[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 59-04, October - December, 2005 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

2005 Bulletin Editor’s contest

By Waldo Redekop, Ontario District PROBE Contact

Each year, the Association of Public Relations Officers and Bulletin Editors (PROBE) runs a contest to determine the Bulletin Editor of The Year (BETY) on behalf of the Society for the districts.

It again is time for all bulletin editors in the Ontario District to start planning to prepare their entries for the contest. Every bulletin entered will be returned with a scoring summary, comments, critiques and suggestions from the judges. The winners will be announced at the district spring convention. The top two bulletins in the Ontario District will be entered in the International  Bulletin Contest (IBC).

If you publish your bulletin on a monthly basis, submit two sets of three copies of three consecutive issues (that is a total of 18 issues, six of each of three consecutive issues). At least one copy of each bulletin must be an off-the-press copy (not a photocopy of the published bulletin). At least six issues of the bulletin must have been published in 2005.

For weeklies, the submission of two sets of three copies of 12 consecutive issues is required: three double sets of 12 issues (one being an off-the-press set). For biweeklies, submit two sets of three copies of nine consecutive issues: three double sets of nine issues (one being an off-the-press set). At least six months of weeklies or biweeklies must have been published to be eligible.

The categories in which each bulletin is judged are Content (800 points), Layout and Reproduction (600 points), and Grammar and Style (600 points) — total 2,000 points. Each issue is allocated one-third of the points.

Submit your bulletins to me, your district’s PROBE contact, at the beginning of January. You can either send them to me or bring them with you to COTS on January 6-8, 2006. Please notify me if you are sending them by mail since I must receive them before January 15, 2006.

If you have any questions, contact me. My phone and fax number and mailing address are located on page two.  k