75-100 words (or fewer). If it’s too long, either I will edit it (and that might not be pretty), or I will send it back for you to re-edit it so you can get it just where you like it. On the other hand, if it’s only a few words, you might not get the response you want from our readers. So tell us in a few sentences what you want us to know. See existing items already listed in our current or previous Binky’s List and you’ll get the idea. The third possibility is that since I am a volunteer, I won’t have time to do any of these things and it just won’t get in. So best to keep it in the right length range to start with.
4. Photos Not Required. I will always come up with an image to go with your notice. I’ll find some cute little clipart or photo, or snag something from your website for you. But if you have an image you would like me to include, let me know that when you send in your text. Then I can get back to you with a direct email address to which to send your image. Keep in mind that the final image will be about 1-1/2 inch square in the posting. So things like small text won’t be readable and I likely won’t use it. Examples: Give me CLOSE UPS of your item for sale, the face of a person, or the graphic logo for your event. We reserve the right to modify a submitted image for readability, or whim.
5. Your Whole Name. When you submit something to the List, your email address alone is not enough. Sorry, I don’t always know who you are from your email address. And I don’t have time to research it. I need to know your whole name with your submission, but you tell me if you want to list just your first name in the notice.
6. Contact Information. How do you want men to contact you? Website, email, phone? Your choice, and that’s what we will put in the notice.
7. Location. Please let me know where your event is happening, where your item is selling, or where your service is offered, so I can put that in the heading of your notice. This helps men scan down the list and catch things in their general area. If you’re near a big city, please list that rather than a small berg, because some men might not know where Fruitdale is (a suburb of San Jose, it turns out). Examples: Greater Los Angeles, Sacramento, Palm Springs, San Diego, Bay Area.
8. Length of Run. Generally, “CMG Marketplace” notices will be listed in only one issue. This keeps our publication accurate, up-to-date, and fresh. If this is an ongoing thing, say a series of workshops that last for several months, or a personal ad, or a for-sale notice that you want to keep running, you need to be proactive and contact me after each issue to tell me to keep it running. If I don’t hear from you before the monthly submission deadline, it is likely the notice will be dropped. The same applies to notices we put in our “Events/Items of Interest” section, but they will only be listed for a maximum of three months. “Links of Interest” to other local groups (at the bottom of our posting) will stay in unless you tell me to remove them or your website URL goes dead.
9. Publishing Deadlines. Binky’s List goes out the first of every month. As you might imagine, things can get busy right before then. Therefore I’m asking for all submissions to arrive to me no later than the 24th. That includes letting me know if you want to keep something running. If you miss an issue, sorry about that. We’ll try to get you in the next one. So be smart and send in your stuff sooner rather than later.
10. Some Limits and a Request. An individual or organization may post up to two submissions per monthly issue and, additionally, one “Link of Interest” per issue. In order to prioritize CMG Gatherings and avoid any confusion, Binky’s List will not run notices for non-CMG events that include overnight stays. We ask individuals or organizations that submit a link to their website to reciprocally post a link to the CMG website (https://thecmg.org).
11. We Reserve the Right… As the editor, I get to edit. Edit in and edit out. If something is not appropriate, it’s not going in. Like it says in the restaurants, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
I hope this information is helpful. Please make sure your submission includes everything listed above so you make the next issue.
Happy reading,
Bob Goodman
Send your submission to Bob:
Contact Binky’s List