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Communicating to Members and the Media by Newsletters, Web Sites, and Other Means

Stationery and Flyers

Your chapter or conference should have stationery, which can be gotten fairly cheaply. If you do not list chapter officers on it, you will not have to replace it as often. Do list a phone number or Web site so people can contact you. Get some plain paper of the same type to use for second pages.

Put your logo and contact information at the top or on one side; if the design is too crowded it will distract from what you type on it. Do not put information at the bottom of the page or you will spend a lot of time adjusting your margins to avoid printing on top of it.

In designing stationery, make sure it looks okay when put through a fax machine and photocopier.

When designing flyers advertising an event or trying to get out the vote, highlight the reason people should attend your event or care about your cause, not just the date and time of your meeting. Make a big headline and some subheads that stand out so people who skim will take away some points. Other information can be smaller for those interested enough to read the details. Do not pack the page with text.

Fact sheets or talking points can be more dense, although they still need to be simple. Don’t try to address every issue on one sheet. If you have a series of issues that need to be addressed, make a series of flyers.

Sketch out your flyer on a piece of scrap paper before going to the computer. Include a graphic or white space; line after line of text going straight across a page is hard to read.

People are more likely to read a flyer that is handed to them, as opposed to being posted on a pole or bulletin board.