Letter from the Editors: How the Quest Works
Dear readers,
Recently, several of the editors have fielded questions about how the Quest functions, its organizational structure, and other general wonderings of the paper.
In response to this, we decided to publish a comprehensive explanation of how the Quest works, what exactly we do, and any more one might wonder about, so you, our dear readers, can understand our role in all of it.
A Week in the Quest:
Monday: Every Monday evening we have our contributors’ meetings from 7:00-8:00pm in the Quoffice. Here, our writers come to us with stories that they are interested in writing, and we also pitch stories for them to write. Then, we will assign writers to stories, and send them off to write them. These stories are due the Tuesday of the following week.
Tuesday: Every Tuesday we have our writers’ workshops from 7:00-10:00pm. This is where writers can come in with questions on the stories they are working on, and where we can get a head start on editing articles. Stories are always due Tuesday nights for that Friday's issue of the Quest.
Wednesday: Wednesday nights are the big nights for us. We start our editing nights at 5 pm and usually don't finish until at least 12:00-1:00am. Here, we do the rest of the editing and laying out of the Quest. Once we are done with this, we send it off to the printing company for them to process. Our editing nights are open to everyone, so stop by to say hi or ask any questions you might have.
Thursday: Thursdays are glorious, we get just this one day of rest!
Friday: Fridays are when you guys see our hard work come to fruition. On Friday mornings at 9:00am, 750 copies of that week’s Quest are delivered to the mailroom where we or our contributors pick them up and then disperse them around campus.
Saturday: On Saturdays, our lovely webmaster publishes the articles online to the website.
Other commonly asked questions:
Are we the Grail? No. But we do share an office with them.
Do you need experience to write? No! You can come with any/no experience.
Can contributors choose what they want to write about? Yes!
What if I don’t have time to come to a meeting? While we love to hang out with our writers in person, we understand that schedules are busy. You can also always send any articles you have to our email, quest@reed.edu, or to the emails of any of the editors.
Is there an editor hierarchy? No. We are all equals here at the Quest.
How many editors are there? There are four copy/content editors and one layout editor.
Are editors hired? Not quite. Once a semester students run for one of the four copy/content editorial positions, and are voted for by the student body. This process is facilitated by Election Czars and happens concurrently with the student government elections. Our layout editor, however, is hired independently by the copy/content editors.
Do we have a faculty advisor? No. Completely student-run, baby!
Are writers paid? No.
Are editors paid? Yes, but on a stipend, so it calculates out to about $5/hr.
Where is the Quoffice? GCC 047, down the hall from the bookstore, right next to the M.L.L.L.
If you have any more questions for us, email us at quest@reed.edu, or stop by our office, we don’t bite!