HISTORY OF THE CROSS TRAIL NEWS
The inaugural issue of the Cross Trail News – Vol. 1 No. 1 and then known as the “W.D.A. [Western Dance Association] News” – was published in April 1954 with four half letter-size commercially printed pages. Pictured here is the front cover of W.D.A. News Vol. 1 No. 3 of December 1954. With Vol. 2 No. 1 in September 1955 the title changed to “Cross Trail News” and there were still just four pages. Over the years the number of pages increased and several printing methods and sizes were were used including a period of time with a Gestetner or mimeograph machine. Production switched from paste-up to desktop publishing software in 2006.
Publication has continued regularly since 1954. There were short gaps between editors in the 1950s and early 1960s. The only significant break was for one full dance season (five issues) – September-October-November 2020 to June-July-August 2021 – due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of square and round dancing. Special Anniversary Editions were published in May 1978 (25 years), October 1993 (40 years), May 2004 (50 years – pictured), and November-December 2014 (60 years – supplement).
From 1971 to the June-July-August 2019 issue the printer for the Cross Trail News was Bayside Press (Victoria Speedi-Copy Ltd.). In the summer of 2019 Foto Print (Fotoprint Ltd.) acquired Bayside Press and became our printer starting with the September-October-November 2019 issue. The publication format was a half-letter size stapled booklet with the number of pages per issue ranging from 32 to 72.
Beginning with the September-October-November 2023 issue a pdf version of the half-letter size booklet reformatted to letter size pages (with personal information redacted) was published on the Region 1 website with a link on the Region 8 website. Starting with the September-October-November 2024 issue the printed version has been discontinued and there is now only the online version in pdf format on letter size pages.
Cross Trail News Editors
April 1954 – Unknown
November 1954 to May 1956 – Don McLeod
December 1956 to October 1960 – Dawn Draper
January 1961 to June 1962 – John Fairweather
October 1962 to May 1963 – Dai & Win McLeod
September 1963 to April 1980 – Ted Sparshatt (deceased 1980)
May 1980 – Gladys Sparshatt (interim)
September 1980 to November 2003 – Ken Middleton (deceased 2003)
December 2003 to May 2015 – Vic Marshall (retired 2015)
Since September 2015 – Alex Wotherspoon
