Whether by traditional mail or e-mail, large mailings should be reviewed
before being sent out. Always ask someone (not necessarily an editor)
to read over a letter before you send it. Typos and grammatical problems
are more likely to be caught when a letter is reviewed by more than one
person.
Present a professional appearance in printed materials
by using type no smaller than 10 point and avoiding excessive use of
color and bold or Italic fonts.
Do not use clip art
on
anything, including labels, e-mails, letters, conference brochures, or
presentations. Clip art detracts from our branding effort. If you think a
printed piece would benefit from art, ask the Marketing designers to
create the art for you.
Use the most updated RMA logo. The current logo and other templates can be found on myRMA in the Marketing section.
Do
not lift information off other Web sites verbatim. This is plagiarism
and copyright infringement. If you want to use information you find on
the Web—get permission.
All documents must have the creation date or date of revision on them.
Email
Use
email for some communications. Not everything needs to be printed.
Some information can be posted on the Web and members can then be sent
an email to alert them to it. Use an email signature at the end of the
document. Use the same rules of communication for emails that are used
for any other document. Proofread the document by using spell check and
ask someone to review it before sending it out.
Form Letters
Form letters should be written in a warm and personal way. Form letters can be personalized.
Do
not send a form letter that invites a returning council chair to serve
as council chair for the coming year as if he or she had never done it
before.
Round Table Invitations
The RMA
round table invitation template specifies placement for required
information: the round table title, date, city, state, and hotel name
must appear at the top of the page. Contact information should appear in
the left-hand sidebar. That way, travelers can pull the letter out of
their briefcases and quickly find the necessary information to instruct a
cab driver.
The round table invitation template can be downloaded from myRMA. See the Marketing page.
Thank You Letters to Volunteers
Form
letters used to thank council and committee members for their help need
to be written in a warm and personal way. Form letters can be
personalized.