Archiving Categories Solution

Hello:

Here is what I am trying to accomplish and I am having trouble coming up with a solid approach. The site I am working on is a companion site to a print publication that mails 6 issues per year (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, etc.). The content from each issue needs to be incorporated in the site and archived accordingly.

Here is how it should work:
1. On the home page there is a module that is called “Current Issue” with a thumbnail of the cover and 3 links to the “Featured Articles”. This is being pulled from a post assigned to “Current Issue”. Below that is a link that takes you to a landing page that has a larger cover with all links with excerpts to each post from that issue. Currently I have this in place by assigning it a “Current Issue” category and the links are being pulled from posts assigned the “Featured” category;

2. I need to have each issue archived by month/year. This is where I am having trouble.

Should I:
1. Create categories for each publication month (ie. Jan/Feb) and assign posts accordingly;

2. Create a separate archive page and style accordingly;

3. When posts are no longer in the “Current Issue” remove the assigned category

I am looking for any suggestions on best practices for this. I need some ideas for a solution that could be pretty simple to maintain, since the editor of the publication will be doing the updates. Any guidance or advice is greatly appreciated!