ROSE CONTESTS

2024 Roses Wall Calendar

 

PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THROUGH THE CONTEST RULES AS THERE HAVE BEEN CHANGES.

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Guidelines for 2024 Calendar entries:

• Photos must be 13 inches by 11 inches AND at least 300 dpi. (Tip: Set your camera options to the highest resolution and picture size possible.)

• Please identify all roses in photo.

• The roses must be commercially available. We suggest searching HelpMeFind.com to see if there is a nursery that sells this rose.

• If a rose has been featured in a major photo in the last five years, it will most likely not be considered for a major position, but will not be excluded in consideration for a minor position. Here is alpha order list of roses published from 2015 through 2023.

• Limited of 5 (five) submissions per member.

• Digital photography ONLY.

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Tips: 

Camera Users: Set your camera options to the highest resolution and picture size possible.)
Phone camera users: Photos from any 12 megapixel phone sent at largest size should render a photo sufficient to reach the 10x13 and 300 dpi size requirements. iPhones 6s and forward and Samsungs S4 and forward should be able to send in photos that can be considered for the calendar.

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Deadline is June 15, 2023

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Send Submissions: 

Email submissions One photo per email to Beth Smiley at beth@rose.org or request a Dropbox invitation or Mail Submissions You may mail a CD or flash drive to American Rose Society, ATTN: Editorial, P.O. Box 30000, Shreveport, LA 71130.

 

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Newsletter/Bulletin Competition

 

Publications Committee Chair: Susie Smith

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(Approved by the Board of Directors via E-vote June 30, 2021 (Ad Hoc Committee of the Non-Quorum of the Board, June 2021 at Shreveport, Louisiana) 

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The American Rose Society (ARS) conducts an annual competition to recognize outstanding newsletters, bulletins and periodicals published by local rose societies and districts of the ARS. This competition is conducted by the ARS Newsletter/Bulletin Awards Committee (the “Committee”) and is open to all local societies and districts affiliated with the ARS. 

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All entries for the Newsletter/Bulletin Competition (the “Competition”) should be submitted to the Committee (and the ARS) by e-mail even if the publication is normally sent in a paper format to the society’s members. Editors that choose not to compete in the Competition may still submit their newsletters for Award of Merit consideration so that outstanding articles contained in the newsletters/bulletins may be recognized for their excellence. 

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Newsletter/Bulletin Awards Committee Members and Contact Information 

Entries must be sent to all members of the Committee as listed in the current year’s January/February issue of American Rose and on the ARS website (www.rose.org, select the “Get Involved” tab, then “Contests” then scroll down to “Newsletter/Bulletin Competition”); or contact the ARS’ office for the current listing. 

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Rules of Competition 

The Competition contains two categories for publications, one for local society publications and one for district publications. The category for local societies is further subdivided into Class A and Class B. There are no subdivisions for district newsletters/bulletins.  

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• The Class A subdivision is for rose societies consisting of 60 members or fewer. 

 

• The Class B subdivision is for rose societies consisting of more than 60 members. 

 

• For determining the appropriate Class subdivision, the number of members is based on the circulation size of a society’s newsletter, minus courtesy exchanges, and is designated by the editor or publisher. The Committee understands that membership numbers can change throughout the year. It is acceptable for the editor/publisher to determine the appropriate Class subdivision by averaging the number of the society’s members from the prior calendar year. 

 

• The appropriate “Class A” or “Class B” subdivision should be noted on the first submission of the year and shall remain in effect until the end of the calendar year. 

 

• As a recommendation, the size of a newsletter that is electronically submitted to the Committee should be no more than 2 megabytes (MB) to facilitate downloading and printing. There is no limit on the file size that a society may circulate to its own members.

 

• Newsletters/bulletins should be submitted to the Committee in a current version of Adobe Acrobat (“pdf”). They should not be password protected and should be able to be readily opened and saved without the need for additional software or cutting and pasting. 

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• Submissions to the Committee should not be combined with any other mailing list and should not be sent “bcc”. 

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• The subject line for e-mail submissions to Committee members must contain (1) the full name of the society and (2) the words “Class (A or B)” or “District” as appropriate. 

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• Publications should be e-mailed to Committee members at the same time as they are circulated to local society/district members or subscribers. 

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• To qualify for an award, the Committee must receive at least four issues of the local newsletter/bulletins, and at least two issues of district newsletter/bulletins. 

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• For Newsletter/Bulletin Award consideration, societies are encouraged to enter the Competition with their first newsletter of the year. However, a society will be eligible for publication awards as long as the Committee members receives their entry before June 10th. After June 10th, late entrants may still be considered for AOM awards. The final issue of the year must be received by the Committee by December 31st to be eligible for scoring in the current year’s competition. 

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• Members of the Committee, except the chairperson, evaluate and score newsletter/bulletins submitted for the Competition. Neither a Committee member nor a member of his/her immediate family may evaluate and score the newsletter/bulletin from the Committee member’s local society or district. 

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Awards of Merit 

• In addition to the Newsletters/Bulletin Competition, the Committee will recognize individual articles and special publications for Awards of Merit (AOM). AOM Award(s) recognize the excellence of outstanding original articles contained in local society and district publications. 

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• Individual articles from newsletter/bulletins or special, one time only, publications are selected for AOM by members of the Committee. There are no classes for special publications submitted for the Award of Merit. 

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• Editors that choose not to compete in the Newsletter/Bulletin Competition are still encouraged to submit their newsletters for AOM consideration. Publications submitted for AOM consideration should have the words “AOM Only” included on the e-mail subject line. 

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Newsletter/Bulletin Scoring 

Local Society Newsletter/Bulletin Scale of Points - In each section below, partial to full points may be awarded 

• 25 points — Rose horticulture information — Articles on planting, pruning, fertilizing, spraying, pests, protection, and placement of roses including regular feature articles about local rose garden needs for this time of year. 

 

• 15 points — Other rose-related information — Articles on rose arranging, hybridizers, history, photography, research, art, rose botany, recipes, drying of roses, exhibiting techniques and reports by members at district or national conventions are the types of subjects to be considered. 

 

• 5 points – Original Content -- A bonus of up to 5 points is awarded for use of original articles. Reprinting articles from other authors is permitted, but the articles should be relative to the locale of the rose society. Reprints should be useful information for readers, not space fillers. Credit must be given to the original publication and author of any reprinted articles. 

 

• 20 points — Local society information and promotion Community activities, meeting minutes, member bios, board actions, new member recognition, local awards, membership drives, rose shows, local Roses in Review results, and pruning parties at public gardens are included in this category. 

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• 10 points — Upcoming program information 

May include times and dates for upcoming meetings, information on the speaker(s), and rose shows of nearby societies. 

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• 10 points — ARS and District information 

This category includes membership information, information on items available from ARS, announcements of conventions, district seminars, information about the ARS garden in Shreveport and/or other activities hosted or sponsored by the ARS. 

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• 15 points — Overall Appearance, Workmanship & Functionality 

Encompasses all aspects of the publication and includes a neat and orderly design of publication, being easy to read with straightforward navigation, effective use of color, optimized web graphics, interactive functioning web links, correct e-mail addresses, etc. The newsletter/bulletin should be devoid of typographical errors, misspellings, incomplete sentences and/or grammatical errors. 

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District Newsletter/Bulletin Scale of Points - In each section below, partial to full points may be awarded. 

• 30 points — District Information and Promotion 

  • This category is appropriate for the announcement of meetings, seminars and activities, reports of district meetings, committee assignments and district award winners. 

• 20 points — ARS Promotion and Information 

  • Includes news about national conventions, membership drives, special programs and activities sponsored by the ARS. 

• 20 points — Rose horticulture information 

  • This category includes articles of exceptional quality on all aspects of rose horticulture. While original articles are the most desirable, reprints from local society newsletters are acceptable if credit is given to the author, name of the original publication where the article appeared and date of publication. 

• 10 points — Other rose-related information 

  • Exhibiting, arranging and photography techniques, biographies of notable members, gardens and/or nurseries in the District and promoting participation in Rose in Review are examples of rose-related information. 

• 10 points — News/information from local rose societies 

  • Successful programs by local societies, membership drives, programs to acquire and retain members are appropriate for this category. A complete listing of local society rose show results would require a large amount of space and should be held to a minimum. 

  • Such reports are more appropriate when limited to a listing of winners of top awards. Directing a reader’s attention to the district or society’s website for a complete report of the rose show results would be another way to recognize rose show winners. 

• 10 points — Overall Appearance, Workmanship & Functionality 

  • The district newsletter/bulletin should have a neat and orderly design of publication, be easy to read, have uncomplicated navigation, an effective use of color, optimized web graphics, interactive functioning web links, correct e-mail addresses and telephone numbers, etc. The newsletter/bulletin should be devoid of typographical errors, misspellings, incomplete sentences and/or grammatical errors. 

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Newsletter/Bulletin Awards 

The chair shall collect scores from the Committee members and tabulate those scores for all newsletters submitted to the Competition. Awards will be announced in the May/June issue of the American Rose. 

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• Class A, Class B and District awards are tabulated separately. 

• Gold, Silver, Bronze and Honorable Mention certificates will be awarded to each of these groups. 

• In case of ties, each of the tied publications will receive the award as judged. 

 

Awards of Merit 

• An Award of Merit Certificate shall be awarded to the authors of individual articles contained in local rose society and/or District newsletters/bulletins or special publications as voted on by the Committee. 

• There is no limit on the number of Awards of Merit that may be bestowed each year. Reprints are not eligible. 

 

2024 Newsletter Committee Members/Judges: Click Here

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