Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/565367
September / October 2015 6 EDITOR'S COLUMN By Stan Thorne I'm Not Bragging But, WE WON! Each year the PCA has a national newsletter contest. Every region across the country enters. Well, most enter. All submissions are grouped with like-sized regions, so big regions like New York are not competing against smaller markets like Fairbanks, Alaska. There are 13 regions similar in size to the KCRPCA, so they were our competition. Judging is based on a lot of criteria. Two key areas to earn points are monthly editions (we do every other month) and printing (we are online only). I entered 2 online editions and crossed my car keys. The judges had never seen an online magazine submitted like ours. The feed- back I received was ALL POSITIVE. They like the videos. They like the woosh as the page turned. They liked the slide show of photos. One of the judges even said "The Der Sportwagen shows leading edge technology and should be the benchmark for how all other online newsletters should be judged." Our only loss of points - nothing printed and every other month editions. Despite the print and monthly edition loss of points, WE WON 3rd PLACE! A third place podium finish first year out of the gate. And I do mean WE! (I'm just the guy that makes all the good content I receive look nice.) It is a joy to work with so many people that give up their time to contribute to our magazine. Photographers, writers, editors, proof readers, and the constant stream of volunteers that contribute articles and photos when I ask them to. Everyone has helped so much. I do need to give a special thank you to the consistent contributors; Karl's Technical column and Spencer's Clean Corner column. It's nice to count on them to send in new and interesting information in their fields. And last but not least I have to thank my last line of defense, David Lessman and Murray Steeble for their keen eyes. I may make the content I'm given look good but they put the final touches on it. They watch out for page numbering, crossovers, grammar, and a host of other things my English teacher I'm sure taught me at some point. I plan on entering next year. I'd love another podium finish - but now I'm going to bed... it's 1:30 in the AM. - STAN