FreeSpOut

Freespout ceased production in the middle of 2014. If anyone is interested in reinstating it or providing a different type of internal communication, please contact freespout@ilovefreegle.org or volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. In December 2022, a new newsletter was proposed - Freegle Pulse

FreeSpOut (Free Speak Out)

The newsletter produced for all Freegle owners, moderators and volunteers.

The team produces a monthly edition of FreeSpOut that is sent to all owner addresses of Freegle affiliated communities.

The team operates from their Yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeSpOut/ and run a website www.freespout.org.uk/ which archives copies of the newsletter and gives other information and links for Freegle.

The team are always very pleased to receive feedback, hear stories about communities, and/or suggestions and tips on how we can all do things better. If you have the time and energy and would like to help produce the newsletter, that would also be welcomed.

History of FreeSpOut

(taken from the Freespout website)

Bit of a long one this so bear with it and we’ll be as short as we can.

Back when we were with The Freecycle Network a few folks thought it would be a great idea to have a newsletter to keep everyone informed of what was going nationally and internationally with with The Freecycle Network as a large number of groups didn’t know of or didn’t read the UK Mod Squad. The Newsletter was duly started as a part of the Fundraising group, and after two issues it was decided to create a new separate group solely for the purpose of creating the Newsletter in the future. This done The Freecycle Network decided that it should hold ownership of this newly created Newsletter group and so asked that the group be handed over to the control of a nominated representative of The Freecycle Network.

The team as a whole decided that this would not be in the best interests of an independent and impartial Newsletter and so declined the request on the basis that to be independent meant that the newsletter group should be outside the control of The Freecycle Network.

Well we all know what happened next so fast forwarding through a turbulent few months the team decided that Freegle could also benefit from an independent and impartial Newsletter and set about being generally organised and getting it out there.

A few hiccups ensued regarding delivery to folks and so the next few issues were a somewhat muted affair, but once the Freegle Reps had been elected the team decided to contact them with a view to being “recognised” by Freegle. They have agreed to recognise the FreeSpOut team and FreeSpOut Times.

The Freegle Reps have been offered, and accepted, the invitation to have a space in each issue that will be solely theirs to say as they wish, and will not be edited in any way by the FreeSpOut team.

So going forwards now, the FreeSpOut team are producing a newsletter ( FreeSpOut Times ) that is an independent and impartial reflection of all that is Freegle.

The original team changed and developed over time, losing the 'independent' tag, although always being able to send out what the team felt was interesting to volunteers not reading FreegleUKCentral and other central groups. The website set up to host the newsletters was also moved to be hosted on the main Freegle server system.

FreeSpOut newsletters

The newsletters were originally hosted on the FreeSpOut website, but this has been closed, so copies can now be found by contacting the info@ilovefreegle.org mailbox and asking for links to that googledoc Drive.

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