Wednesday, January 1, 2003
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Wednesday, January 1, 2003 |
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Starting the new year off right ... By JUDY KILGORE One of the pitfalls of getting older, I have learned, is that time seems to pass quicker. When you're young, you can't wait to grow up and become an adult. When you get old, you wish the darned ol' clock would just slow down. But here we are, ready to usher in a new year ... 2003. The last thing I remember was turning the century over in 2000. What happened to the years in between? Anyway, I thought I would use the bit of extra space this week to let you know how much I appreciate your sending all those church bulletins, newsletters, news releases and photos over the past year. You certainly make my job a lot easier. But I still get e-mails and notes asking how to get religion news into the paper, so I thought I'd list a few guidelines and help you avoid boo-boos that might keep your news from being printed. First and foremost, the news must be local. That is, it must concern church activities in our area (Coweta, Fayette and South Fulton). We will leave the national news to the papers which cover national events. Besides, this is your own, personal, county paper. We want to hear about our churches, not those in Timbuktu. This is the place to announce your special activities, Bible study groups, Vacation Bible School, revivals, special speakers, carnivals and fall festivals, seminars, special choir performances, new pastors and staff members I think you get the idea. If the community would be interested in attending or participating, we want to put it in the religion news. I would love to see more baptisms announced, focusing on the child, the parents and the date. These are wonderful family history records. And, as much as I would like to include them, I just don't have to room to announce everybody's sermon topics. You can imagine what would happen if every church on the south side sent me their sermon topics every week. I probably wouldn't have room for anything else. The best way to let us know what's happening in your church is to include The Citizen on your mailing list for bulletins and newsletters. Many are doing this. But, sometimes I will pick out a newsy item, rewrite it, include it in the religion news ... then get a news release from you on the same topic two weeks later. Could it be you're not reading the paper? Shame on you! Photos are always welcome, too. But, please, let the photo depict the event it's supposed to show. Also, everyone in the photo must be identified. This is the main reason some of your photos have not been printed. Now, I mean identify persons within reason. If you send a picture of 50 people on the Capitol steps taken when your choir went to Washington, obviously, you don't have to identify everybody. Since space is limited, the number of photos is limited too. Local photos take priority, though. If I have to choose between a photo of some kids at a local church and a photo of a special speaker from out of town guess which one gets the nod? When you send your news, please give a name and phone number of a contact person in case there is a question. And please, please, observe our deadlines Monday at noon for stories with photos; Monday afternoon for other items (please try to get them here before 4:30 p.m.). These are for the religion section in Wednesday's paper. I am only here in the office on Mondays and Tuesdays, but you can reach me by e-mail at home anytime jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com. All jkilgore letters are forwarded to jodiek. (Ain't technology grand?) And I check my e-mail several times daily. I hope this will help those of you who have not been sending your news because you didn't know how. And I hope this has answered some questions for those whose news didn't make it for whatever reason. Everything is free and runs on a space-available basis. I'm looking, forward to seeing some new and innovative items in the 2003 papers. Have a great New Year! And ... keep the faith. |
