Guidelines for Member Club Columnists
How Material Should Be Submitted:
Material should be submitted before the deadline, which is the first of each even month: February, April, June, August and October. (Note: no column due in December) E-mail your column to the Assistant Editor either as an attached MSWord document (preferred) or paste it into the message of an e-mail. No PDFs. Send to karencouch@rocketmail.com. Put your club’s name in the subject line and name any attachment with your club’s name, e.g. – “Austin GRC MCC.” Please do not name your file “May-June column.doc,” etc. – use your club’s name.
Please use upper and lower case format. Try to limit your column to three double-spaced pages. Please follow the format you see in the GRNews for the header:
club name flush left all caps, title of your column centered all caps, author’s name upper/lower case with “by” lowercase.
Here is an example of what is correct:
SUNFLOWER GRC
IS SPORTSMANSHIP DEAD?
by Samuel Adams
Every MCC should have contact information at the end of the column. Please provide street, city, state, zip; phone and e-mail contact or club URL; abbreviate wherever possible.
Here is an example of what is correct:
12 Stoney Cir., Birmingham, AL 64023; 612/446-0340; sadams@spacenet.com
If you are in doubt about the proper spelling of a word, look it up in a dictionary and run spellchecker. Proofread your material before sending.
Dog’s names should be in upper case and the owner’s or co-owner’s last names in parentheses: i.e., CH SKIPPY POWER (Young/Smith). If a dog is co-owned by people with the same last name, only list the name once. Do not list awards in dog’s registered names, i.e. BIS, BISS, TDI, TT. List titles in the order they should appear: FC, AFC, CH, OTCH, MACH, CT, NOC, VCCH should appear before a dog’s name. Obedience, Rally, Tracking, Hunt Test, Agility should appear after a dog’s name in that order followed by GRCA awards/titles: WC/WCX, ** or ***, OS/OD, HOF, VC/VCX, CCA in that order. Do not list any other registry’s titles. Do not put commas between titles or after the dog’s name and the first title, i.e. CH OTCH SKIPPY POWER BN RAE SH MX MXJ WCX.
What Should Be In Your Column:
News and information about your club and its members. Spotlight a member who has done something interesting. Spotlight a member’s dog that has achieved a unique status. Write about events your club has put on. Your views on subjects related to Goldens are always welcome. Don’t be afraid to tackle controversial subjects that stimulate thought and dialog.
You may also submit a high resolution photo or two that relates to the storyline of your column. 300dpi or a large file (over 2MB). If the image is from an iPhone, choose “actual size.”
As of January 1, 2014, we are no longer publishing individual member wins or new titles/awards on dogs.
IN GENERAL
If you are a new columnist, please keep your personal introduction short. Also, if your club has not submitted a column for some time, do not go back for the past year and list all the information that should have been reported during that time. This is not fair to the rest of the clubs. Report only current information.
We are happy to report on your local club’s year-end trophy winners – try to keep it brief without detailed explanations of what each trophy is awarded for. We will not give a year-end recounting of all your local club’s title winners. You may mention that your club had xx new CHs, xx new CDs, xx new MHs, etc. Remember to list the dog’s name as outlined above and put the trophies/awards in upper/lower case.
If you are in doubt about a dog’s name or titles, please verify it on the GRCA Yearbook Database (YBD). http://www.starzgoldens.com/yearbook/welcome.do
The YBD is valuable to help you list titles in the correct order – especially with all the new titles for dock diving, barn hunt, Fast CAT, scentwork, etc. Remember these titles should only be listed if they have been recorded with the AKC and are reflected in the YBD.
Over the years we have had valuable information come out of the Member Club Columns. Every issue I receive requests from owners of other breeds for copies of your columns. Your writings on breeding, sportsmanship, health issues, etc., span all breeds of dogs and are sought after. Your thoughts and informative ideas are valuable to us!
Sylvia Donahey, Editor
rev: 08-2022