Long History of Excellence Documenting Chapter Activities
by Keith Sanders, Off Camera Associate Editor, Chapter Education Chair
After being sent out via email to NATAS members since 2013, the Off Camera newsletter is moving online this month, to the Membership section of the Chapter website emmysf.tv! Members will continue to get it delivered by email every month as a member benefit, but full articles now will be viewable on the website.
Moving Off Camera to the website modernizes the Chapter’s communication methods and has multiple advantages:
– The briefer email to members each month will allow quicker scanning of the newsletter’s content. The email announces publication of Off Camera and provides a link to the stories online.
– More photos, videos, extended details and relevant links are possible with the newsletter being online.
– Updates to stories now can be made online, keeping information current.
– Sharing by NATAS members with other industry professionals is now easier. The story’s individual URL can be copied and pasted in emails to colleagues, onto their own websites, and posted on social media.
– Our Facebook and Twitter pages will carry some Off Camera items, further engaging industry contacts, and adding publicity for Chapter events and programs.
– More views of important, quality and timely news pieces and features is a plus, spreading the compositions of talented contributors.
– Sensitive “members-only” stories can be password-protected so they stay within the Chapter membership. Those passwords will be included in your monthly members-only email delivery.
– The “Search” function on the site will facilitate finding relevant pieces in current and past issues going forward.
The Off Camera publication began over 60 years ago. Volume 1, Number 1, was delivered on April 4, 1956. It started as the TV Guide newsletter to the media, published by Jack Armstrong, who became the Academy’s first Administrator. These quarterly publications, mailed to members, also included a few black and white photos.
The first Chapter newsletter was published in 1963, two years after the national NATAS trustees officially created a Chapter for San Francisco/Northern California on Oct. 6, 1961. The Off Camera name was added sometime between 1965 and 1967. For a short time, between July 1988 and May 1989, Off Camera was part of Cue Magazine.
One of the hallmarks of the award-winning publication is an extensive use of photographs, especially when documenting an Emmy® Awards Gala or a Gold & Silver Circle Induction Luncheon. Color photos were added in 2005. But, a new delivery method would soon increase photo quality: Members were given the choice of receiving Off Camera by e-mail in 2013. By 2016, e-mail became the exclusive delivery method.
The many editors over the years included Alma Carroll, Marianne Lucchesi, and Rose Robertson.
Our newsletter benefits from the participation of writers in all regions of the Chapter. Our publication depends upon the rich reference material that Executive Director Darryl Compton has amassed over the years, including thousands of photographs. Kevin Wing, Off Camera’s editor since 2013, has contributed new features to the publication, and continues to author more than 100 in-depth Gold & Silver Circle profiles since 2007, making them, collectively, one of our most valuable assets. (They are available on our Circles page, by alphabetical order.)
There have been many changes to Off Camera in over six decades of service to our members, but one thing has stayed the same – it remains an important and revealing chronicle of what we do and who we are.
Off Camera Editor: Kevin Wing
Off Camera Associate Editor: Keith Sanders
Chapter Marketing Chair: Patty Zubov
Chapter Executive Director: Darryl Compton
The Off Camera Newsletter Style Guide is here.
Send articles with photos to editor Kevin Wing at kevin@emmysf.com