Newsletter: Fall 2015

Fall workshop to focus on staff motivation, organization

Staff motivation and organization are two of the most fascinating and challenging parts of scholastic journalism. This year’s fall workshop will focus on both. The workshop will be Friday morning, Oct. 23 from 10-noon at Boston University’s College of Communication. After a presentation on staff motivation, participants will be encouraged to share questions and experiences.

Next there will be a panel on which Boston University faculty and leaders of award winning scholastic media will discuss:

  • News gathering organizational structures
  • How the structures have developed
  • How they are likely to change

Tuition for the workshop is $25 per person. The deadline for enrollment is Friday, Oct. 9.

How to sign up

On a sheet of paper or using the application in the PDF of Volume 21, No. 1 of NESPA News on this site, include the name of your publication/program, your adviser’s name and email, your adviser’s signature, your school name, school phone and school address.

Send this information along with $25 tuition fee per person, payable to NESPA, to Helen F. Smith, NESPA executive director, Boston University, College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215 by Friday, Oct. 9.

Stylebook for the Scholastic Press

NESPA has just published a stylebook. Please see description and order form on this site.

Special contest on localizing

When you show how issues that affect people in your state, your country or around the world also affect people in your own school community, that’s localizing. To enter the 2015 Localizing Contest, please send the broadcast or published work with the entry form and fee. Entries must have been published or broadcast between May 2 and December 31, 2015.

Submissions can be artwork, blogs, charts, columns, diagrams, documentaries, editorials, essays, fiction, news or feature stories, podcasts, single photos or photo illustrations, photo essays, poetry, podcasts, PSAs, special pages, special sections, slide shows or spreads.

For print media please send complete page, unmounted tear sheet on which entry appears. Yearbooks please send either a PDF or photocopy of the page(s) from you 2015 book. Tape a filled out copy of the entry form in the print PDF of Volume 21, No. 1 to the upper right corner of the back of EACH entry.Broadcasts please send DVD. Put the web link to each online entry on the entry form.

Entry fee: NONE for NESPA members; $3 per entry for non-members.

  • Send entries to: New England Scholastic Press Association, Helen F. Smith, executive director, Boston University, College of Communication, 640 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Mass. 02215, or submit online here.
  • Deadline: Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.
  • Winners will be notified by April 1 and results will be announced at the annual spring conference. In addition, the winners are announced in the summer issue of NESPA News.

For a list of 175 topics to localize, please see NESPA News Fall, 2015 on this site.

Scheduling visits to your school

Visits present opportunities to address particular areas of interest. After school or during a class period, these visits are a service this organization provides to members at no charge. Advisers and staffs can ask questions, discuss concerns and get suggestions on topics of special interest to improve their publications and production work.

Topics of recent visits have included:

  • Advertising sales and managing the business side
  • Critiques of current publications
  • Design and redesign techniques
  • Techniques to monitor copy flow more efficiently
  • News and feature coverage and writing
  • Sports coverage and writing
  • Curriculum planning
  • Copyediting and proofreading

How to arrange a visit

To arrange for a visit, please contact Helen F. Smith, NESPA’s executive director, at 617-353-3478, phsmith@igc.org or helenfs@bu.edu. Visits are free to members in good standing as of May 1, 2015 and to those who join this fall.

NESPA dates to note:

  • Friday, Oct. 9: Registration deadline for workshop on sports journalism.
  • Friday, Oct. 23: Workshop on staff motivation and organization from 10-noon at College of Communication, Boston University.
  • Friday, Jan. 15: Special Contest on Localizing entries are due.
  • Friday, April 8: Annual publication and production contest deadline. Details in the next newsletter.
  • Monday, May 2: New England Scholastic Press Association’s 67th annual conference at Boston University
  • Friday, June 10: Registration deadline for teachers’ workshop on How to Advise a Scholastic News Publication.
  • June 27-July 1: Workshop on How to Advise a Scholastic News Publication.

For details and procedures on membership, workshop registration, professional award nominations and contest entry forms, please download the NESPA News Fall, 2015 PDF print edition on this site.