Update contributing guide for newsletter

Author: choldgraf

contribute/newsletter.md

@@ -1,46 +1,79 @@
-# Monthly blog newsletter
+# Guide to the monthly newsletter
 
-Once a month we send a newsletter to our mailing list summarizing the most important topics in the blog. This gives people a higher-signal place to find out what we've been up to.
+This is a guide to creating the monthly 2i2c community update. We frame this update as a "dispatch": a short, proactive, and curated update on our most important work. It should not be exhaustive - only cover the most important points.
 
-Here's the rough structure that our newsletter should follow:
+## Guiding principles
 
-```
-# [Most important benefit, outcome, or takeaway for readers] | 2i2c [Month Year] Community Update 
+Our goal is to **be transparent**, **demonstrate expertise**, and **demonstrate impact** with our community by proactively sharing our work. Here are some guiding principles we follow:
 
-[Intro]
-[1-2 sentences: what it is + why it matters, in plain language, conversational tone]
-In [Month] we focused on [big theme that stands out and major takeaways]. We [accomplishment with link], [accomplishment with link], and [accomplishment with link]. Here's what stood out:
-[/Intro]
+* **Mission-driven:** We are a non-profit, not a SaaS company. Our updates reflect this "partnership" model. We celebrate sustainability (like new members) as a community win.  
+* **Blog-first:** Our blog is the content engine. We write individual posts there first. The monthly email *curates and distributes* this content; it doesn't create new content from scratch.  
+* **Human-centered:** Use a personal, direct voice (e.g., `From: Chris from 2i2c`).  
+* **Utility-focused:** Be useful and scannable. Respect our reader's time.  
+* **Consistent:** A "good enough" update sent on schedule is better than a "perfect" one sent late. This and our blog are our community "heartbeat."
 
-[Highlights]
-## [Category]
+## Monthly workflow
 
-### [Title of Featured Post in category (1-3 total)]
+Follow this to create the newsletter each month.
 
-[Description - 1-3 sentences describing what happened, why it matters, and any important information a user would want to know.]
+### Curate
 
-[IF image]
+* Gather all blog posts from the last 30 days.  
+* Define the **Monthly Theme** in one sentence (e.g., "This month was all about sustainability.").  
+* Select the **"Lead Story"** (our biggest win).  
+* Select 2-4 **"Featured Stories"** that map to our [core value proposition](https://compass.2i2c.org/organization/value-proposition/) and [strategy](https://compass.2i2c.org/organization/strategy/). Here are a few key areas, each with their own `category:` in blog metadata:
+  * **Community Impact:** (e.g., A research group's success, a great workshop).  
+  * **Upstream Impact:** (e.g., A fix for Jupyter, a Binder report).  
+  * **Service Enhancements:** (e.g., A new hub feature, a support story).  
+  * **Organization Updates:** (e.g., major new announcements or updates on our strategy).  
+* Find a **"Community Spotlight"** (e.g., a new contributor to thank).
+
+### Write the newsletter
+
+* Use [the template in the next section](#template) to write the full email.  
+* Review to make sure it makes sense as a holistic newsletter.
+
+### Send
+
+* Send the email to our mailing list via [MailChimp](https://compass.2i2c.org/marketing/mailinglist/).  
+  * Copy the campaign from the previous month
+  * Update the **Subject** and **Content** with the newsletter we just wrote.
+
+## Template
+
+*This is the short, 300-500 word email for our mailing list.*
+
+**From:** `Chris from 2i2c`
+**Title:** `[2i2c Update] <A brief, specific hook, e.g., "Our first premier member & a 400-person NASA workshop">`
+
+*[Intro summary. Example: "October was a milestone month for us in building out our new membership model towards organizational sustainability. We’ve spent the last few months designing the basic structure of membership, and this month welcome our first premier member: the Berkeley Institute for Data Science! We think this is a key foundational step towards refining and building out this member network. Along the way, we’ve been hard at work to highlight all the work our community members and collaborators are doing. Check out a few highlights from last month below from our blog.”]*
+
+### [Lead story headline, e.g., "BIDS Joins as Our First Premier Member"]
+
+*[1-2 sentence teaser for the lead story.]*
+
+[**Read the full announcement**](https://www.google.com/search?q=link-to-individual-blog-post)
+
+[feature image from blog post, example below.]
 <figure>
-<img src="[src]" alt="[one-sentence description]">    
-  <figcaption>[one or two sentences explaining the figure]</figcaption>
+<img src="[featured_image_url]" alt="[description]">
+  <figcaption>[1-2 sentences explaining the figure]</figcaption>
 </figure>
-[/IF]
 
-Read more 👉 [url-without-https://](url)
+### This Month's Highlights
+
+[A list of highlights taken from blog posts. Use the `category:` to categorize each and add a label before each list item. See below for example:]
+
+* **Community Impact:** [1-2 sentence teaser for a community story...] [**Read more**](https://www.google.com/search?q=link-to-post)  
+* **Upstream Impact:** [1-2 sentence teaser for an open-source contribution...] [**Read more**](https://www.google.com/search?q=link-to-post)  
+* **Service Enhancement:** [1-2 sentence teaser for a new feature or infrastructure update...] [**Read more**](https://www.google.com/search?q=link-to-post)
 
-## [Title of Featured Post N+1 etc]
-[/Highlights]
+### Community spotlights
 
-[Community]
-## From the community
+*[A bulleted list of 1-2 sentence "Thank You"s to a new contributor, a partner, or a great forum question. Or updates from communities we've blogged about. This makes the communities feel seen, signal-boosted, and appreciated.]*
 
-- [community] did [thing with link to their post]
-- [open source project] released [link to release of version NN]
-[/Community]
----
+Thanks for being a part of the 2i2c community,
 
-_Here's a list of all the blog posts we published in [Month Year]._
+— Chris and the 2i2c Team
 
-- [MMM, DD YYYY] - [post name](link)
-- [MMM, DD YYYY] - [post name](link)
-- [reverse chronologically ordered for all posts]
+*P.S. For more updates and to see all of our posts, visit [our blog](https://2i2c.org/blog).*