Talkabout contributors guidelines

Issue 2.2
◊John Thorne ◊ Editor
[phone number removed] [email address removed]
[address removed]
◊Paul Stothard ◊ Publisher
[phone number removed] [email address removed]
[address removed] , NN13 5QA

W
elcome to the Helmdon Talkabout magazine contributors' guidelines. This leaflet is aimed to make the process of submitting articles for inclusion in the newsletter a straightforward one.
The process of creating the newsletter has always been a large task, but more recently the additional job of creating advertising revenue has significantly increased the workload. We have excellent support from our volunteer publisher but now ask for a little help from you, the contributors also.
The help we are asking for is simple. We would like to receive your articles for publication over the two weeks preceding the current deadline date, at the latest.
Previously, more than 65% of articles have been submitted in the final week, during which time we also have to create and process all the adverts.
To aid this we going to say that there are now two deadlines for article contributions.
The first deadline which covers the vast majority of articles is for the “non time sensitive” articles. This would be articles that do not have dates in them that require them to be left until the final week and would not suffer from the extra week or more between submission and newsletter distribution.
The second deadline which covers just a few article types is for the “time sensitive” articles. This would be articles like the Helmdon Show report that can only be written in the week between the show ending and the current print deadline.
This hopefully explains the deadlines more simply. We still have March 1st and Sept 1st deadlines but they are only for

advertisers and time critical articles. Everyone else should treat Feb 22nd and Aug 24th as the new deadlines and preferably get their articles in well before then.

Submissions and Reminders
For clarification, this is the process for submissions and reminders.
Submissions:
1. If at all possible, please email me your articles to
[email address removed]. This saves a lot of effort and guarantees that your contributions will turn up in the newsletter with no editor induced errors.
2. Hand written articles will be typed up by the editor for you but please make handwriting as legible as possible and get the articles in early.
3. You are welcome to send me graphics and photos for inclusion in your articles. They add interest and information which we welcome. They should be of a good resolution (600 dpi) or an original that the editor can scan in for you. I will return all originals.
4. All emailed articles will be acknowledged with a simple email often with no more than the words “got it”. If you do not get a response like this, then I have not received your article and you should resend or call me to work through the problem with you.
5. You are welcome to send me incomplete articles and then send me minor updates before the March 1st /
Sept 1st deadlines. This means I can include and format your article, which is the bulk of the work, and then make minor adjustments after. For you it means you can send me articles without having to wait for that last date to be confirmed or that last person to give it approval.

Reminders:
1. Everybody will get at least one reminder. One a month or so before the deadline, another two weeks before the deadline. For most people this will be an email and for a few others it will be a phone call or a message on your answer machine. Email is the way to go here as this makes the reminder process much easier. I may introduce an email list service soon that allows you to automatically keep your address up to date.
2. It is essential that you keep us informed of your current email address to get these reminders. I will track email delivery failures and contact them by phone, but often you will find people will leave old email boxes running after moving to a new email address. This will not generate any email errors and I simply will not know that you have not seen the reminder. (I have tried automatic email receipt returns but it seems that many of you have this feature turned off or it just isn’t available from the service provider / email client combination you use.)
3. I can’t guarantee reminders, this is a best effort task and cannot always be achieved given the amount of time it takes to call everybody.
4. Please tear off or print the last page of this leaflet and use it to remind yourself of the new deadline dates.

Article Guidelines
The newsletter simply aims to inform the Parish of events, celebrates its achievements and most importantly allows your organization / group / club to advertise itself and call for support.
What we do want to see are:
1. Promotion of Helmdon clubs and groups
2. Event lists for Helmdon clubs and groups
3. Reports on activities of Helmdon clubs and groups
4. Promotion of charitable events
5. Lists of useful contacts, local information and general helpful hints on how to get the most out of living here.
6. Articles celebrating Helmdon life and achievements
7. Articles discussing or informing Helmdon residents of things that are or may effect the village or the community.
8. Births, Deaths and Marriage announcements
9. Letters from parishioners about topics that affect the parish.
10.Letters from our elected representatives
11.Photos of life and events in Helmdon. We are always short of a good photo for the front cover but now also run a centrefold if we get a good collection of photos for any one issue. Ideally the photos will be digital so that you can email them to the editor.

12.Please note that if the photo has people or children in it, then we will need to see written consent from those people that we can publish the photo. This is particularly important where children are concerned.
Finally, we welcome commercial adverts and encourage you to help us find suitable sponsors. Please contact our publisher for more details or refer to the Helmdon website information and help keep the newsletter in print.

For time sensitive articles and adverts the deadlines are
March 1st and Sept 1st .