RuFES Progress
Posted: Thursday, November 5
On Nov 5, 2009, at 11:24 AM, Eric Ohrtman wrote the following e-mail to the publisher of the Statesman-Examiner:
Chris,
I was part of a small conference in Seattle this week regarding Rural Poverty Education. In coming back our primary focus is financial education. Our hope is to create saturation with flyers, posters, handouts given to Rural Resources, DSHS, and Food Bank clients, presentations given to Rotary, Kiwanis, and the Chamber, public service announcements via the radio, and a series of articles in the Statesman Examiner. Our primary focus will be the nine most predatory lending practices, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, creating a banking relationship, and free/reduced cost tax preparation.
Our first thought was a 10-12 part series highlighting each predatory lending practice and then giving advice regarding those positive financial practices. Frankly, that's too much. So, our hope is that we could run a 4 part series (three detailing the "Nasty Nine" and one highlighting those positives) that could occur between now and Christmas given that this is the time during which more families fall victim to financial predation than any other. Your space restrictions, word limits, requirements, questions, etc. are completely agreeable. I just hope we can do this.
Let me know and Terri Elders will get cranking on the production of the first article within minutes. Thanks!
Pr. Eric Ohrtman
St. Paul Lutheran Church
295 E. Dominion Ave
Colville, WA 99114
(509) 684-2432
Colville City Council Member At-Large
Cluster J Representative EWAID Synod Council
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Chris Cowbrough (Managing Editor/Publisher) replied:
Eric--I know the boss here at the Exterminator. He is entirely amenable and agreeable to whatever you want to propose/submit. I would suggest, from a newspaper standpoint and from the standpoint of read-ability, that we go with more installments to the series instead of longer stories over a shorter duration of time. Can we get everything that needs to be covered in a six to eight installment series? Are you sure that four installments are enough? Don't worry about space considerations. You've got all the space you need here. My thought is that if each installment is, say, more than a couple pages long, you might start losing your readership. Just a though. --Chris
