Cardinal Communications Award

September 4, 2019 11:51 pm

Cardinal Communications Award

The lodge communicates to its members in a variety of ways. Over the past few years we have found most websites are stagnant and very little changes on them. Thus, our focus is toward social media. The two categories of measurement will evaluate social media post quality and email newsletters.

Judges are selected who have knowledge to provide constructive feedback to the entry submissions. The measuring scale will be an overall score of effective, developing, or not effective. Feedback from the judges will be sent to the lodge’s secretary.

Requirements: Lodge must submit two publications of the newsletter from the past year. Lodge must submit six social media posts which could include Instagram posts, Twitter tweets or Facebook posts. These submissions can be screen captures or copies of the original post.

Time Frame: Submissions are due by March 1st. You may electronically submit the submission by completing the entry form found on the section website under Council of Chiefs.

Description of Evaluation: The judges may or may not be Scouters. With that known, communication should be friendly to anyone, meaning it should be understandable to those who are not involved with scouting. The judges will be highlighting areas in your communication that can be improved upon as well as things that are already effective using the rubrics on the following pages. Any lodge that earns a total of 20 (out of 30) points will have earned the award for the year.

NEWSLETTER EVALUATION RUBRIC
Category	Not Effective (1)	Developing (2)	Effective (3)

Consistency Between Newsletters	Not consistent, unexpected layout.	Font and color scheme is used for majority of articles; however, some articles vary slightly.	Consistent formatting and consistent article layout, use of masthead, font scheme, and color scheme.

Content Priority	Difficulty recognizing important articles.	Headings are used but do not clearly define content.	Importance is clearly labeled/defined.

Creative Layout	Articles are missing bylines OR many articles do not have adequate headlines OR many graphics do not have captions.	Layout is consistent however more creative elements could be used. Captions are not used for all pictures.	All articles have headlines that capture the reader’s attention and accurately describe the content. All graphics have captions.

Sources	Unclear about the article’s sources.	Sources not cited consistently.	Able to point reader to further knowledge through documented sources.

Graphics	Images are not sized correctly. Graphics seem randomly chosen, are of low quality, OR distract the reader.	Appropriate images are selected; however, they appear pixelated or of poor quality.	Images are high resolution and compliment the page without taking over. Images are related to the theme/purpose of the site, are thoughtfully cropped, are of high quality and enhance reader interest or understanding.

Editing Errors	More noticeable errors that detract from newsletter	Several spelling or grammar errors remain after one or more people (in addition to the typist) read and correct the newsletter.	Minimized to small grammatical errors

SOCIAL MEDIA EVALUATION RUBRIC
Category	Not Effective (1)	Developing (2)	Effective (3)

Content	Does not provide any new resources or ideas, and does not add any value to the discussion.	Original content sparks some dialogue and commentary.	Creatively and succinctly written to stimulate dialogue and commentary.

Links	Contains no hyperlinks or hashtags.	Hyperlinks and hashtags are used but not all resources are relevant to the topic.	Includes accurate hyperlinks to resources that enhance the topic, which may include hashtags or URLs.

Mechanics	Writes with numerous major errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.	Writes with minor errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation and spelling.	Writes with no errors in grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

Graphics	Images are not sized correctly. Graphics seem randomly chosen, are of low quality, OR distracting.	Appropriate images are selected; however, they appear pixelated or of poor quality.	Images are high resolution and compliment the post without taking over. Images are related to the theme/purpose of the post, are thoughtfully cropped, are of high quality and enhance reader interest or understanding.