In 2007 and in 2011, I worked closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the preparation of their two Environmental Scans.

 

The Foreword for the 2011 Environmental Scan describes its purpose as follows:

 

"The 2011 RCMP Environmental Scan attempts to provide inroads to begin to unravel the complexity of our operating environment by articulating a number of the key macro-trends and forces that are shaping and driving it. Trends presented in the following document are drawn from a wide range of open-source material and have been presented across six thematic dimensions: Demographics & Society; Economy; Politics & Governance; Science & Technology; Environment; and Public Safety & Security."

 

My role was to edit and design the publication using information that was provided to me by the RCMP writing team. I also coordinated the graphic design and printing of the document.

 

I met with the RCMP writing team at the beginning of the project and we developed a concept for the EScan – an overall look and feel. I then hired a graphic designer, SpinVisual Communications, to create graphical elements for the publication including all covers and dividers (eight in 2007 and seven in 2011), headers, footers and sidebars, which I used to create the individual pages in the document as described below.

 

Given the need for up-to-date macro-trends which impacted on the RCMP, the information was constantly evolving as global events unfolded and this required a quick turnaround of drafts until the final publication was published.

 

Here is a summary of my activities:

 

Coordinate Graphic Design and Printing of Document:

 

• Arranged for quotes for graphic design and printing of publication

• Coordinated creation of mockups and drafts of publication
• Coordinated printing schedule and proofing of publication

 

Copy Editing and Proofreading:

 

• Completed copy, substantive, stylistic and production editing of drafts of raw material in PowerPoint presentations provided by the RCMP writing team and provided modified versions to the team leader for review and changes
• Proofread final versions of the document in both English and French and prepared for Desktop Publishing

 

Desktop Publishing / Design of Main Document using Adobe PageMaker and InDesign:

 

• Prepared mockups for the client using design elements provided by the graphic designer
• Produced inside pages (including images, graphs and diagrams) based on an approved template using Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and source documents supplied by the client in PowerPoint, MS Word and WordPerfect

 

Provision of Drafts of Publication to the Client for Proofing:

 

• Created and provided PDF drafts to the client for review during the approval process and before sending the publication to the printer

 

Creation, Coding and Proofreading of HTML version of Publication:

 

• Created HTML pages (2007: 163 English + 173 French; 2011: 160 English + 174 French) for the main publication using templates provided by the client
• Proofread document and completed any revisions received through the approval process
• Provided all HTML and PDF files to the Webmaster for uploading

 

Creation of PDF files for both Print and Online Purposes:

 

• Converted and created hi-res files for CD viewing and printing
• Converted and created lo-res PDF files for online viewing and for distribution by email

 

Creation of CD versions of the Environmental Scan:

 

• Created English + French CDs with colour CD labels and using clear slimline CD covers
• Created DVDs with both English + French hi-res PDF versions of the Scan with colour CD labels and using clear slimline CD covers