Date: Tuesday, March 26, 1996
Editor: Buck
EVOLUTION OF A COOKBOOK!
by Carole
A couple of months ago, when the Friendship Club was formed and Buck was asking for ideas one of the first to be brought forward was a cookbook. A group of us quickly, and naively, volunteered. I mean, all we had to do was receive recipes via email, keep them on our computer and send out when someone asked the them, right? Wrong!!
Shortly thereafter, Bill suggested we keep the cookbook on-line linked to the Home Page. What a great idea! Hey, this was really going to be easy. We'd get a recipe, send it to Bill and he'd put it on-line. Terrific! {Looking back, I can't believe I was ever that dumb.} We started out by looking for a simple recipe program that everyone could use. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you...the program doesn't exist that can be used by Win 3.1, Win 95, Macs and the web. They just don't speak the same language. What were we going to do??? Talk about a comedy of errors. Yikes!
Poor Bill was getting bombarded with email from eleven women asking what to do and how to do it. Somehow {and I still don't know how}, in the midst of all the turmoil, my name began appearing as cookbook Editor. So, with lots more bravado than sense or knowledge, I emailed all the other Chapter Editors and offered to serve as cookbook Editor, and was accepted. {Gulp!} Now Bill would only have to deal with one irritating female. *grin
My friends, I want you all to remember...none of us had ever had anything to do with creating a cookbook, much less an on-line cookbook. What do we do now?
Since it was obvious by now there just wasn't a common program we could use, Bill suggested we use HTML as a common language, as it was the language of the net. Oh my God!! HTML? What in the world is that? Not a one of us had a clue as to how to use HTML. Nervous Nellies were jumping out of the woodwork, myself included. "Not to worry", says Bill. "I'll write a 'simple' HTML recipe form. {Let me clue you...there ain't no such thing, at least not for beginners.} We all got a copy...and the email messages began burning up the waves. "I don't have a clue what this means!", "I'm in over my head. Maybe I should quit now.". "Help! What do I do?", were just a few of the comments I heard. {Sorry, Bill} Hey, how was I to know...I was just a beginner, too. After assuring one and all I would help them every step of the way *big grin* I sat down determined to figure out 'The Form'. Well, we're now on version 3 of the form and I find myself wondering why on earth I was so afraid of that first one. {Ah!, The bliss of hindsight.}
At times this has seemed like one huge joke on me and at other times I was ready to cry in frustration. Try to imagine the logistics of learning something and at the same time teaching it to someone using a completely different system. Among us we have PC's using Win 3.1 and Win 95 and a Mac. We have both Netscape and Explorer browsers and both Eudora and Netscape for email. Some are used to working in Word, others in Write and still others in WordPerfect and who knows what else. And yet, somehow, in the end, we did it. We all ended up submitting recipes on a common form that could be put directly into the cookbook. Unreal.
Suddenly, it all started coming together...and we were patting ourselves on the back. No big deal! Hey, we knew all along we could do it! {Sure we did.}
Sadly, along the way three of the original Editors dropped out, but we have been joined by two new ones.
Would I have volunteered in the very beginning if I had known what was coming? Probably not.
Am I sorry I did volunteer? Not for a minute!! I've made some marvelous friends, have learned an awful lot and admit to a real sense of accomplishment as I look at what we've created. Each and every one of those involved has put forth their all to bring this cookbook into being.
Was it worth it? Definitely!! And I hope you'll agree when you visit the 50+ Friends Club Cookbook. It took a lot of people a lot of hours to pull this all together and we're not finished yet. Soon, we'll have a Guest Book and a FAQ Page. Editors will be personalizing their index pages. And who knows what else may be in store.
One last thing. We want to hear from you...your ideas, suggestions and comments. After all...it's your cookbook!
Chat with ya' later,
CAROLE in the hills
Placerville, Calif.
- **From Buck: A great deal of hard work was put into your cookbook by all involved and each of us owes them our heart felt thanks. BRAVO to each of them!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buck
50+ Friends Club Cookbook
© 1996-2005
