Written content about your lodge or section is a fantastic way to convey information and keep people up to date on relevant business, events, and opportunities. This section will outline selecting subjects, writing and soliciting articles, editing content, and publication.
Regular Communication
Note: This section of the toolkit is primarily for lodges, but similar examples of regular written communication certainly occur at the section level. The guiding principles are the same, but if there is any confusion on this, reach out to a section adviser or communications lead for clarification.
A significant amount of written content involves preparing articles and newsletters, however, it would be remiss to not discuss routine emails that are sent to lodge members (or other stakeholders) on a regular basis. The four most common emails a lodge sends out often contain:
- Unit election information to units and unit leadership
- Ordeal information to candidates and parents
- A reminder of an upcoming event to lodge members
- A reminder of lodge dues to unpaid lodge members
The OA LodgeMaster Inductions module has many tools to reach out to units and unit leadership, as well as candidates and parents. Guidance for using this module can be found here.
When promoting an upcoming event to lodge members, make sure to explain what the event is, who the event is for, when and where the event will be, why someone should register, and how someone may register. This can be done in a fairly short email. There is no need to be verbose- many people are busy with work and school commitments.
A reminder of lodge dues to unpaid lodge members should explain why they are receiving the email, what dues are, why lodge dues need to be paid everywhere (explain what they help go to in your lodge), and how one can pay dues.
As a general principle, an adviser should help craft these emails as you send them out on a regular basis. All emails should be approved by an adviser before they are sent to lodge or section membership.
Planning Content
When creating written content, it is essential to consider the types of content you are creating to ensure they are interesting, engaging, and relevant to the point you wish to convey. Interesting content will draw readers in, relevant content will keep them reading, and engaging content will inform them and connect them to what is happening in the lodge, and section.
Within written content planning, there are four major phases: brainstorming, narrowing, refining, and scheduling. Following this order will help ensure you are creating content that is interesting, relevant, and engaging, to keep your team organized.
Brainstorming Phase
In this phase, you take a look at the general topics, messages, and ideas that you wish to address. Brainstorming can be done by getting a group like a content team or LEC together and writing down content categories that they’d like covered such as event recaps, announcements, national program promotion, upcoming events, etc. Figuring out these broad clusters of topics will then help you stay focused as you look into specific subjects.
Narrowing Phase
During this period, you will take a deeper look into those subjects you identified while brainstorming and develop specific structures you wish to address within them. For a section involving event recaps, you could then specifically cover your lodge's fall induction weekend, section events, or even NOAC. This face should end with a list of every article topic you will need for your planning period whether it be a week, a month, six months, or even a year.
Refining Phase
This is the phase that makes sure that your content is interesting and engaging. Writing a general summary about your Fall Fellowship is certainly informative, but won’t necessarily be interesting or engaging to a general lodge member who wasn’t at the event. Covering this event from the perspective of a new Ordeal member or the lodge chief, or discussing a specific part of the event will keep the article interesting. Ask yourself some of the following questions to help refine your subjects:
- What is my audience for this article?
- Does this subject address a new perspective or aspect of the topic?
- Would a new Ordeal member who has never attended a lodge event want to read this?
- Does this subject have a call to action that would encourage someone to participate in future events and activities?
Content Phase
This phase helps ensure that content is distributed intentionally. When you write an article is just as important as what you write. There could be a fantastic article about a new OA summer camp program, but if it is written in October then people won’t remember it by the time summer camp registration comes along. To make this article more effective and relevant, it could be sent right after summer camp registration opens to remind people about great opportunities at summer camp. By thinking about when an article is posted, you can increase the ability of the article to make an impact on the readers.
By brainstorming, narrowing, refining, and scheduling, you can create new content for your lodge members that is interesting, relevant, and engaging. Once you’ve developed this schedule of content, all you need to do is have people write them, edit them, and distribute them to members of your lodge.
Soliciting Articles
Finding ideas for articles can be difficult, so soliciting articles from members of your lodge or section is an effective method to assemble content. It’s key that any articles written by these Arrowmen are still rigorously edited (see editing practices below). There are two types of solicitation: broad and individual. Broad solicitation involves providing a forum for any lodge member to submit an article to be published on the website and/or eNews. Individual solicitation involves asking a specific person, often a LEC member or event staffer, to write an article. Below are some best practices for both types.
Broad Solicitation
If you choose to open up article submissions to any member of your lodge or section, it’s important to consistently promote the submission forum. Consider the following:
- Create an online submission form hosted or linked on the lodge or section website.
- If you can’t host the form directly through your website, use an external platform, such as Google Forms.
- Include specific subjects or types of articles that would be a good fit.
- Include the specific publications and relevant deadlines that articles are needed for.
- Include article guidelines (examples, style, and length).
- Require the writer to upload images, with captions and sources, related to the article.
- Display the link to the submission form prominently on the homepage of the lodge or section website.
- Include the link to the submission form in every e-newsletter, in the same location.
- Make social media posts monthly or quarterly asking for article submissions.
Individual Solicitation
If you need specific articles related to events or initiatives, it is common practice to ask the LEC member responsible or a related staff member to write an article. It is best to ask before the event/initiative takes place, so the writer has the opportunity to take notes, interview participants, and collect images. Much like broad solicitation, it’s important to include the following information when asking for an article:
- Include specific key points that the article should cover.
- For example, if a writer is providing a recap on the annual banquet, ask them to include information and quotes from keynote speakers, include the attendance, and highlight major award presentations.
- Include the specific publication(s) the article will be included in, and describe the audience to the writer.
- Share the deadlines relevant to the piece and publication(s).
- Include general guidelines (examples, style, and length)
- Require the writer to include images, with captions and sources, in their submission.
Writing Articles
The exact “how” of writing an article heavily depends on the topic of the article. If the article is promoting an upcoming event, details about the event (who, what, when, where, why, how to sign up) are the most important features of the article. Conversely the article is a recap of an event that has already happened, some of those details (who, what, when, where, why) are still important to conclude, but the focus is more on what exactly occurred at the event, and the focus is on that being presented in an appealing way.
However, some articles do not necessarily revolve around an event at all. They may be a “call to action” to pay dues, host a unit election, join a lodge committee, or any other variety of topics. In those articles, it is important to answer the following questions:
- As a reader, what does the article want me to do?
- Why should the reader do what the article is asking?
- How can the reader do what the article is asking?
Writing an article comes with practice, but ensuring that, based on the topic of the article, the basic content is included is a good start. Additionally, if there have been any guidelines set forth by anyone regarding the article, make sure that you are following those in the writing process.
Editing Written Content
Editing written content is the most important part of the content process. If content isn’t already interesting, relevant, and engaging, it should be revised during the editing process. Consider finding one person who will be responsible for editing all written content for your lodge or section to ensure consistent quality. This can be the youth lead for communications activity, or a youth specifically assigned to content or editing. Additionally, an adult adviser should always read and edit everything before it is posted, published, or shared. Editing is where grammar and spelling mistakes, writing style, brand and style compliance, and Youth Protection issues are all addressed. Writing should always follow the rules outlined in the Language of Scouting, Language of the OA, the OA Branding Guide, and your lodge or section’s branding guide. Following these guidelines will ensure that the OA has a consistent style as an organization and makes everyone look organized and uniform across the board. It is recommended to generate a checklist used every time a piece is edited, to ensure consistency.
A content editing checklist designed for OA written content is available here. Upon release, the final article should:
- Include the author. Use only their first name and last initial if youth. For example, Johnny A. if under 18, Johnny Arrowman if over 18.
- Include relevant images, with captions and sources.
- Include quotes that highlight key points.
- Meet all editing criteria in the checklist.
- Be shared with a relevant audience.
Written Content Examples
The following are examples of written content written by the OA National Communications Committee to serve as a reference point for quality and content of an article: