(effective 2/2009)

Purpose:
The purpose of this policy and procedure is to assist in the creation and publication of the Holy Spirit Parish Weekly Bulletin. It is a reference for regular, frequent, or occasional contributors to the bulletin content as well as the parish staff and volunteer editors.

Scope of the Policy and Procedure:

The Weekly Bulletin at Holy Spirit Parish is one of the primary communication vehicles for parishioners and it is used to effectively communicate to our community what is happening within our parish, our community, the Diocese, and the world at large. The following policies and procedures are specific to the bulletin.

Weekly Bulletin Policies:

• The Holy Spirit Parish Communications Policy (HSP01) applies to all bulletin content.
• Any article containing Holy Spirit School information should be approved by the School Principal prior to submission per the established bulletin deadlines. 
• With the exception of the annual Parish, School and Diocesan Reports, the use of flyers or inserts are not allowed in the bulletin but may be printed on the Bulletin Board page of the bulletin.
• All articles except the Pastor’s notes should be written in the third person voice.
• All articles are subject to editing by the editors and corrections by the proofreaders.

Responsibilities:
Pastoral Associate for Communications:

• Maintains ultimate responsibility for the content and the publication of the Weekly Bulletin
• Consults with the Pastoral Team for any major changes to bulletin content or issues that arise

Parish Communications Team:

• Manages the weekly and yearly planning and communicates requests to contributing writers
• Provides layout coordination and production support
• Transmits the content for the bulletin to the printer

Parish Staff:

• Contributes articles under a specific column every week
• Fills in any open articles for any given week, if required
• Writes feature articles on an as needed basis
• Provides ideas for bulletin content

Proofreaders:

• Review the completed bulletin for grammar, typographical errors, etc., before the bulletin is sent to the printer

Contributing Writers:

• Regular writers contribute articles every week for a specific column.
• Frequent writers contribute feature articles, front pages, or highlights.
• Occasional writers typically contribute less than once every 3 months and often only once a year

General Procedures:

• Write articles in the third-person voice (i.e., do not use I, we, or you, etc.).
• Insure that any article containing Holy Spirit School information has been approved by the School Principal prior to submission per the established bulletin deadlines.
• Submit flyer-type information for publication on the Bulletin Board page of the bulletin; separate flyers/inserts are not permitted, in general.
• Submit articles via email using Microsoft Word or a compatible word processor using New Times Roman 10 point font.
• Spell-check and grammar-check articles prior to submission.
• Follow publication schedule deadlines when submitting articles.
• Be aware that all articles are subject to editing by the communications team and corrections by the proofreaders.

Bulletin Content Planning:
Overall content planning:

• The communications team meets every year to define and enhance the overall content for the weekly bulletin.  Recommendations for changes to the overall bulletin form are sent to the Pastoral Team for approval.
• If approved, the master editorial planning worksheet is updated based on changes in the defined content from these yearly meetings.  The worksheet is kept on the parish file server and is available for the staff and writers to review.

Ongoing content planning:

• The communications team meets once a week to plan the bulletin content for the next 4 weeks.
• The parish office staff can make adjustments to content when necessary by informing the communications team.
• The monthly planning calendar is distributed via email to all contributing writers, proofreaders, production coordinators, and the Pastoral Staff after the planning meeting.
• A member of the communications team contacts the writers to confirm assignments after weekly meetings.  If content is not received by the deadline, an assigned member of the communications team contacts the writers for status and takes appropriate action to assist in getting the article written.

Submitting requests for Weekly Bulletin content:

• Requests or ideas should be submitted in writing to any of the communications team, the Pastoral Team, the office staff or any of the regular writers.
• The ideas will be considered at the next weekly planning meeting and a response will be made by a member of the communications team.
• After the requests are accepted they will be placed into the planning calendar.
• Any group wanting to use the Weekly Bulletin should consider this part of their overall communications plan and should factor in the published bulletin deadlines in that plan.
• Contributing Articles for the Weekly Bulletin:
• The publication date for the weekly bulletin is Saturday of every weekend of the year. There are calendar specific publication dates for special bulletin editions such as Ash Wednesday, Christmas and New Year’s.  These will be communicated by the communications team when appropriate.
• All bulletin articles are due to the communications team at noon on the Monday prior to the publication date.

Publishing the Weekly Bulletin:
All articles:

• When articles are received, the Bulletin Producer places them into a Microsoft Publisher Bulletin layout format.  A master template is located on the parish file server.
• Once the entire content of the bulletin is in Publisher, the file is saved as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.
• This PDF file is sent to the communications team and proofreaders for review and revision every Tuesday before close of business.  Edits and revisions are due back to the Bulletin Producer on Wednesday morning by 9:00a.m. 
• Revisions are made and the final corrected bulletin will be transmitted to the printer before 12 p.m. every Wednesday.
• Typically the printed bulletins arrive at the parish office on Thursday afternoons and are taken to the church and placed in the sacristy for distribution on Saturday and Sunday.