2012 National Order of the Arrow Conference Session #: Lodge Newsletters
SESSION LENGTH: 50 Minutes
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
§ To learn the purpose of lodge newsletters.
§ To learn about all aspects of lodge newsletters
including layout, design, content, building a team
and distribution.
§ To learn about developing a year-round lodge newsletter communication plan.
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
§ This training syllabus
§ Flipcharts with markers
§ PowerPoint presentation file
§ Print newsletter examples
§ Computer with projector, extension cord
Trainer preparation
Arrowmen leading this session should be familiar with membership based newsletters including both print and electronic publications. Read through this syllabus and practice with the PowerPoint presentation to prepare for your training session. Prior to the training session, find some examples of newsletters that can be shared with the session participants. These newsletters can be from lodges, sections, regions, or national newsletters.
SESSION NARRATIVE
INTRODUCTION: 5 MINUTES
Welcome to today’s training session on effective and quality lodge newsletters. Today we will be focusing on print newsletters for your lodge membership.
[Trainer introduces self to the session participants. Include your name, hometown, lodge/council, current Scouting involvement, your experience with newsletters, etc.]
/ Advance PPT Slide “HOW ARE YOU INVOLVED?”Let’s talk about what experience you have today with lodge newsletters. [Ask the following questions and ask session participants to raise their hands]
· Who here is responsible for producing a lodge newsletter?
· Who here today wants to join a lodge newsletter team?
· Who here today has a lodge newsletter, but it needs a major redesign and new energy?
/ Advance PPT Slide “SESSION OBJECTIVES”When you leave here today from this session on lodge newsletters, I want you to be able to understand why we have membership newsletters, how to build a newsletter team, and developing a yearlong content plan. After today’s session, you should be prepared to return home to your lodge ready to assist and work on your lodge newsletters.
/ Advance PPT Slide “WHY LODGE NEWSLETTERS?”Why Lodge Newsletters? 5 MINUTES
Here in the Order of the Arrow, we have newsletters at the different levels of the organization including lodges, sections, regions, and the national level. Together each of these newsletters share relevant information with the membership providing content on events, programs, and leadership messages, but why do we do it? Teams across the nation spend a lot of time ensuring that the correct news is reported to the correct audience.
[Ask the following question.] Why do lodges use lodge newsletters?
TRAINER TIP: For this part of the session, be prepared to write down responses on a flip chart. Highlight any answers that the session participants did not respond with. Sample answers may include: to share information with the lodge membership including the lodge calendar, leadership messages, and lodge updates, to serve as a way to record lodge history, to allow youth interested in communications to learn relevant skills, and Journey to Excellence requirement #9 for lodges.
/ Advance PPT Slide “FROM THE BEGINNING”Developing the newsletter from the beginning 2 MINUTES
The next part of this training session is going to focus on print newsletters. We are going to look at developing a team, the layout and key parts to a newsletter, developing a year-long content plan and newsletter distribution.
Before we jump in to these topics, it is important to note that your lodge newsletters need to be a part of your overall lodge communication plans. Newsletter need to tie into your website, social media and other communication tools that your lodge uses to communicates to your membership.
/ Advance PPT Slide “YOUR TEAM MEMBERS”Your team members 10 MINUTES
Your team is going to be one the most crucial parts to a quality and effective lodge newsletter. What are some key members you will want to have on your team? [Solicit answers from session participants. Sample answers may include lodge officers/advisers, editor-in-chief, content editors, layout editors, staff writers, photographers, advisers.] Let’s talk about your key youth who are going to be on the lodge newsletter team.
§ Editor-in-Chief: The edition-in-chief is the lead youth and oversees the lodge newsletter team. He is appointed by the lodge chief and provides direction for the team including recruiting youth editors, developing a storyboard, reviewing content, and making decisions regarding the newsletter.
§ Content editors: Content editors help lead a section of the newsletter team. This can be compared to a news editor or a sports editor for the local newspaper. Content editors will oversee the content that is assigned to them by the editor-in-chief. The editors work with staff writers and photographers. The newsletter team can determine the number of content editors. Examples include events and programs editor, people and recognitions editor, chapter news editor photography editor.
§ Copy Editor: The copy editor works with the Editor-in-Chief to proof each article prior to publishing. The copy editor also ensures that the style guide is followed.
§ What is a style guide?: A style guide is a tool for newsletter teams to ensure that names, punctuation and capitalization is consistent throughout a publication. An example would be Arrowmen and Scout.
§ Layout Editor: The layout editor is responsible for the actual layout of the publication. He works with the editor-in-chief in publishing the newsletter.
§ Staff writers: Staff writers work with their editors in covering assignments for articles in the lodge newsletter. This could include writing about a lodge event, interviewing a lodge officer, or covering a lodge program. Staff writers also either work with a photographer or get a photo to go with their story.
§ Staff photographers: Staff photographers work with the editors and staff writers to ensure photographs are taken at lodge events to go along with articles in the lodge newsletter.
§ Advisers: Advisers work with the youth team helping where needed and supporting the team. Advisers play an important role in helping to approve/edit content. The adviser is appointed by the lodge key 3.
§ Lodge Officers / Lodge Executive Committee Members: Lodge officers and member of the LEC also can serve on the team helping to provide content and support where needed.
§ Contributing writer: Contributing writers help support the newsletter team by writing articles when needed. The writer may have a special expertise in a topic or is covering a special topic on behalf of the newsletter.
/ Advance PPT Slide “LAYOUT AND KEY PARTS”Newsletter layout and key parts 10 MINUTES
Next, we are going to look at what makes up a lodge newsletter. Here we are concerned with what type of content you are going to put on each page of the newsletter. Part of this discussion will tie into the storyboard and year-long planning that we will talk about later in this session.
What are some key parts to your lodge newsletters?
TRAINER TIP: For this part of the session, be prepared to write down responses on a flip chart. Highlight any answers that the session participants did not respond with. Sample answers may include: articles, leadership message, calendar, officer contact information, social media/website links, awards/recognitions, council news, lodge program updates, chapter news, event reviews, adviser’s minute, burning issues, section/regional/national news, Arrowman highlight, and service project information.
When working on the design of the newsletter, you want to be able to grab the reader’s attention. You want your newsletter to look professional and for each part to be consistent with the layout. This means that you are looking for consistent fonts, photo boxes, body text, the same column widths, and article alignment. This will only help your layout editor with making the layout easier to complete, but it will also look better.
/ Advance PPT Slide “NEWSLETTER LAYOUT”TRAINER TIP: For this part of the session, show a sample layout of the newsletter where you can show the following newsletter parts: masthead, staff box, article headline, sub-headline, byline/title, article text, pull quote, image box, more information link. It is best if you use an example of a lodge newsletter which has each of these parts.
/ Advance PPT Slide “STORYBOARD AND YEARLONG PLANS”Storyboard and year-long planning 10 MINUTES
So far in our discussion regarding lodge newsletters, we have looked at the purpose, the team, and the layout and key parts. This leads us into the storyboard for the newsletter.
Who wants to describe and explain the purpose of a storyboard? [Solicit responses.]
A storyboard helps a newsletter team establish newsletter priorities, organize content, assign article responsibilities, and allows editors to set deadlines for content. If you were serving as an editor-in-chief, the storyboard would allow you to delegate certain responsibilities to your content editors to help oversee getting completed content. It will also help track your articles with your staff writers.
A well run storyboard will include article topic, which content editor is responsible, the staff writer who is responsible, deadline, and the purpose of the content. I include the purpose because with newsletters, you have limited space. If you cannot find a reason to publish an article or photo in your newsletter, you may consider finding content in its place.
/ Advance PPT Slide “TIE INTO THE YEARLONG PLAN”The storyboard you develop for each edition also needs to tie into your lodge’s yearlong plan and goals. Your lodge is going to have events throughout the year, meetings, programs, summer camp opportunities and annual dues payments. As the lodge newsletter team, you need to develop a plan of when you will share each relevant message based on the lodge’s annual calendar. The best way to do this is to take the storyboard and the lodge calendar and go event by event to determine what and when you will communicate to the lodge membership in each edition.
/ Advance PPT Slide “STORY IDEAS”If your team is looking for some new story ideas for the next edition, where do you think you should look? [Solicit responses.]
TRAINER TIP: For this part of the session, be prepared to write down responses on a flip chart. Highlight any answers that the session participants did not respond with. Sample answers may include: lodge leadership, Order of the Arrow and Scouting websites, social media, council website, council staff, lodge executive committee members, lodge officers.
Reach out to your lodge leadership and lodge executive committee members to get ideas for content. You can also ask for your LEC members to help contribute content too that falls under their area of responsibility.
/ Advance PPT Slide “SPECIAL INSERTS”Another important part of your newsletter can be special inserts. You can include a special flyer to draw attention to an upcoming OA/Scouting event or could include the registration form for the next lodge event.
/ Advance PPT Slide “THE STORYBOARD: TIMELINE”Within the storyboard, build in your publication deadlines too. This includes when articles are due, proofed by, the layout process is complete, the final approval, printing and distribution.
TRAINER TIP: Share a sample timeline with the training session participants. The timeline will depend on each lodge’s newsletter team and can be adjusted to meet the lodge’s needs.
Day 1: Organizing conference call
Day 28: Articles due to content editors
Day 35: Articles due to copy editor/editor in chief for review
Day 50: Articles/photos sent to layout editor
Day 75: Layout complete and sent for final approval
Day 89: Edition approved and prepared for distribution
Day 90: Printed and distributed to lodge members
If you are the editor-in-chief, one special tip is to get your entire team together on a conference call to review the storyboard for each edition before staff writers begin writing articles. This will help the team fully understand the upcoming edition and to submit any ideas for content.
At this point, you have a storyboard and articles are assigned. Soon, staff writers will begin sending in content before the deadline hits. Your team will want to begin reviewing the submitted content and proofing the articles for spelling and grammar. Depending on the size of the team, this may be done by a copy editor, the content editor or the editor-in-chief.
When the editors are ready, send all of the content and photos to the layout editor so that he may complete his job. Once he is done, the layout editor should share the draft layout with the rest of the team and advisers for feedback. This should also include another review of the content. When ready, share the layout with the lodge chief, lodge adviser, and lodge staff adviser for final approval, printing and distribution.
/ Advance PPT Slide “DISTRIBUTION”Distribution 5 MINUTES
Lodges may choose different ways to distribute the lodge newsletter. These can include:
§ Mailing hard copies through the United States Postal Service.
§ Posting to the lodge website.
§ Emailing the link to the lodge membership.
Lodges should also use social media to distribute the lodge newsletter. In a Facebook post, highlight the main articles in the edition and include a download link. For Twitter, use multiple tweets and send a tweet about each main article in the edition over a period of time. Also include the download link.
Also, distribute copies to your council staff and leave a few copies for the public to review while waiting at the council office. This is a great way for people to learn about the OA who are not members of the lodge. Lodges may also decide to distribute copies to Scoutmasters or to summer camp leaders.
/ Advance PPT Slide “LAST SLIDE”CONCLUSION: 3 MINUTES
Members of your lodge are you looking to you and your lodge newsletter team to share relevant, key, and important information. It is up to you to provide a quality edition each time that will grab the attention of your readers. Remember, you have an important role in your lodge. You now have an understanding of the purpose, the team, planning, layout, and ways to distribute your content.