Toward a Future Vision
Greetings.
Allow me to introduce myself. I am NAA’s new senior vice president of technology, your chief technical representative at the Association. I am honored to have been promoted into this position, and I am humbled by the faith that the Executive Committee and our president, John Sturm, have shown in my abilities.
I am also energized by having the word "interim" lifted from my title. As long as that word was there, my colleagues in NAA’s technology department and I have been in sort of a holding pattern, unable to do any strategic thinking or planning. One of my first acts in my new role was to schedule an off-site meeting with our department to figure out how we can serve you better.
Of course, we can’t do this type of planning very well in a vacuum, so we will be seeking your input aggressively in the coming weeks and months.
As we look to the future, it is my strong desire that we build on the good things we’ve done together over the past few years. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what we’ve been doing–developing important industry standards, shepherding vital industrywide technology initiatives, and launching valuable new communications tools such as the annual Newspaper Operations SuperConference and TechNews magazine. I like to think that NAA’s name recognition and value to the industry have grown a great deal during this period.
However, we live in a time of unprecedented change. We must constantly challenge and re-evaluate our work plan. We must continue to adapt.
In particular, I think the technology department needs to become more of an industry resource than we have been in the past, or maybe a different type of resource. We need to be easier to contact, quicker to respond, and much more interactive. And we need to respond to you in whatever way you need the information–phone, fax, World Wide Web or e-mail.
Perhaps one way to do this is to use some of the technology that is presented in our own conferences. Maybe we can use the new computer-based "knowledge management" tools to aggregate the collective knowledge of the industry and deliver it in a fast and easy-to-use manner. We’ve never had this type of formal system to collect and disseminate valuable information.
We cannot do it overnight. It will take concentrated effort and resources over an extended period. However, as we make the effort, I believe we will be able to continuously improve our services and our interaction with you, our valued members.
Tom Croteau
Senior Vice President of Technology
SuperConference Coverage
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Facts
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You’ll find selected stories from the 2000 NAA Newspaper Operations SuperConference, held Jan. 23-28 in Miami Beach, throughout this issue of TechNews. Complete gavel-to-gavel coverage also is available on our World Wide Web site, www.naa.org/technews. Our coverage is based on reporting by Editorial Director Terence Poltrack; Editor Clark Robinson; Associate Editor Mark Toner; and Kissimmee, Fla., free-lance writer Bob Sims.