COMMUNICATIONS & ADVERTISING POLICY

A small number of volunteers work to support several information and advertising initiatives to inform our members and the public of branch events and happenings. These include a printed newsletter and calendar; website, Facebook page, branch news email, Foyer calendar, stand mounted notice boards, and printed posters within the branch. We are always looking for volunteers to assist and until we have more we cannot achieve the level of service we would like.

There are immediate requirement for volunteers to step up to assume the roles of "Branch 295 Communications and Advertising Coordinator" and "Branch & Member News Email Editor".

Guidance provided below specifies communications and advertising standards that are unlikely to be reviewed until after a coordinator is in place. The requirements are clear. If you are coordinating or sponsoring an event then it is up to you to submit advertising material on time and in a format that can be used on all of our platforms. If you are a committee head or member with a responsibility to inform members then you are responsible for submitting plain text spell and grammar checked material on time.

Advertising Requests

All requests should be directed to the office. Email should be addressed to rclbr295@shaw.ca unless otherwise specified in a request for submissions.

Advertising requests for events not recorded on the official branch calendar in the office will be rejected.

Requests for social and activity event advertising must include -

Name of the event
A brief description of the activity
Date and time
Place (if not at the branch)
Ticket or cover price (if applicable)
Kitchen service including menu prices (if applicable)
Fundraising events should include what organization or branch fund the profits go to.

Posters will be reviewed by the office (Donna Deck), Bill Higdon, Shirley Norrish, or Krista Smith before posting on the wall or on the exterior board.

Electronic submissions may be published on one or more of our platforms at the discretion of the communications coordinator.

Deadlines

Printed newsletter and calendar submissions are due by the 10th day of the month preceding publication. (e.g. due date 10 Oct for Nov/Dec edition). All material is published on a space-available basis and is subject to abridgment by the editor.

The Branch and Member News email editor will advise selected addressees of submission dates.

Formats

Images in a standard image format such as .jpg, .jpeg, or .bmp are acceptable.

All submissions containing images shall be accompanied by plain text spell and grammar-checked material.

Social Media

Branch 295 maintains one authorized Facebook page (www.facebook.com/rcl295). The page is managed by authorized Administrators, Editors, and Moderators. Its purpose is to convey event information, important branch information, and to encourage remembrance. It is not a forum to publicly voice complaints and we reserve the right to remove negative posts or comments and to block the originators of such posts or comments. We do not have dedicated volunteers to moderate the page and have no tolerance for negativity.

We appreciate the efforts of others who wish to support the branch through other means such as Facebook pages or Facebook Groups. We do, however, require that such public pages or groups comply with the following standards:

Page or Group names must not appear to be an official page or group of the Royal Canadian Legion. For example, names must clearly indicate that the page or group is for "Supporters", "Friends" or another suitable descriptive word.
The "About" section must include the following statement:

"Friends of (or Supporters of, etc) Chilliwack-Vedder 295" is an unofficial site for friends and supporters of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 295 Chilliwack-Vedder to communicate with each other and is not sponsored by the legion. For official legion communications, you may visit www.facebook.com/rcl295 or the branch website at https://sites.google.com/view/rcl295/home.

BRANCH & MEMBER NEWS EMAILS

Introduction

1. Branch and Member News emails are sent out only by direction of the president. They are intended to convey important legion and branch and Ladies Auxiliary information electronically to as many members as possible.

2. Significant effort is required in gathering, drafting, and finalizing content and each email must be sent up to five times due to Shaw's limit of 128 recipients on each email. As of January 2023 there are over 575 members with email addresses.

3. IT Services manages the email contacts list that includes all branch members that have an email address on their official record on the Membership Portal are on our distribution list. Members who wish to "unsubscribe" from these emails can either sign into their portal record and remove their email address from legion records or ask the Membership Officer to do it.

4. "MEMBER NEWS" emails are restricted to members only. "BRANCH NEWS" emails include the Subscriber group.

Content

1. These emails are designed to convey important branch and legion information; the level of effort to prepare them and get them out the door is too high for use as a routine advertising mechanism. Branch social and entertainment events will often be included in the emails, but emails will not be sent for the sole purpose of advertising these events.

2. Emails will not normally include repeats of advertising information already provided in the printed newsletter and calendar, Facebook, displayed on the Foyer Calendar, or for which posters have gone up on the wall(s). They may include information such as "tickets sold out" or "tickets still available" for forthcoming events.

3. Executive reports submitted by the branch president and Ladies Auxiliary presidents will be included as will membership information provided by the Membership Officer.

4. "Canned" content is included in a "Signature" block at the end of each email. (See below for current content)

Frequency

1. Established by the president and the volunteer editor.

Responsibilities

1. The president is the approving authority for all Member & Branch News emails.

2. Content management is the responsibility of the originators of the information subject to the president's approval.

3. The Member & Branch News Email Editor is responsible for editing, finalizing, and sending emails and for managing replies to the emails. Reply actions normally require forwarding the reply to someone else for action. (e.g. membership inquiries and email address changes to the Membership Chair; just about everything else to the president.). The Editor has a limited role in content management.

4. The president and other executives are responsible for providing non-event related information.

5. Event organizers are responsible for providing event advertising information. This is likely where a "Communications & Advertising Coordinator" would be beneficial. For now, the email editor will send out notices for submissions to a select group including the branch and LA presidents, Membership Officer, Ways and Means Officer, and others involved in event calendar management.

6. IT Services is responsible for maintaining the contact list and managing the distribution "Groups". Updates are scheduled approximately every two months.

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DRAFTING EMAIL

1. Use "Edit as New" to open a previously sent email and update the Subject line which is usually RCL BRANCH 295 MEMBER NEWS EMAIL or RCL BRANCH 295 BRANCH NEWS EMAIL, each followed by the day, month, and year.

2. Click on Blind Carbon Copy Bcc: and remove the recipients. Highlight the top Bcc: recipient, hold the Shift key, and scroll down to the last recipient and select the entire range and "Remove".

3. "Save Draft" and use it for your editing sessions for the next planned "send".

EDITING EMAIL

1. Formatting is at the discretion of the editor and the president.

SENDING EMAIL

1. Shaw limits each send to 128 recipients (includes To:, cc:, and Bcc). IT Services manages the contact list and sets up "Groups". Group naming convention is "0_A-C", 0_D-I", etc. The purpose of the "0" is to sort the groups to the top of the contact list. Alphabetical groupings will change depending on the number of recipients. The contact list is sourced exclusively from the Dominion Portal. Both the Membership Officer and IT Services update addresses on the portal as required.

The "Subscriber" group is included in Branch News emails but not in Member News emails. There are only a few recipients and that group and they can be included in the "Send" to any smaller group.

2. Enter rclbr295@shaw.ca in the To: field.

3. Click on Bcc: and select the first group.

4. Send the email. See below for dealing with bad email addresses that prevent sending the email to anyone.

5. Go the the Sent box, right click on the message, and Edit as New.

6. Remove the recipients as described above in DRAFTING EMAIL.

7. Select the next group and send the email.

8. Repeat until done.

Note: The only To: recipient is rclbr295@shaw.ca. Everyone else is BCC. We do not want to be responsible for disclosing recipients email addresses to others.

DEALING WITH BAD EMAIL ADDRESSES AND UNDELIVERABLE MESSAGES (BOUNCE REPLIES)

BAD EMAIL ADDRESSES

1. Bad email addresses normally result from members changing their address without information the Membership Officer or IT Services. Data entry errors account for others.

2. Bad email addresses are identified in a pop up message after hitting "Send". The message will not go out until the bad address has been removed.

Make note of all bad email addresses and remove them from the contact list after all emails have been sent.
Report bad email addresses to the Membership Officer who will remove them from the Dominion Portal.
We do not chase after anyone for email address changes.

BOUNCES (Undeliverable)

3. Sometimes an email address is good but for some reason the message is undeliverable. That can result from, but not limited to, full inboxes or recipient server problems.

4. "Bounce" replies may or may not indicate a good reason for the bounce. We generally do not worry about them. Bounces can be referred to IT Services who might be able to determine if we want to follow up.

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"Canned" content included at the bottom of all branch & members news emails

Check our website calendar and news at https://sites.google.com/view/rcl295/home.

From our website you can add a shortcut to the branch website Newsletter & Calendar page on the home screen of your smartphone by opening the calendar and saving it to your home screen.

Check our Facebook page for special events, opening times, and kitchen menus. https://www.facebook.com/rcl295

The Dispatch is Dominion's all-branch newsletter, delivering you the latest news, announcements and branch management tips. You can view them online at https://portal.legion.ca/branch-and-command-resources/all-branch-emails. You may also subscribe on the site to receive them by email.

SICK & VISITING. If you know of members in the hospital who would like a visit you may leave a message at the branch or contact Fred McMurrer directly at 604-793-7580 (Cell) or by email at fredmcmurrer@shaw.ca. We may also be able to refer members in need of handicap aids such as canes, crutches, walkers to a supplier.

"Branch News" emails are distributed to members in good standing and subscribers under the authority of the Chilliwack-Vedder Branch 295 president. Non-member subscribers will not normally receive "Member News" emails intended only for members.

All members having an email address on record with the Royal Canadian Legion on the Membership portal will receive these emails.

If you are changing your email address please let us know by replying to this email and provide your full name, legion membership number (if applicable), and new email address. If you are a legion member you may also update your email address by logging onto your account on the Dominion Portal at https://portal.legion.ca/login or by contacting the branch membership officer. Please note that changes can take up to three months to take effect.

Please direct all other inquiries to the branch office at rclbr295@shaw.ca

Royal Canadian Legion Chilliwack-Vedder

5661 Vedder Rd,

Chilliwack, British Columbia

Phone: (604) 858-3600

email: rclbr295@shaw.ca