My Iowa City Patch New Year's Resolution

Alright, so maybe I'm not the world's greatest person in front of the video camera. I'll get better.

What? It could happen!

But even if I never acquire a Bruce Aunesque camera presence, I wanted to start a feature this year anyway where I reach out to you, the Patch reader, via short videos on a semi-regular basis. In these videos I will let you know what is going on with the site, including some exciting updates coming down the pike, and seek feedback from you for what you'd like to see more of on the Iowa City Patch.

This is all part of my New Year's Iowa City Patch Resolution to redouble my efforts to reach out to the Iowa City community.

Also not in the video but one of my major goals of the New Year: I would like to get out to more of the schools in the Iowa City School District and cover their issues and student achievements directly. If you're a PTO member and wouldn't mind me attending one of your meetings and talking a little about Iowa City Patch, send me an e-mail at stephen.schmidt@patch.com. Also, if you're a parent, teacher, or administrator with a story idea, feel free to send it my way.

The same goes if you have a church group, organization, hobby group, or charity that you'd like to get the word out to the community about. I want to not only write about you, but also make it clear that there are several avenues for you to write about yourselves on the site. E-mail me if you're interested. I'll also list a few ways you can post below.

One final note, the actual name of this track in the video is "Like Velvet." I'm not sure where I pulled "Smooth as Silk" from, but in any case, Happy New Year!

To post, all you need to do is:

1. Go to Iowa City Patch (if you're reading this, I'm assuming you've gotten this far) -- and create an account by clicking here
2. Three ways to post info for readers:
   
   1. Click here to create a new Event if you would like it in the community calendar.
   2. Click here to create a new Announcement, which may be more appropriate for information, such as letting people know about a birthday, obituary, award, a new hire, or a press release.
   3. Click here to create a Blog. If you plan to post frequently, it may make sense to start a blog under your name or the name of your organization. Blogs tend to get the most notice on the site, and it can help you build familiarity with our audience. Press releases also can be posted as blog posts. 
   4. Make sure to add photos where it says "Choose file to upload." When you add photos it will allow me to feature it more easily on the front page.
   5. Once you click "Post" at the bottom, you will come to the page that features your post. ... Just send me the URL.
   6. Share the link with your colleagues, family or friends through the Facebook, Twitter or email portals connected to the post, or copy the URL and send it out how you see fit.