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TELL YOUR STORY!Yankee Clipper Council Scout Press Corps |
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The Scout Press Corps encourages Scouts and Scout Leaders to write and submit news worthy stories and photos about their unit’s activities. Any news release, feature story, or event where your unit receives media coverage is eligible to receive Press Credentials and a Scout Press Corps collectable patch. Please submit an electronic news release to your District Executive. Your submission may be published by the Yankee Clipper Council. By participating in the Scout Press Corps, youth can fulfill advancement requirements- example: A boy scout’s news story would fulfill requirement 3a of the Journalism merit badge. Note: Cub Scouts should verify all advancement requirements with their parents, and Boy Scouts should verify all advancement requirements with their Merit Badge Counselor or Troop Advancement Chair. Simply down loat the fillable PDF Application below. Attach a copy of your published article and drop it off at the Service Center to the attention of “YCC Scout Press Corps”. Only one submission per program year (Sept-Aug). |
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Download a fillable PDF application |
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TIPS FOR PUBLISHING PHOTOS Here are some tips for how to take photos that newspapers and media outlets will be glad to use: • Understand that a digital shot is now the industry standard to submit for publication. The photo you send should be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) in jpg format. • Shoot a lot of pictures. That’s how you get one or two good ones. • Avoid sending the same photo to two competing newspapers. • ID all the people in the photo from left to right and explain what is going on in a sentence or two. • Avoid using zoom unless you really know how. Get up close to your subject instead. • Ask people wearing baseball camps to tilt the hat back to avoid shadows on spaces. Even In bright daylight a flash can help. • Action shots are preferred over boys just standing in rows. Avoid shots of the backs of peoples heads. Faces and hands are important. Remember it’s the Scouts that are the subject. Don’t show a rocket launching without kids in the photo. |
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CREATING NEWS RELEASES Fellow Scout Leader, Do you know how simple it is to get recognition for your boys and your scouting unit? How about making an experiment to find out? Use any of the attached templates to publicize your next activity, name scouts who have advanced in rank or submit photos to the newspaper, or other media sources. Take out what does not apply, fill in the blanks and send your instant news release with a photograph to your weekly or daily newspaper. We bet you will see it in print, hear about it on the radio or even see it on TV. We even provide the names and addresses for various media sources. Why shouldn’t your boys be acknowledged in the newspaper when they advance in rank? Why shouldn’t your fund-raising activity or public service project be announced on the radio beforehand or splashed on an inside page of a newspaper afterwards? Weekly newspapers, especially, are glad to accept digital shots of scouts in action--if you take them. One of the best tactics is to find out who covers news in your area and cultivate a relationship so you can call them up if something big happens in your unit, like boys going to a National Jamboree or one of your scouts doing his Eagle project. Your boys will like seeing themselves in the newspaper and you will feel even better about being a scout leader with a little recognition coming your way. Typing up a Scout News Release and getting it in the mail takes 10 minutes. Most newspapers are prepared to receive your Scout News Releaseelectronically as well. AND you can, of course, devise your own – and may want to as needed for publicizing special programs such as a Pinewood Derby. Feel free. You’ll like the results. |
SAMPLE NEWS RELEASES |
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Serving Children and Young Adults in 52 communities in Northeastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. |
| Yankee Clipper Council, BSA ● 36 Amesbury Rd. ● Haverhill, MA 01830-2802 Tel: 978.372.0591 ● Fax: 978.373.9134 OFFICE HOURS 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday |