I will be away a few days at a USCG Auxiliary training conference. Much of the last few weeks was devoted to preparing for this because I will be co-presenting at four one-hour training sessions. The last hour I am actually on my own. We will be teaching how to write news releases and articles, how to respond to reporters during TV and radio interviews, and how to design, edit and prepare unit newsletters. The last- how to do newsletters- is what I will be doing alone.

I am proud to report that the news magazine I edit for the Auxiliary won First Place in the USCG Auxiliary National Publications Award contest. We try hard to do a professional presentation despite the fact that our submitters- members of the Auxiliary- are all amateur writers. We do not re-write. We simply edit grammar, punctuation and spelling, so a few articles read a bit awkwardly. Some members are actually good writers. Hopefully after this weekend, a few more members will understand what we are looking for and how to write an article.

I have a dog sitter so that the house will not be empty and the dogs will not be alone. My poor puppies go nuts when I am away and I miss them too. I look forward to this weekend but I will be happy when it is over too!