New journal regime
The Police Journal is the most important service the Police Association
of South Australia provides its members.
I wrote this line as part of my editorial for the February 2000 issue
of the journal. But it was not a view I expressed simply as a biased
editor, without evidence.
An Australian Business Enterprise Development survey had recently
shown that “PASA members rated the journal above enterprise agreement
negotiations as well as industrial and legal representation”.
Other indications that emerged from the survey were that:
• Of Police Association services, the Police Journal was the most
commonly used in the previous three years. • Use of the journal by
members was 89 per cent. • The journal scored a satisfaction rating
of 74 per cent.
I concluded my editorial with the assurance that the Police Journal
would remain “a magazine of ever-increasing dynamism”.
In line with that commitment, I can now announce that the journal
will, in 2004, become a bimonthly magazine (six issues per year).
Given its long life of 84 years – as a monthly – this is indeed a
historic change for the association’s award-winning publication (UTLC
Best Publication award, 2002).
But time has marched on since 1919-20 when, without fax machines,
mobile phones, e-mails and accessible, rapid postal systems, the journal
was literally the association’s only means of communication with its
membership.
In this age of sophisticated technology, the association can relay
critical information to its members almost instantly.
So the journal no longer needs to serve its purposes of 80-plus years
ago. That means it can now move to a new format (alternate-month release)
that offers far more scope for the dynamism I promised four years
ago.
One can expect every journal to be virtually a bumper issue, with
more feature stories on police and their work, more reviews, and far
more of the latest industrial news and information. So expect a bigger,
brighter and more packed magazine – all that you would have found
in two will now appear in one.
Today, through its hardcopy and online versions, the journal’s reach
extends well beyond its core readership. So, as readers come to experience
the new format next year, their feedback will be welcome at the journal
office.
Federation office-holders
Since the Police Association annual delegates’ conference (reported
on in this issue), PASA has hosted the Police Federation of Australia
council meeting. On the second day of the symposium, all PFA office-holders
were re-elected.
The positions to which they were returned included those of vice-president
(two), treasurer and executive member (two). And, to the office of
PFA president, SA’s Peter Alexander was re-elected.
