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The National Jewish Committee on Scouting wants to publish articles about the events that you organize.
We are looking for articles on any event that involves Jewish Scouts -- Ten Commandment Hikes, Camping Trips, Summer Camp Photos, Parades, etc.
Please send information about your events to Marketing -AT- JewishScouting -DOT- org. Please send articles in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect documents along with scanned photos that have been scanned at a resolution that is at least 150DPI.
Please do not send scans of newspaper articles.
By submitting an article for request publication, you agree to give the NJCOS the right to publish your article and photos on its website. You also agree to have the article edited by the NJCOS.
The NJCOS will evaluate the article and notify you if /when it will be published on JewishScouting.org
PUBLISHING GUIDELINES
The purpose of the NJCOS website is to support the mission of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting:
The mission of National Jewish Committee on Scouting is to promote Boy Scouting among Jewish youth, to help Jewish institutions and local council Jewish committees to provide Scouting opportunities for Jewish youth, and to promote Jewish values in Scouting through program helps and the religious emblems program.
Given that in the months to come there will be many people posting content on the website, it is important to establish a clear set of guidelines that conform with BSA guidelines for web content, support the mission statement of the committee, and also allow the committee to continue to demonstrate its relevance among Scouts, Scouters, and prospective charter partners; as well as serve as a marketing vehicle as it conducts Committee business.
Conforming with BSA Guidelines
The BSA has developed the following guidelines pertaining to the posting of information on the Internet.
- Youth Protection: Photographs of Scouts may be posted but their names may not be posted.
- Youth Personal Information: You may use first name and the first letter of the last name (James W. of Troop 373, St. Louis, MO) due to youth protection issues. You may not post a Scout’s home address, e-mail address, or phone number.
- Adult Personal Information: You may not post contact information of adult Scouters on pages that are accessible to the general public without written approval of the adult.
- Advertising: You may not accept advertising on the website for any commercial enterprise.
- Linking to Third-Party Commercial Sites: While many commercial sites provide valuable information of a non-commercial nature, councils should be careful when linking to these sites to avoid the impression that the council is endorsing commercial products or services. Annotation often makes the difference, as in this example: A link to xyzboots.com (the XYZ Boot Company's home page) appears to be a commercial endorsement. If you added the sentence "The XYZ Boot Company provides excellent advice for avoiding hiking injuries," and then linked directly to the page about avoiding hiking injuries, you clarify that the council endorses the information the company is providing rather than the product it is selling.
Timeliness
It is extremely important that the NJCOS website be kept current with respect to any calendar information. There is nothing worse than having someone who is interested in the NJCOS browse to the website and find calendar dates from three months ago (or three years ago) posted on the site. The minute this happens, the person who is looking for information may decide that there is nothing useful on the website because the website is out of date. Once this happens, they will stop looking and most likely never come back.
Any date that is posted on a calendar of upcoming events should be removed from the list of upcoming events within one week following the completion of the event.
The fact that the event took place may be moved to another page (or lower on the same page) under a heading of “Past Events”
Types of events to be posted on the NJCOS website and regional sub webs
Given the fact that this is a website of a national BSA committee, upcoming events posted on the website and the regional sub webs must be sponsored by the BSA and should be of interest to multiple BSA Councils. Examples of events that would qualify are: Statewide Kinnusim, Wood Badge courses, OA Events, Conferences, BSA meetings, Jamborees, and BSA training events.
Events that are not sponsored by the BSA may not be posted as an upcoming event or appear on the website before they occur regardless of the fact that Jewish Scouts are participating. An example of this are the Tzofim. If a local council or JCOS sponsors the Tzofim to visit a city, the Tzofim’s visit to that specific city may be posted to the NJCOS regional sub website before the event occurs. The Tzofim’s entire travel calendar should not be posted on the website during the time that their visits are not sponsored by a local council or JCOS.
Events that are local in nature such as council/local JCOS sponsored Ten Commandment Hikes, Twelve Points Rides, and Scout Shabbats, etc. should not be listed on the NJCOS website before they occur. The NJCOS website should not be the first source of information for these types of local events. They should be listed on the local BSA council website(s) where Scout leaders and parents will be likely to see them listed.
The reasoning for a Tzofim visit qualifying to be listed on the NJCOS as an upcoming event and not a Ten Commandment Hike is that the Tzofim visit constitutes an international Scouting event.
Newsworthy Stories
Once a local/regional event has taken place in which Jewish Scouts have participated, a news story of the event should be submitted to the appropriate webmaster for inclusion in the website news section.
Website Consistency
Any article posted on the front page of the website should be no longer than one to two paragraphs and have a “more >>>” link to additional information.
All tables should have the border set to zero (0) unless the table is used in a chart or in a manner that the lines of the table add value in the perception of the data by the user.
All images should be kept to the smallest byte size as possible without the image degrading. Even though broadband internet access is prevalent, it is important to make sure that the byte sizes of photos are kept below 250KB and the photos should be sized to fit the page. Graphics should add value to the page and not be used just because they exist.
Copyrights
Any materials that are copyrighted may not be posted unless the owner of the copyright has given specific permission to post the material to the website. This includes written materials, photographs, and audio and video clips.
It is not enough to give photographer credits when posting a photo. The photographer must give his/her permission before the photo is posted to the website.
Blogging
Forum based communications that are available or archived on the Web should not be a part of the NJCOS website. It is not possible to limit / direct the public discussion so that they portray the business of the Committee in a positive manner.
1/20/08 | 
