The Charge! Complete Archive
1995-2000, 2005

Adobe Acrobat Reader (tm) is needed to read these issues of The Charge!

(*) Denotes previously unpublished 'bonus' material.

Notes:

The Charge! newsletter complete archive... this has been something on my to-do list for a solid 4 years.

I was the newsletter editor for the Peoria Jaycees from June 1995 to December 1999 (with a couple in 2000).  Then when Toby Quin was elected chapter president in November 2004, he asked to become editor again for 2005.  Earlier I agreed to help out should he run for office and be elected.  So here I was again!

I had a lot of fun doing this as you could probably tell by reading some of these issues.  Many of the stories depicted in these issues were either complete fiction, or some hint of truth was there, only grossly embellished for entertainment purposes.  Either way, I tried to edit a newsletter with a good balance of information, fun reading and humor.  A lot of people seemed to like The Charge! and I was very proud of my work.

Since I had saved all the original files, I originally wanted some way to archive these newsletters as my own scrapbook, whether they were hard bound, placed in .html format or whatever. I have to thank Bob Klannukarn, as he became the chapter's webmaster in 2001, began featuring the chapter's newsletter in Adobe .pdf format.  As each month would pass, a library of issues would grow. However, there was nothing featured before 2001.

I had liked the format he had used, so I thought I would copy it (Thanks, Bob).  But then I ran into technical difficulties.  

When I first took on the task of editing The Charge! (and at the risk of showing my age), Windows 95 was not even released yet; I was using Lotus AmiPro under Windows 3.1.  By the time I was seriously working on this project, I was using Windows 2000.  AmiPro would not operate under this operating system.  I tried refurbishing a couple older computers and placing Windows 95 on it so I could load AmiPro and hope it would work.  This only resulted in very limited success.

I started using Microsoft Word in 1998 for the newsletter and I had no problem restoring those files and converting them to .pdf files.  But I was still left with the dilemma of my earlier issues.  Then Windows XP came out and I heard that it had a way of running older programs that ran on 95 and 98.  I gave it a try... success, more than I originally had thought.  Other than a few glitches with fonts and some graphics, I have restored to a very close proximity, the released issues of The Charge! from June 1995 to 2000. 

While not 100% of the looks may be there, all the content and context is.  And to go one step further, I also included many unpublished stories and features that have never seen the light of day (look for the issues with a (*)).  I'm opening the vaults!

I hope you as much fun reading these and taking a trip down memory lane as I have had in writing them.