communication department

Volume XX Number 5

---

Competitions

Newsletter Competition Results

By Elizabeth Bailey, Manager, STC Newsletter Competition

The 2006–07 STC newsletter competition results are in!

The Newsletter Competition Committee works to offer an all-inclusive recognition and evaluation program for STC community newsletter editors; provide STC newsletter editors with networking and mentoring opportunities through the STC newsletter discussion list; and promote participation at the entrant, judge, and committee-member level. While the number of entrants was smaller this year than last, we had seventeen regional community entrants, four student community entrants, and four SIG community entrants. There were seventeen submitted as online entries and eight submitted as paper entries.

Entries in the newsletter competition compete for five awards: Most Improved, Merit, Excellence, Distinguished, and Best of Show. Eighteen entries received awards.

Merit, Excellence, and Distinguished Awards

For the Merit, Excellence, and Distinguished Awards, newsletters do not compete against each other. Each entry is measured against the award criteria specified in the Rules for the STC Newsletter Competition. You can download the rules from the STC Web site.

The basic eligibility requirements are as follows:

• Entrants must follow all submission rules and meet all entry deadlines.
• All submitted entries must be consecutive issues that have been published during the competition year of February 1, 2006 through January 31, 2007.
• Only one newsletter medium—online or paper—is eligible per year per community.

Normally, there is a criterion for publication frequency requirements including six times per year for geographic communities, four times per year for student communities, and three times per year for SIGs. However, this criterion was removed for this competition year. Entrants may also enter a noncompetitive entry for which valuable feedback can be acquired. This year, all entries were competitive ones.

The judging criteria span four different areas: fundamental elements, recommended topics, editorial quality, and design and delivery. Fundamental elements and recommended topics are statistical categories; these elements are either present or not. Judges look for the presence of fundamental elements, including required information, publication frequency, Society contact information, newsletter title and community name, STC symbol using the correct logo, Society logotype, publication date, editor’s name and contact information, newsletter mailing address (physical or e-mail), publication policies, reprint policies, STC mission statement, copyright statement, and the senior community officer names and contact information. If these are not present, points are deducted from the newsletter’s fundamental elements score. Recommended topics range from local information to Society information, and include fourteen topics. Points are deducted for newsletters that do not provide a minimum number of these topics.

The qualitative evaluation scoring for editorial quality and design and delivery is based on usage, style, craftsmanship, originality, overall impression, professional presentation, page design, art quality and appropriateness, typography, and delivery. For this evaluation, at least two different judges review the three submitted issues and rate each item on a scale from poor to excellent, resulting in an averaged score for each newsletter.

From this, the different area scores are calculated, resulting in a final score for each newsletter. If the score for the newsletter falls between 94.5 percent or more of the total available points, an award of Distinguished is bestowed. If the score for the newsletter falls between 84.5 to 94.4 percent or more of the total available points, an award of Excellence is bestowed. If the score for the newsletter falls between 70 and 84.4 percent or more of the total available points, an award of Merit is bestowed. Those newsletters that receive a score lower than 70 points do not win an award. Winning entries appear in Table 1.

Most Improved

This category considers the newsletters of chapter communities, student communities, and SIGs separately, and further categorizes entries by community size. To qualify for a Most Improved award, the newsletter must meet the minimum entry requirements and earn a final score in this year’s competition that is greater than or equal to the lowest Merit award score of 71 earned the previous year. The community’s score must also be greater than last year’s, such that the difference between last year’s score and this year’s higher score is greater than those deltas computed for all other entrants in the classification. Within the chapter community classification, the community membership count as of March 2007 was used to determine winners of the Most Improved awards.

The newsletters receiving Most Improved awards are listed in Table 2.

Best of Show

And, finally, the Best of Show award winner is chosen from among the highest scoring award winners. This year, the Best of Show award goes to the Lone Star Chapter STC for Technically Write.

Judges and Volunteers

Special thanks to the outstanding volunteers who helped make all of this happen:

Jennifer Abbott
Tom Barnett
Lanette Cornwell
Robert Delwood
Kathy Hall
Paul Holland
Rachel Houghton
Elaine Jones
Suzanna Laurent
Mark L. Levinson
Michael Opsteegh
Garret Romaine
Julie Tarr
Jean Tikusis
Bonnie Yelverton

These judges and committee volunteers spent their time judging entries and performing other duties such as recruiting volunteers to judge, maintaining the newsletter editor discussion list, compiling scoring information, and creating commentary summaries for each entrant.

Preparing for 2007–08

All Society newsletter editors are encouraged to join the STC newsletter editors’ discussion list to share your experiences as well as your newly published issues.

For those of you who missed the opportunity to volunteer as a judge this past year, feel free to complete the judge’s application form for the 2007–08 competition. The newsletter competition rules, calendar, and committee lists are also available online. In addition, there is a list of roles and responsibilities in case you are interested in what each of the committee members do. Please contact Elizabeth Bailey, STC Newsletter Competition Manager, to volunteer for a committee role in the upcoming year.

Congratulate the Winners

Newsletters play an integral role in communicating news and information between STC geographic communities and special interest groups (SIGs) and their members. They also help members and nonmembers develop an interest in STC goals and activities at both the community and Society levels. The STC newsletter competition honors community newsletter producers who strive to achieve these goals and excel in newsletter publication.

By combining creativity, individuality, and dedication, the competition winners have distinguished themselves in service to their communities and SIGs. These award-winning newsletters illustrate the importance of the skill and talents of hard-working, perceptive editors.

The editors, writers, and other contributors to these publications deserve much praise for their time, energy, and perseverance in publishing a quality product. Please offer your congratulations to this year’s award winners.

Table 1. Merit, Excellence, and Distinguished Award Winners

Name	Newsletter	Award
Chicago	Byline	Merit
East Bay	Devil Mountain Views	Merit
Eastern Ontario	Stimulus	Merit
Instructional Design and Learning SIG	IDeaL: Design for Learning	Merit
James Madison University	Bytes & Pieces	Merit
Lone Star	Technically Write*	Excellence
Manitoba	Manuscript	Merit
North Carolina State University	Technically Speaking	Excellence
Northeast Ohio	Lines and Letters	Merit
Oklahoma	The Dialog!	Merit
Orange County	TechniScribe	Merit
Orlando	Memo to Members	Excellence
Phoenix	Rough Draft	Excellence
Pittsburgh	Blue Pencil	Merit
Palm Beaches	The Wave	Merit
Puget Sound	SoundOff!	Merit
Rocky Mountain	Technicalities	Excellence
Willamette Valley	The Willamette Galley	Excellence

*Best of Show winner.

­Table 2. Most Improved Newsletters

­Community	Newsletter	Award Specifics
James Madison University	Bytes & Pieces	Most Improved newsletter of community with 40 or fewer members
Orlando	Memo to Members	Most Improved newsletter of community with 76–150 members
Phoenix	Rough Draft	Most Improved newsletter of community with 151–300 members
Willamette Valley	The Willamette Galley	Most Improved newsletter of community with 301–600 members

---

STC Public Relations Competition Winners

The STC Public Relations Competition recognizes the effectiveness of STC chapters and special interest groups (SIGs) in sustained or special event public relations efforts. Good public relations programs enhance the image of STC and our profession among employers and the general public.

The winners of this year’s competition accurately and professionally communicated their mission and activities to their target audiences using all available media, including the Internet. The judges felt that all of this year’s winners serve as excellent examples in their respective public relations categories.

The competition entries will be displayed at the upcoming STC annual conference in Minneapolis, along with winning entries from other STC-sponsored competitions.

“STC has a powerful story to tell,” STC Public Relations Competition Manager George Slaughter said. “Communities are using public relations tools and techniques to help them tell that powerful story to the general public and other target audiences.”

The winning communities of the 2006–07 STC Public Relations Competition and their public relations committee managers are listed below.

Category: Chapter Public Relations Program

Distinguished Technical Communication
Lone Star Community
Lauren Womack

Excellence
Atlanta Community
Eugene Larson

Category: Specific Event or Service Publicity

Excellence
North Carolina State University Student Community
Sarah Egan Warren