NEWSLETTER AWARD BACKGROUND

Recognizing the value of Base communications and wanting to encourage and help that process, the annual Newsletter of the Year award was launched in 1998.

Announced to the National SubVet Membership by Ron Martini, it was a tool to encourage Bases to first, develop their own membership newsletters and then to improve them sufficiently to be competitive with their peer Bases and those of other veterans' organizations and to recognize those there were superior to their peers.

The program was funded by Lockwood Internet Base Members and administered by Ron Martini, together with selected members of USSVI in the development, overseeing rules and entry judging.

The winners for the competition's three initial years were:

1999 Los Angeles/Pasadena California Base (District 10, Western Region)

2000 Crash Dive Wisconsin Base (District 6, Central Region)

2001 Topeka-Jefferson City Missouri Base (District 5, Central Region)

Following the Peoria Convention and concomitant recognition, Ron Martini offered the program to become part of the National Awards and Recognition program.

At that time, however, National had decided to focus and concentrate upon the existing awards programs then in effect and not take on another program at that time. As a result, no Newsletter of the Year award was scheduled to be given for the publishing year 2001 in 2002 at Duluth.

THE PROGRAM IS NOW ESTABLISHED AND UP ON ITS OWN

We are pleased to announce that the program is now a part of the National portfolio and will be administered this year by Awards Chairman Bill Britt along with the assistance of Central Region Director Art Randall, who spearheaded the award's re-birth, as the program administrator.

The re-establishment of this program will cover the publishing year 2002 through May of 2003 with announcement and recognition of the winners given in Reno, in 2003.

NEWSLETTER OF THE YEAR 2002-2003 RULES AND INFORMATION

ENTRANCE CLASSES

This time around, there will be an equalization of Base entrants.

In order to level the playing field, so that most Bases may enter their newsletter for competition at their peer level, there will be three classes, based upon Base membership size.

For the 2002-2003 judging, the three class sizes will be based upon the year ending Base Regular Members of record, in good standing as on file at the Silverdale USSVI Business Office, at the close of the first quarter 2003. 

The class ranges will be:

Class I     Small Bases 5 --- 35 members
Class II    Intermediate Bases --- 36-70 members
Class III   Large Bases --- 71 and over

RULES FOR ENTRY SUBMISSION

The rules for submission are simple:

1. Any Base, in any of the above classes, may submit their newsletter for submission to be judged in their peer class, with the following restrictions.

2. No entry for the current year, will be accepted from a Base that was the prior year's winner --- that is, no Base may win the Award two years in a row.

3. No more than one entry per Base will be accepted per publishing award period.

4. Professionally prepared and published Base newsletters will not be eligibl e for entry or consideration. Base Attestation to this requirement must be a part of the Base's cover letter.

5. The newsletter selected for submission must be the exact same newsletter in the exact same format and style as was sent to its members and other interested parties --- that is, for example, an entry will be disqualified if it was sent to the membership in black and white, but the entry was a single run-off in full color. The only exception will be the Base that has an Internet edition in color and a USPS edition in black and white, may, if the only difference between the two editions is color, submit the Internet edition printed in color.

6. The Base may select and submit up to the deadline (see 4. Below) in 2003, any newsletter it published during the period January 1, 2002 through May 31, 2003. 

7. The submitted entries may be sent by regular mail or e-mail (addresses will be supplied later), to be received by the Judging Committee no later than June 30, 2003. If e-mailed and the document was produced in any program other than MSWord, the document must be sent in a PDF file format. 

8. The submitting Base shall submit six copies of its entire newsletter it has selected for judging, one for each judge on the Judging Committee and mailed directly to them. A cover letter from the Base Commander, Editor or another designated Base official must accompany the entry, including the required and or optional attestations.

CRITERIA FOR JUDGING

It is not expected that the winning Base newsletter will meet all the elements that will be used in judging. It was felt that as many attributes as are possible and appropriate should be available to provide points to those newsletters that have these attributes, to offset some attributes they may not have that exist with other newsletters.

Accordingly, among the factors, elements and criteria for newsletter judging will be, but not necessarily limited to, the following (maximum points are in parenthesis out of 325 total possible points): 

1. Layout (10)

2. Overall Impression (10)

3. Use of Customized Masthead (10)

4. Table of Contents (5)

5. Graphics Use (Pictures, Graphs, Tables, etc.) (10)

6. Font use (Type, Appropriateness, Clarity, Minimum Change, etc.) (5)

7, White Space (i.e., Readability vs. Crowded Text) (5)

8. National USSVI or Other Submarine Related News (15)

9. New Member Column (15)

19. Officers' and Committeemen Reports and Columns

12 Member Recognition (Member of the Month, Quarter, New Member Profile, etc.) (15)

13 US SubVets WWII News (5)

14 Wives' (Ladies' Auxiliary) Column (Written by Members' Wives Regarding Outings, Base Activities, Programs, etc.) (15)

15 Holland Club News Column (10)

16 Report of Last Meeting (10)

17 Information as to Next Meeting (Time, City, Meeting Site, Map, Food, Entertainment, Site Seeing Activities, Agenda, etc.) (10)

18 Submarine Historical Information (10)

19 Veterans' Information (Legislation, Veterans' Administration, etc.) (10)

20 C&B Tutoring Column (10)

21 Humor (Military Jokes, Cartoons, Member Personal Sea Stories) (5)

22 Publisher's Box (Editor's Name, Frequency of Publication, Address of Article Submission, Officers Name and Contact Information, Base Website, etc.) (10)

23 District and Regional News and Events (15)

24 Current Fleet News (Active Namesake Boat News or Other Appropriate Fleet Activity (10)

25 Status of Base Projects (10)

26 Advertisers Listing and Base Supporter Recognition (10)

27 Appearance of USSVI Creed (5)

28 Articles supporting USSVI programs (Memorials and Ceremonies, Charitable Foundation, etc.

Bonus: If an attestation appears in the cover letter accompanying the entry that all newsletters published during the award period time frame had been sent to the National Archives Chairman, and so affirmed by the Archives Chairman, the entry will qualify for an additional 15 points.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION 

The awards presented to the top achieving Base newsletters in each Class, will be: 

... Winners will be announced and reported in the next open issue of American Submariner following the Convention.

... Place positions will be recorded on the Roll of Winners.

... If they are in attendance, the representative of prior year's winners' Base(s) will present the current year's winners their awards at the current year's Convention's Business Meeting, or at the Banquet, as deemed appropriate by the Awards Chairman.

If the (past years winners) representatives are not in attendence, the presentation will be made by the National Awards Chairman.

The 2003 Winners will be given their awards in Reno by a representative of the Topeka-Jefferson City Base as the last Base to receive the Newsletter of the Year for 2001, awarded in Peoria.