How to prepare and submit your State News.

 REQUIREMENTS:
CREATE A WORD DOCUMENT, (PICTURES OK) NO COLUMNS
WITH “GRAND COMMANDERY NAME” ,
“MONTH and YEAR”, then:
INFO on Grand Commander (Picture?)/Editor
at the “TOP” of Document ,
INSERT MESSAGE/s
THEN CONVERT TO .PDF
BACK TO “HOME” for Examples from Other States
NEEDED for NEW WP WEB SITE and SMART PHONE APP

SEND to Dan Pushee kych52fl@gmail.com
by 1st of the Month – 352-794-3471 for Questions

GRAND COMMANDER/STATE EDITOR KT NEWS GUIDELINES

It is the policy of the Grand Encampment and the Knight Templar Magazine to expressly prohibit the publication in the magazine, in a magazine news letter, or on the Grand Encampment web site of any material that:
1. Is patently offensive or promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual.
2. Harasses or advocates harassment of another person.
3. Exploits people in a sexual or violent manner.
4. Contains nudity, excessive violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to an adult website.
5. Publicly posts information that poses or creates a privacy or security risk to any person.
6. Constitutes or promotes information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous.
7. Constitutes or promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person’s copyrighted work.
8. Is critical of the Grand Encampment, the Grand Commandery, or any officer thereof.
9. Furthers or promotes any criminal activity or enterprise or provides instructional information about illegal activities including, but not limited to making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone’s privacy, or providing or involves commercial activities and/or sales without prior written consent from the Grand Encampment such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes.
10. Includes a photograph or video of another person that you have posted without that person’s consent, or violates the privacy rights, publicity rights, defamation rights, copyrights, trademark rights, contract rights or any other rights of any person.
11. Promotes the candidacy of any person for election to any office public or Masonic.

Statement of Purpose:
The primary function of the news lettter should be to convey news of state Templar and/or Masonic events, both past and upcoming, to the membership; secondly, to convey the organization’s mission and goals and the Grand Commander’s personal vision on how to accomplish them; thirdly, the limited inclusion of short anecdotes and/or inspirational items.

General Suggestions:
1. Novice or inexperienced writers should select or retain the State Editor, and work with him to practice writing news while serving as Deputy Grand Commander.
2. Find an experienced writer to act as a coach – Templar, relative, or teacher.
3. Consider and treat the monthly news as an opportunity to communicate to all S.K.s in jurisdiction simultaneously and with zero cost.
4. Treat the news letter as a valuable asset to be maximized.
5. Photos and/or other graphics may be used to enhance the narrative. Artwork minimum resolution is 300 DPI, and may be in color.

Criteria
1. News Letters submitted as PDF file on Grand Encampment Web-site, usually by Editor.
2. Deadline 1st of the Month.
3. Two pages NO COLUMNS AS PREVIOUSLY REQUIED FOR THE PRINTING IN MAGAZINE!
4. Size 12 font Recommended, size 10 Minimum.
5. Look professional -Spell and Grammar Check articles.
6. When deciding on material to include in the news letter, preference should always be given to items relating to Templar activities in the state.

Content
The News Letters can be roughly classed as follows, and over the 12 month term all should be used. Individual news letters can incorporate elements of two or even three of them.
1. News Story (Front page of newspaper)
Use for one-time special events. (e.g., in 2015 PA laid a wreath at the DC Tomb of the Unknowns)
Minimize publishing routine recurring banquet announcements.
Avoid wasting entire page publishing event registration forms.
2. Leadership / Management (Business section of newspaper)
Present Grand Commander programs or initiatives.
Clearly state the WHO, WHAT, WHEN and WHY of the program.
(e.g., In 2016 the Grand Commandery of X will be focusing on maximizing use of the YRIS system by Grand Officers, Division Commanders, and constituent officers, to insure every S.K. in X will receive the KT Magazine, and dues cards in a timely manner.
Follow-up with articles tracking progress.
3. Editorial or Human Interest (Editorial page or Sunday “Parade”)
Holiday or inspirational messages.
Masonic related personal tales of wide interest.
(e.g., Gen and Bro. Doolittle Tokyo raid, but probably not Bro. Smith from My Commandery was promoted to E-3.)

4. Items That Should Probably NOT be Included
Items for sale
Forms for event reservations, event schedules, etc.
Advertising notices
Campaign ads for Masonic and/or non-Masonic offices candidates
Historical items already published elsewhere

Revised September 1, 2021, Original STATE SUPPLEMENT GUIDELINES by MARSHALL & ROWE JAN 2016

FOR ASSISTANCE or Questions:
Contact: SK Dan Pushee, EPC MA19, KCT, KGC
Electronic Communications Committee,
Chairman and Editor for State KT News
352-794-3471 kych52fl@gmail.com