Exemplary Publications

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It’s Exemplary Publications time. The Department of Media and Communications Development (MCD) is pleased once again to sponsor its Exemplary Publication initiative. You may recall that this is an opportunity for schools, offices, and organizations to submit their newsletters for evaluation with the goal of continuous improvement. Remember, each newsletter is evaluated against an objective rubric and then assigned a level of achievement, gold, silver or bronze. Participants will receive a camera-ready banner to use on their publications which reflects their status as exemplary publications.

Once again this year we have invited Virginian-Pilot Home section editor Victoria Hecht to serve as one of the evaluators. We have also invited MCD graphic designer Georgia Liguid-Miller and Curriculum and Instruction secondary English instructional specialist Fran Sharer to serve as well. Seven criteria will comprise the rubric against which each newsletter is measured. These are overall layout, content, timeliness, accuracy, marketing, organization, and graphics/photos. Each criterion is rated on a scale of one to five, with five being the highest.

We hope that in the interest of continuous improvement you will participate in the exemplary publications evaluation this year. It really is easy: Simply submit three copies of your publication – examples from last school year along with an entry form – to the attention of Sandi Maxwell in the Department of Media and Communications Development. Or, you may submit electronic copies to sandi.maxwell@vbschools.com along with a copy of the registration form which can be downloaded from MCD’s Web site at vbschools.com.

Once the judges have evaluated all the publications and determined which of the exemplary banners each newsletter has earned, MCD will forward all newsletter editors an electronic 2010 Exemplary Publication banner to be used on publications from January 2010 through December 2010.

How to Enter

Print:

•	Download a form from the Web site at www.vbschools.com/publicationaward, fill it out and submit it with your newsletter samples (see below).
•	Enclose three separate editions of the same newsletter produced during the 2008-09 and/or this school year and send them to MCD, e-Kaleidoscope, School Administration Building via Pony Mail.
•	Submission deadline: December 1, 2009.

Electronic:

•	Complete an entry form online at http://www.vbschools.com/publicationaward.
•	Provide three separate editions of the same newsletter produced during the 2008-09 school year and/or this school year.
•	If produced in Microsoft Publisher, simply attach the PUB file to an e-mail and send it to bonnie.fischer@vbschools.com.
•	If produced by software other than Microsoft Publisher, save your newsletter as a PDF through Adobe Acrobat, attach the file to an e-mail, and send it to bonnie.fischer@vbschools.com.
•	Submission deadline: December 1, 2009.