Backscratching,
headaches, and non-profit advertising: How good intentions get Columbus Outdoor Pursuits in trouble
with the government. Editor's Corner
Backscratching,
headaches, and non-profit advertising: How good intentions get Columbus Outdoor Pursuits in trouble
with the government.
Specifically, the United States Postal Service.
During my first couple of months on the job as the new Editor for Columbus Outdoors, I've learned quite a bit. I've learned all about our graphics layout program and what a great application it is. I've learned about deadlines, master sheets, offset printers, and PDF workflows. And I've learned about the issue that most jeopardizes this newsletter: non-profit submissions and advertising. So, we're deciding to do something about it.
Let me give a bit of background on the problem. Columbus Outdoor Pursuits often relies on companies and other organizations and their services or products. For instance, we frequently rent space for our meetings, training, and other activities, or accept sponsorship for various events. We also organize activities in cooperation with other non-profit organizations or activity clubs for our mutual benefit. Further, COP has and will continue to support, financially and otherwise, other worthy non-profit organizations that substantially relate and contribute to our mission. Lastly, COP members are very active people who are often involved with other organizations and clubs.
In other words, COP has many relationships, directly as an organization or via individual members, with other organizations in the community. We also have a newsletter that is published and distributed to over 3,000 members each month. As such, submissions often come into the newsletter announcing or promoting these clubs, organizations, or activities and services that are not organized by Columbus Outdoor Pursuits. Herein lies the problem.
Because COP is a nonprofit organization, we take advantage of substantially reduced mailing rates through the Non-Profit Standard Mail permit issued through the US Postal Service (USPS). We use this permit for all our bulk mailing including this newsletter. In order for us to continue providing this publication to you in a cost-effective manner, we must adhere to very stringent USPS restrictions regarding our mailing permit. A section of these rules dictate that we cannot include content that belongs to another organization.
This newsletter's main purpose is to provide communication of COP events and related articles to its membership. However, we can also include a limited number of advertisements for other organizations or companies -- as long as the submission(s) would provide benefit to our membership and they are clearly paid advertisements.
Too many times in past years, we have gotten in hot water with the Post Office. What seemed like a harmless article announcing another organization's event or a well-intended submission (the sort of mutual backscratching -- "Please place our announcement in your newsletter and we'll return the favor") has jeopardized our mailing permit numerous times. In addition, our somewhat arbitrary application of the Post Office rules regarding mailing non-COP content has alienated many valuable volunteers. And our inconsistent messages may have put us on bad terms with other organizations.
So, back to what we're doing about this. The Media Committee and I have begun to draft an internal policy regarding submissions and advertisements in Columbus Outdoors. It's based upon the USPS restrictions and ensures that we remain 100% compliant with these regulations. It may be a bit more stringent than what the USPS requires; however, it helps make our policy easier to read, to understand, and -- most importantly -- to follow.
We want to keep the relationships we have with other organizations and with our members. But we also want to continue providing this publication to you without breaking the bank. This new policy should help in that endeavor. It will be rolled out to Activity Leaders and Board members soon. If you would like to see this policy, please let me or the Media Committee know. And, as always, comments and questions are welcome.
Sharon Seslar
Editor, Columbus Outdoors