Important Dates, Department News, President’s Project, FFWC News, GFWC News, Member Recognition & Achievements, District #, region, Name of Club, FFWC/GFWC logo, President, Club’s website address, email contact, Each department needs to have article each month with name of chairperson with phone and/or email contact, officer contact info, upcoming meeting/important dates, etc. Most importantly…make sure you have contact information on your newsletters (ie: email, phone number, chairman’s names, etc…) It’s especially great to have so you can leave your Newsletters around at businesses around town! It’s a great Marketing tool! And a great way to get additional members! Think about it!

Make sure your newsletter format is EASY TO READ! Some newsletters are so crowded. Don’t be afraid to use WHITE SPACE.

SOME MISTAKES TO AVOID - The biggest mistake for a newsletter is lack of white space. When you try and put everything on one page it all merges together and looks like one big blob.

Here’s a tip: Hold your newsletter up in front of you, scrunch up your eyes and hold out the newsletter to check for contrast, if it looks grey and muddled… add some more white space!

We sometimes use too many graphics, too many boxes, and way too much color! Try to not let your pictures straddle over your columns- they should be within the column and set against the left border and don’t let the text butt up against the pictures, allow enough spacing to set them off and have captions describing your pictures too.

Always recognize your members in your newsletters. It’s SO very important. Remember it’s their club too!

The most important elements of a newsletter is that they are relevant, interesting to read, easy to read, legible, captivating and newsworthy, have good spelling and grammar, great headlines and have great pictures.

I have taken the liberty to explain the Club Yearbook and Newsletter Contest form by explaining the terminology definitions below. From the prior year reports there was a lot of confusion and misunderstanding from a lot of clubs. I hope this will help us all understand things a little better.

(This does NOT guarantee Your Club will be the Winner-it will Help)

Here are a few criteria: District #, region, Name of Club, FFWC/GFWC logo, President, Club’s website address, email contact, Each department needs to have article each month with name of chairperson with phone and/or email contact, officer contact info, upcoming meeting/important dates, etc. Most importantly…make sure you have contact information on your newsletters (ie: email, phone number, chairman’s names, etc…) It’s especially great to have so you can leave your Newsletters around at businesses around town! It’s a great Marketing tool! And a great way to get additional members! Think about it!

A yearbook should have a wealth of knowledge for any member to have about their club and the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs and the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs. It should be able to answer any question they have.

Criteria for Yearbooks: GFWC/FFWC emblems, name of club, district, year club founded, president’s message, board of directors, club information, membership requirements, important dates, committees, department information, list of projects, calendars, newsletters, forms, by-laws, club history, FFWC history, GFWC history, reporting, member contact area, etc. Clubhouse information if you have a clubhouse.

District – Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs is divided into 14 districts. The county your Club is in, is in one of these districts.

Category- Each club in the FFWC is in a certain category, ask your President it should be Category 1-5.

Club Name- Insert your club name here.

# of Members- Total number of members in your club.

Funding: Club Budget y n – This means…did your club have a budget for your newsletter? And or Yearbook?

Estimated Value of Ads/Donations-this means if you had anyone that advertised in your Newsletter/Yearbook to help cut the cost of expenses, how much was it?

Total Cost per year (include postage)- you put the total cost of your newsletter and/or Yearbook here.

# of copies made per issue – how many Newsletters/Yearbooks were made.

Hours per year – How long it took your editor and contributors to work on Newsletter/Yearbook

NOT the Printer.

Hours per issue – How long it took your editor and contributors to work on newsletter per issue.

Number of different issues per year- means Month (do you have a newsletter 1x a month)

Quarter (do you have newsletter only 4 x a year)

Week (do you have a newsletter every week)

Distribute: What percentage of your newsletter is mailed?

What percentage of your newsletter is emailed?

What percentage of your newsletter is other? - this may mean…do you copy your newsletter and hand it out at meetings? What other forms of communication do you have?

Comments: Put any comments you have in this spot.

GFWC Club Newsletter Contest

CONTEST GUIDELINES

JUDGES WILL AWARD POINTS AS FOLLOWS TO ALL GROUPS

 Quality of content, including timeliness, clarity, and member impact: 50%

 Presentation, design, and ease of use: 25%

 Required elements as outlines: 25

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

 Clubs and states may submit only 1 newsletter each, and the newsletter must have been printed and clearly dated during the calendar year preceding the award (so, newsletters must be dated 2008 to be eligible in 2009, and dated 2009 to be eligible in 2010).

 The front page for each newsletter must contain a prominent mention of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs and use the correct GFWC emblem.

 All newsletters must include contact information for at least one member of the club, by either email, address, phone number, fax or mailing address.

 Submissions must be made by mail to the national GFWC Communications and Public Relations Chairman by March 31 in the year in which they will be judged.

(See requirements in your Presidents Handbook)