Where to find story ideas when the contents page is blank

It's four weeks before the deadline and you have a blank contents page. You've covered the conference, the awards and the new fee schedule. What else is there?

A lot, if you know where to look. Most of it is already in your organisation.

1. The questions members ask

Whatever lands in your helpdesk, your phone line or the membership inbox is a gift. If three people asked about renewal rules this month, a hundred more were wondering. Ask your front-line staff what they hear most often.

2. Event feedback

Survey comments and chats in the coffee queue reveal what people care about. A concern raised in a session comment often makes a better article than the session itself.

3. Committee and board papers

Meeting minutes record decisions that members don't hear about. A decision, why it was made and what it means for members is a story.

4. New members and long-serving members

Someone who joined this year has a fresh view. Someone who's been a member for 30 years has a history. Both make good profiles.

5. Award nominees and winners

Their nominations explain what they did and why it mattered. Often there's a how-to inside.

6. Regulation and policy changes

Members need to know what's changing, what to do and by when. A short explainer with a checklist is valued.

7. Seasonal and annual cycles

Tax time, licence renewals, budget season, graduation, harvest. If your members have a calendar, so does your magazine.

8. What's going wrong

A common mistake, a recurring complaint or a hard year. Members value frankness about problems in their industry, handled with care.

9. Other people's publications

Read the magazines, newsletters and blogs your members read. Look for topics you haven't covered or a take you'd disagree with.

10. Your own staff

Ask each team member for one thing they know that members would like to know. You'll be surprised what people carry around.

Make it a habit

A list only works if you feed it:

• Keep a running document with a line per idea and the date you noted it.
• Spend ten minutes each week adding to it.
• At each issue's planning meeting, pick from the list rather than starting fresh. Planning an editorial calendar.

Turn an idea into a story

For each idea, write the one sentence a member would say to explain why they'd read it: "I'd read this because it tells me what I need to do before 30 June." If you can't write that sentence, the idea isn't ready.