PUBLICATION GUIDELINES

Guidelines for submitting Lee’s Traveller articles

Our District newsletter serves as a channel for the exchange of information between you and the members of Lee District.  As officers and chairmen, you keep the lines of communication open when you contribute news from the District and State in your respective areas.  The club presidents, club officers and club chairmen look forward to reading the articles to find out what is going on in the federation.  Aside from the information you provide at the Leadership Workshop, this is the only other way we have to communicate to the clubs.  TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY TO ADVERTISE FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT, PROGRAM OR SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT.   

Clubs are always looking for a program or project suggestions.  Please try and submit an article for each issue of the Traveller.  It’s much better when you and your general/junior work together and share this responsibility (i.e. take turns submitting articles).  

When you submit an article for publication, please follow these guidelines:  

Good Copy consists of NEWS THEY CAN USE – areas of emphasis, ideas, requests, programs or announcements that are pertinent and timely.  Please note the emphasis on News They Can Use.  Please don’t take information or facts from a pamphlet or article and just copy it!!  The clubs NEED program and project ideas.  Remember to answer the following questions:  Who?  What?  When? Where?  Why?.  Don’t forget to include contact information such as addresses, phone numbers, email or website addresses.

When submitting something that is for a particular date, remember that the Traveller comes out by email about two to three weeks after the deadline and by regular mail up to four weeks after.  Clubs need to have time to react to the information you provide.

SUBMISSION OF NEWS ARTICLES:

  1. All articles must be sent to the Editor, Lyn Swallen.

  2. Include with each article: Name of Department/Program/Special Appointment Names of General and Junior Chairmen Telephone Numbers / Email addresses of Chairmen

  3. Articles may be mailed, faxed, or emailed.  See information below.  If possible, the editor prefers to receive all articles via email using the below guidelines:

    1. Use a doc format attached to your email.  If you send it in an email instead of an attachment, it must be copied to a Word document before it is copied to the publishing software.

    2. The newsletter is printed in a black Times New Roman font, size 10.  Adding your own bolding and occasional colored or special font is great for emphasis but if the whole thing is blue or Arial, rest assured it will be changed.

    3. Paragraphs are indented five spaces.

    4. There are no extra lines between paragraphs.

    5. One exclamation point is enough.

    6. A flyer needs to have extra space around the edges to accommodate the page numbers and headings that are on every page.  It is difficult to resize your nice artwork.  Leave an inch at the top and the bottom.

    7. The file should be named something specific.  Even though “Traveller article” might work on your computer, it is not as helpful when there are many so named.  You might try a format of issue, department like Summer2009Arts.doc.

    8. Don’t use “I”, especially if you are writing for two.  Refer to yourself by name.  [Example:  Please let Lyn know if you think you might be late with your article and want to beg for time.]

    9. You do not need to put your contact information in the body of your article.  It is in the heading. It is helpful to have it in your heading as a cross check for whether the contact information the editor has is correct.

    10. Only the District President and the Junior Director write letters.  The rest of the officers and chairmen write articles.  You should avoid salutations like “Hello, ladies” and comments about hoping you enjoy your holidays.  Keep in mind that these articles should be “news you can use”:  project and program ideas and contact information.  Much as we like our fellow clubwomen, this is not the forum to be chatty.  It is a temptation to make comments in the January Traveller congratulating the clubs on the great reports.  Do not be led down that path.  Give them more information, perhaps some ideas you got out of those reports or the ones last year.

    11. Keep it brief.  Keep in mind that this is a long newsletter and long articles won’t get the readership that you would like.  Ideally an article should be no more than one column in length (and shorter can have even more impact).  In general that is about one half of a page if you followed the guidelines above (about a page in a 12 pitch with paragraph breaks and your name at the top).  Obviously we can have longer articles if there is something particularly timely, just keep the shorter limit in mind.

Deadlines:

2010 Summer Issue           July 9, 2010

2010 Winter Issue              October 29, 2010

2011 Spring Issue              January 7, 2011

2011 Summer Issue           April 1, 2011

2011 Fall Issue                  July 22, 2011

2011 Winter Issue             October 28, 2011

2012 Spring Issue              January 6, 2012

Please note – The deadlines are very important.  Articles received after the established deadline may not be included in the current issue.  Early submissions are always appreciated.  

Submit Articles and Handbook changes to:            

Lyn Swallen

1900 Boardman Lane

Richmond, VA  23238

Phone:  804-747-0403

Email:  LSwallen@aol.com

 

Submit Subscriptions and Changes of Address to the Junior Editor:

Change of Address, Email or E-Contact E-Form

Lisa Lumpkin

7010 Mosswood Road

Richmond, VA  23231

Phone:  804-507-0120

Email:  lisalumpkin@comcast.net