Hello everyone!
First of all, I want to welcome all the new people who stopped by our table at the FAIR! Here's some important information for everyone!
I just want to reiterate that The Tartan is open to all, regardless of skill, interest, major, or year! It's up to you how much time or effort that you want to put into the organization. You can write an article once a month, and that's perfectly fine! You can also end up writing an article and doing layout every week, and that's perfectly fine as well! We're an entirely student-based organization, and we understand people get busy sometimes. Whatever you are willing to contribute, we'll take it! I've also gone ahead and compiled some basic information and upcoming meetings below. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. If you have not yet joined, I would also recommend joining our Slack: tinyurl.com/tarties
I know the below message is a lot, but take a look through it to see what our organization is all about!
Contact information: Here is a list of all our current editors. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to reach out to me or any of them!
Editor-in-Chief: Cole Skuse (caskuse@andrew.cmu.edu)
Publisher: Likhitha Chintareddy (lchintar@andrew.cmu.edu)
Operations Manager: Kaitlyn Ho (kmh2@andrew.cmu.edu)
News Editor: Alex Mathews (amathew1@andrew.cmu.edu)
Forum Editor: Jennifer Bortner (jbortner@andrew.cmu.edu)
SciTech Editor: Kaylin Li ( kaylinl@andrew.cmu.edu)
Sports Editor: Cynthia Xu (cgx@andrew.cmu.edu)
Pillbox Editors: Pria Dahiya (pdahiya@andrew.cmu.edu), Zachary Gelman (zgelman@andrew.cmu.edu)
Photo Editor: Sherry Wang (yucongw@andrew.cmu.edu)
Art Editor: For the time being, I will be handing the art editor position. (Cole Skuse caskuse@andrew.cmu.edu)
Layout Editor: Sahaana Sethu (ssethu@andrew.cmu.edu)
Basic Information
All-Staff: We typically meet on Mondays at 5 p.m. in UC 314 (The Tartan Office) for all-staff, when we discuss content for the upcoming week. In general, writers are free to write whatever they want! Editors will provide prompts for people to take, but by no means are writers limited to those. If you don't have much experience writing, don't worry! We have a new writer's guide to help ease you in. Additionally, you can reach out to editors with questions! Even if you aren't able to make all-staff, you can still contribute! As long as you communicate with the editors what you plan on writing and submit to them, you'll be all good. Want to see what is coming up in the paper? Check our content calendar!
Art and Photography: If you're interested in helping out with art or photography, make sure you are in the art and/or photo channels on Slack! This is where we will post art and photo requests for the week for anyone to take, regardless of skill level! We also have Tartan-owned cameras that you can check out! Please check in with me before you take anything from the office first, though! Additionally, if you are writing an article and want art or photography to go along with it, submit a request for art or photos to the section editor that you are writing under or directly to the photo and/or art editor by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday before publication.
Article Submission: We highly recommend writing articles in a Google Doc! It makes it much easier for us to edit and share your work with the rest of the staff. When you feel like you're done with an article, all you have to do is share it with the appropriate editor and send them a message (over email or Slack) to let them know you are done! Articles are typically due at 11:59 p.m. on Fridays before Production.
Article Writing: You're open to write about whatever you want! We don't have a strict article minimum or maximum character count; it's up to you to write to your heart's content. Articles will go in one of our five sections: news, forum, scitech, sports, or pillbox. Sometimes we will post things in those channels on Slack, so feel free to join them! If you end up starting with one section and decide your article would fit better in another, that's perfectly fine! Just contact the appropriate editors and let them know!
Editors: Editors are the heads of their section and are elected that the end of every fall. If you have any questions about specific sections, those are the people to contact. If you have a more general question, I'm your guy to talk to! If you are interested in an editor position, I'd highly recommend talking to the editors to see what their job entails. Additionally, we do have assistant editor positions that can be filled!
Editing: Most of editing happens on Sundays during production. Here is the general line of editing: Article Written -> Section Editor -> Editor-in-Chief -> Peer Edit -> Copy Manager -> Layout -> Layout Peer Edit 1 -> Layout Peer Edit 2 -> Layout Copy Manager -> Layout Editor-in-Chief. We always need more people to help with peer edits, and we'll teach you everything you need to know to help!
Friday Hangouts: Something we brought back recently is hanging out more in the Tartan Office (UC 314)! It's one of the nicest spaces in the UC, and if you stick around, you'll have access to it on your card! On Friday afternoons and evenings, members of the Tartan are encouraged to hang out in the office to just chill, finish up some work for The Tartan or other classes, and just have a good time! Rumor has it food and board games might appear at some of these gatherings...
Layout: Layout is done on Sundays during production. Layout for news, forum, scitech, and sports are done by their respective editors. Pillbox on the other hand, anyone is welcome to help out with! We don't have many rules when it comes to pillbox layout; just make sure it looks good! If you're interested in doing layout, we'd be glad to walk you through it. We use Adobe InDesign (in various versions) for all of our layouts.
Production: Production is when everything comes together! We meet on Sundays starting at 11 a.m. in UC 314 and work until the paper is finished! This includes finishing up last minute details, editing articles, making layout, and everything in between. People stop by for a short time or stay the whole day, either is fine. People will spend time doing other homework or just hanging out while doing work for the Tartan, and that's perfectly acceptable!
Important Upcoming Dates
Friday, Sept. 9: Friday Hangout starting ~3:30 p.m. in The Tartan Office
- Anyone is welcome! If you have more questions, feel free to stop by and ask them and meet some of the current staff!
Friday, Sept. 9: Articles for the first issue of The Tartan are due at 11:59 p.m.
- To submit, just share the file with the editor! If you need more time, then just communicate that with the editor and they'll work with you!
Sunday, Sept 11: First Production starting at 11:00 a.m. in The Tartan Office
- We are putting together our first paper of the year! If you want to see what the process is like and help out with some editing or layout, stop by at any time during the day!
Monday, Sept 12: All-Staff at 5:00 p.m. in The Tartan Office
- This is when we'll be discussing content for the upcoming week. New and interested members are highly encouraged to attend!
Best,
Cole Skuse
Editor-in-Chief
~ who is excited for our first production
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