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Communications
Committee
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The
Beacon
Honored by PNW District
Tandi Rogers Koerger, the Pacific Northwest District (PNWD) Program
Specialist, recently singled out The Beacon as one of her two
favorite newsletters in the District. In her article 13 Steps to Start
Your Church Year Strong, on the PNWD website (www.pnwd.org),
Tandi cites Newsletter with Purpose as Step #8. Among the things
that set us apart are: user friendliness, not assuming a reader knows common
acronyms and phrases, and contact information throughout articles and
announcements.
When
reached for comment at Beacon Central, the unassuming editor noted: “We
always strive to make The Beacon a most readable and informative newsletter,
something a newcomer or visitor can pick up and not be mystified by
reading. Full addresses and phone numbers are also important; we need to
think beyond ourselves. We never know who we might reach.” |
Frank Mandt
Communications Chair |
Communications Policies
New communication policies are now in effect for Cedars. At its March
meeting, the Board approved the policies that were a result of a multi-year
effort by the Communications and Worship Committees, and the Program Council,
about how we communicate within the church and our wider community.
Click here to view the policies. Those of you who submit items for
inclusion in The Beacon, the church website, Sunday Order of Service and
broadcast e-mails should pay particular attention to the polices as well as the
Content Guidelines, which follow. Please contact
Frank Mandt for questions or
clarifications.
CUUC
Content Guidelines
The following guidelines
should be followed when composing a Beacon article, website submission,
broadcast e-mail, Order of Service announcement, or other communication
of broad interest:
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What is the program being presented? |
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Where is it? Full addresses must be given. The Church Office,
Bainbridge Commons, the Senior Center, or Eagle Harbor Church is not satisfactory.
Visitors and new people may have no idea where these local places are.
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When is it? Cite the date and time (length of the event).
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Who is sponsoring the event? Make sure there is contact information for more
questions. |
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Why should anyone come? |
Try to look at your event through the eyes of first-time visitors who are not
familiar with the area. Give them enough information to not only decide whether
or not to attend, but also to find the venue if they want to come.
In addition, Cedars has a policy of providing child care for all events. Please
list a contact for those needing child care, and a deadline for which child care
RSVPs must be received.
CUUC Style and Grammar Guidelines
In order
to maintain consistency, please observe the following stylistic and grammatical
guidelines when creating flyers, brochures and the like or submitting material
for publication:
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Abbreviations should not be used except for well-known acronyms, such as PNWD
or UUA. Even then the name should be spelled out with the acronym in
parentheses the first time it appears (e.g., Unitarian Universalist
Association (UUA)). |
| Dates
(month or day) should not be abbreviated. |
| Time
should be in the following format: 10:00 am. |
| All
phone numbers must include an area code. Since our membership includes
at least two area codes, it is imperative that a full phone number, with area
code, is given. The preferred format for phone numbers is: 206-780-0373. |
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aware of redundancies. Please do not repeat the headline of your article in
the first sentence or paragraph. |
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aware of subject-verb agreement. |
| Make
sure that the main point of your article is in the first paragraph. Don’t
make readers work to figure out what you are trying to say. |
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Length guidelines for The Beacon are: columns, 500 words; articles, 250 words;
announcements, 100 words. Submissions that are too long may be edited or
retuned to the sender to be re-written. |
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Underlining is discouraged and will be changed by the editor to either bold or
italic text, depending on context. This is to prevent confusion with
hyperlinks, since most articles will also appear on the church website. |
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in doubt, please consult Strunk & White: Elements of Style, 4th Edition. |
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Remember: Brevity is the soul of wit. Length is not. |
Frank Mandt, Communications Chair
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