Families don’t seem to have the same connections today as they did in the past. I’m certain that we can blame our hurried 21st century lifestyle for a lot of this. However, if you are looking for a way to keep your family connected, you may want to consider beginning a family newsletter.
Family newsletters typically include things such as current happenings (births, weddings, deaths, etc.), family recipes, photos, contact information, and upcoming events. It may also be fun to spotlight a different family member in each issue. Ask your family members to send you information they would like to see included in the newsletter.
Newsletters can be created on any word processing or desktop publishing software. If you are unsure about how to create family newsletter template, you could do a quick online search and come up with pages and pages of ideas. If you intend to send the newsletters through the mail, select a quality paper to print them on, such as nice resume or brochure paper.
As I just mentioned, you can deliver your newsletter to family members through snail mail (the postal service). However, if the cost of postage, paper, and ink are an issue, you may want to consider sending the newsletters via e-mail. However, if you decide to go with e-mail delivery, you will want to make sure that a majority of your family has email and that they can download the newsletter in the format that you’ve created it in. You could also offer both delivery methods and allow your family to choose which option works best for them.
The frequency in which you publish your family newsletters will also need to be considered. Some people prefer to send them weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. I recommend publishing them quarterly or yearly since anything more frequent may quickly overwhelm you.
Family newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your relatives, but remember that once you begin a family newsletter, there is no looking back. Make sure you really want to do this before you get started, as it does require quite a bit of time and energy.