Photo Essay: Printed Monday Memo Makes History (Bin)

Date: 2/28/2002
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253

This issue of the Monday Memo is the first completely paper-less one in the long history of the campus newsletter (except for printed copies being mailed to 25 retirees).

While a few employees have expressed concern about the demise of the printed version (arrangements have been made for those without access to email), the mood of those involved with actually producing and distributing the old version seems to be one of exhilaration (and the willows don't have to weep for their fellow trees).

THE LAST MEMO -- Dona Mae Skinner (left), reproduction operator II, is gleeful as she holds up the last Monday Memo she will ever have to duplicate. Skinner spent 18 long, hot years in a back office of University Printing duplicating 1,200 copies of the Monday Memo each week – a total of about one million copies. When asked how she felt about the change, her response? "Wa-hoo!"

THE LONG TREK BACK -- Monday Memo editor Wendel Sloan (right) struggles against the wind at the halfway point of the long trek from University Printing to the Administration Building with the last heavy batch of printed Monday Memos.

Sloan (or, whenever the weather was nasty, student assistant Shane Brown) made the long dolly-laden trips to University Printing each week to bring back the heavy hot-off-the-presses Memos. For those who think the sidewalks or treacherous in icy weather, try negotiating them while pulling the equivalent of a box-loaded dogsled.

When asked how he felt about no longer having an excuse for the leisurely wind-strewn strolls across campus pulling the red metal dogsled, Wendel said, "Should I ever entertain the notion of entering Alaska's Iditarod dog races, I will miss the training. But, otherwise, the cost of Ben-Gay was pinching my leisure-time budget."

BREAK FROM BACK-BREAKING WORK – Editor
Sloan (left) has to take a rest break before he can complete the long cross-campus journey with the heavy dolly of Memos.


DRAFT NOTICE FOR STUDENTS – Betsy Chavez (far right), information coordinator in Communication Services, had the unenviable task each Friday morning of lassoing enough students to sort and slap address labels on the Monday Memo for all three campuses and off-campus recipients-a task for which some of the students claimed that even student-hire money offered no defense against charges of unfair labor practices. Unlucky students (above, L-R) Britt Hochhausler and Colleen Wright get drafted.

When asked how she felt about no longer being charged with the mind-numbing task, Betsy said, "It will definitely make my relationship with the students safer. Actually, I will kind of miss the printed Monday Memo, sort of like when someone hits your big toe with a sledgehammer to make you forget about a headache."
 

THE LAST LEG IN THE JOURNEY -- Fred Chino (left) strains with both arms to lift the heavy load of Monday Memos as they begin the last leg of their distribution journey across campus and beyond. The new electronic Monday Memo can be distributed simply by lifting one finger on a mouse.

Chino, delivery expeditor for the University Post Office, and his assistants had the unenviable task of picking up and delivering the awkward sacks each week year after year – kind of unwilling Santas delivering the same gift every week to the same unsurprised households. After awhile, the milk and cookies dry up.

When asked how he felt about being relieved of the monotonous back-breaking responsibility, Fred said, "I feel that my chances of making it to Acoma--my sky city hometown--for retirement, without having to draw disability first, have skyrocketed."





So, Eastern New Mexico University says goodbye to the printed Monday Memo. While some may briefly lament its passing, most will not.

As they say, all things must pass--including the good, the bad, the ugly, and the somewhere in-between.