Policy Statement for The Chalice , the Newsletter of the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh

Fellowship members, friends, visitors, and the broader community read The Chalice . Its primary purpose is to inform members and friends of happenings at UUFR. It includes announcements of upcoming events; Sunday Service listings; communications from the minister, Board president, and YRE director; calendar listings; care contact information; committee news and announcements; and a column reporting important events in the lives of the members and friends of the UUFR community.

The newsletter also is an important part of the Fellowship’s outreach to visitors and the community. Thus, in addition to keeping the congregation informed, The Chalice should convey a sense of who we are at UUFR and what is important to us.

Submitting Items to The Chalice

• Items for publication in The Chalice should be submitted by email to chalice@uufr.org . It is best if the submission is included in the text of the email and not as an attachment. If email is not possible, submissions may be dropped off during office hours before the deadline.
• The current deadlines for submission are the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, at midnight.
• All articles should specify contact information, including name, phone and/or email. Using the office phone or email as contact information is not allowed without prior approval.
• Items about upcoming events should contain a time, date, place, and description of the event, as well as contact information.
• Lengthy descriptions of events are hard to accommodate. In the interest of saving space and allowing everyone to publish their items, long items may be shortened.
• To submit a flyer to be an insert in the newsletter, first contact the Office Administrator to alert the editorial staff. Both an electronic and a hard copy of the flyer must be submitted to the office by the deadline. The cost of paper and copying is the responsibility of the submitters. If you prefer a certain color of paper for the flyer, please let the office know of that request when submitting your work. Inserts will not be included in more than one issue. Because of the cost of extra postage, there is a limit of 2 flyers/inserts or 1 page (back and front) in each newsletter.
• Normally, items will be published once. Items must be resubmitted to be included in a subsequent newsletter. Resubmissions may be edited to be more concise.

 

Editorial Policies

• Submissions may be edited for the following reasons: to correct spelling, punctuation, or grammar; to improve readability and conciseness; or to shorten text due to space limitations.
• Submissions may also be edited to provide The Chalice with an overall uniformity of style. We would like the newsletter to have a warm and friendly style that would invite visitors and potential members to become part of the congregation. We encourage submitters to use a friendly style and to use humor when appropriate.
• Submissions deemed not in keeping with the Fellowship’s mission or with Unitarian Universalist principles will be rejected. Items that are potentially libelous or are otherwise inappropriate also will be rejected. Editors will try their best to contact submitters whose articles will not be used in the newsletter.
• Submissions of a personal nature, such as advertising professional services or selling a car, usually will not be accepted.

 

Priorities

Items will be published according to the following priorities:

• Sunday Service information
• Submissions from the minister and/or Board President
• Announcements of upcoming UUFR-sponsored activities, such as music, social action, building and grounds events
• Information on religious education programs and from the YRE director
• Communications from the Board
• Care Committee contact information
• Committee information and announcements
• District and Denominational announcements and news
• Calendar of Events
• News of Fellowship members and friends

 

We also want to include other items of interest to the Fellowship, including events sponsored by other UU churches in the area. We will make a sincere effort to represent all segments of the congregation in the newsletter.

Procedures for Handling Complaints

If you have a complaint about an editor’s decision, the first step to talk to the editor and try to resolve the issue. Each issue includes the name and email address of its editor, so that you can contact her/him directly. In most cases, the complaint can be resolved in this manner.

If a complaint cannot be resolved in this manner, the Office Administrator will refer the matter to the Editorial Review Committee for review. The primary question to be addressed by the Committee is: Did the editor act in a manner consistent with the congregation’s stated publication policy?

Modified on 3/16/06