PRODUCTION
The art and layout work for all early issues of Chatterbox, since No.21, was compiled on an Apple Macintosh using AppleWorks 6. Subsequently a change was made, for a short period, to Canvas X, but this product has sadly lost its development support and maintenance, and now, starting with the 2006 Winter Issue (No. 39), Apple Pages is being used to compile the magazine on an Intel iMac.

Pages allows the importation of page layouts as pdf's, so we are now working towards a system where many people will be able to submit page layouts for inclusion into the master layout (follow the links from our "Submissions" page if you would like to know more about this). Once the compilation is completed and has been proof read, the final copy is transferred to disk as a pdf for transfer and input to our ancient PC, and thence to our printer. We are currently printing (we started with issue No.33), on a Sharp AR-M236 mono laser printer, supplied and maintained by Norcom, Inverness. However, unlike in earlier monochrome issues, the cover pages (since No. 37) are printed separately in colour on a Xerox laser printer by courtesy of Douglas Maclean's office at Highland Business Networks Ltd., Inverness, and these are then hand-stapled to our B&W core using a long-armed stapler.

We appreciate enormously the contribution which Douglas makes to the magazine by providing us with this service, but there are in this process in-built limitations as to where we can use colour (it is not possible to put colour-printed material through our monochrome printer) - and also it would be nice not to have to do all that hand stapling, which is not as secure as machine stapling! So we aim, in the long term, to try to find funding which will allow us to print colour and B&W in one operation. Development of the magazine will then be able to make further progress.

OUR TEAM

Our Admin team…

Trevor Powell is our Chairman, chairing our quarterly meetings.

Margaret Leggatt is our Treasurer, keeping our finances in order.

Claire Divine is our Secretary, responsible for sending copies of our quarterly magazine to the British Library etc. (this applies to everything published in Britain) and she also deals with subscriptions and records and notifies our quarterly Committee Meetings and AGM.

Our Production Team…

Mike Noble is our Editor, doing the design, layout and assembly work.

Fiona Taylor is now taking on the task of Story Editor, and will be responsible for all written content in the magazine (see our "Editorial Team" page).

Linda Bailey is our Advertising Manager, obtaining the crucial advertising revenue on which we depend for our survival.

Trevor Powell is our Print Manager, which means he slaves over a hot print machine. Sandy Mitchell also helps with printing from time to time.

Linda Bailey is also our Distribution Manager, making sure that everyone gets their copy of Chatterbox and that we get the sales money.

Reporters are all of you…and in particular Trevor, Linda and Fiona.

Please contact any of our Committee Members for more information, or with your suggestions -

Claire Divine

Margaret Leggatt

Linda Bailey

Sandy Mitchell

Trevor Powell

Fiona Taylor

Best wishes

Mike Noble, Editor