Betty Preble
NYS Communications Director

Here are some resources for your branch communications, newsletters and website.

AAUW

AAUW Style Guide - in addition to spelling, capitalization, titles, and abbreviations, the style guide provides guidelines to help you format AAUW letterhead, envelopes, business cards, news releases, newsletters, and websites.

AAUW Graphics - has lots of graphics and photographs to download, free of charge, for branch newsletters and web pages.

Clipart and Graphics

Clipart.com - has an amazing array of clipart images, photographs and web elements. For a relatively small subscription rate (1 week costs $15.95) you can download an unlimited number of royalty free images. Tool around and save all the images you like for later use in newsletters and on your web page.

Mediabuilder.com - has lot of animations, backgrounds and clipart for your website. Use them judiciously for a topnotch site.

Web Stuff

Webdeveloper.com - is a good site for information on doing higher end web pages. It's a bit techie, but for those of you with ambition - go for it!

GraphicsIQ.com - has some good tips for making your web site user friendly and appealing. Also provides information on various software products.

e-Mail

A Beginner's Guide to Effective E-mail - is an e-mail style guide, with extensive discussion of how e-mail differs from other forms of communication and how to take these differences into consideration when writing. Includes information and examples on context, format, layout, intonation, formality, greetings, and signatures.

About.com offers a series of articles on mailing lists, covering types of lists, using lists, and creating your own.

Debunking e-mail hoaxes

About.com has a plethora of information on hoaxes and urban legends circulating on the web. It is constantly updated and contains a categorized index of Internet hoaxes, rumors, chain letters, jokes and email urban legends.

Snopes.com also covers the circulation of information and misinformation arriving daily in your mailboxes.

Urban Legends contains information on the history of folklore and urban legends and helps to debunk some of the most common - and not so common.

The U.S. Dept. of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability's page contains listings of the most frequently sighted hoaxes and chain letters.

Other Stuff

Yahoo! groups - allows you to set up eGroups for efficiently and effectively communicating with groups of members.

Handselling - a "How-To" list on developing contacts when staffing an AAUW information booth.

Grassroots Media - a general communications guideline put together by the AAUW Communications team and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

"People First" Guidelines - in speaking and/or writing when the topic of disabilities arises, there are good and bad ways to discuss the issue.

There is an unofficial AAUW initiative to use the popular "Facebook" as a means of communication. The "primer" for AAUW use is helpful in getting started.