SCA | Midrealm - Kingdom Newsletter: The Pale

ABOUT THE PALE

The Pale is the Middle Kingdom's newsletter and it contains important information that all members should be familiar with, including letters from our Royal Family and Kingdom Officers, court reports, job announcements, event notices, seneschal contact information, and the upcoming event calendar, along with feature articles and event photos. The Pale is published monthly and becomes available to read online about two weeks before the start of each month.

HOW TO READ THE PALE

All Sustaining and International members of the SCA have access to The Pale, along with every kingdom newsletter in our Known World. To view the newsletters, go to http://enewsletter.sca.org/ and login with your member number (as username) and password (if you have not yet set a new password, it will be the word start).

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR THE PALE

ARTICLES on period topics, history, art, puzzles, SCA life, bardic stories and the like are welcome additions to The Pale. A 500 to 1000 word article will usually fit in one issue; longer articles will be split into multiple parts to appear in successive issues.

Please submit the file in MS Word .doc format. Send the images used in the article as separate files using the format described below. Be sure to include the appropriate release form with the images.

You must cite all references, quotations and sources in your article using the Chicago Manual of Style format. Sample citations are located here: www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.

If you are using images from a book or website, be sure that the sources copyright terms allow publication in another article or medium. You can find this under .terms of use. on the source site. Most universities, libraries and museums allow fair use of their materials with proper citation of the source. If in doubt, contact the owner of the image directly to request permission. Public domain images still require a citation to ensure that the image came from a public domain source.

Citing sources is very important to avoid accusations of plagiarism and legal action for copyright violation.

IMAGES, such as line art, calligraphy, illumination and photographs are also welcome. Scan any artwork at 300 dpi and save it at the highest quality JPG setting. The Pale uses a CMYK print color gamut; this will be adjusted by the Editor if you.re not familiar with it. Photos should also be 300dpi, high quality JPGs. The Editor will adjust exposure and color space to ensure optimal reproduction. Note that all images will appear in print as black and white, but the online, PDF version of The Pale is in color.

Images can also be submitted as high quality TIF or PDF files, although JPG is preferred.

Any artwork or photography submitted to The Pale must have a signed SCA Creative Release or SCA Photographer Release form from the artist sent in with the work. Any person identifiable in an image must submit a signed SCA Model Release form with the art work. This is a requirement of SCA Inc. for print publication. Scans or photos of the completed, signed forms are acceptable. The forms are available at www.midrealm.org/chronicler/ under the Forms header.

EVENT PREVIEWS: A free event preview of 50 words is available to all events. The listing MUST include the name of the event, sponsoring group, site address, date, times and event steward contact information.

EVENT NOTICES (ads) must be published in The Pale for events at which any of the following occur:

crown and coronet tournaments
coronations and investitures
appointment of kingdom or principality officers
presentation of awards and titles
proclamation of law
establishment or advancement of branches.

These activities cannot take place unless a complete event notice appears in The Pale, the Middle Kingdom newsletter, at least once before the date of the event. The publication requirement may only be waived in extraordinary circumstances, such as a natural disaster.

Events must already be listed on the Middle Kingdom Calendar prior to advertising in The Pale, but an event listing on the Middle Kingdom Calendar does NOT constitute official publication. Branch seneschals must submit events to the Middle Kingdom Calendar Secretary at calendar@midrealm.org prior to sending in an event notice to The Pale. Incipient groups must submit a scan of the sponsorship form to the Editor.

Middle Kingdom event notices are free and run in the next issue as a 1/4 page ad unless otherwise specified. Out-of-kingdom events and merchants pay the listed rates (see bottom of page).

These events receive the equivalent of three half page ads, unless otherwise specified:

Crown Tournament
Coronation
Middle Kingdom Twelfth Night
Middle Kingdom A & S Competition
RUM
Border Raids
Rose Tournament
Tournament of Chivalry
Pennsic War

Ad templates for the quarter and half page ads are available here: Half Page Ad Template (Word file) and Quarter Page Ad Template (Word file).

All work must be submitted to The Pale via e-mail attachment in DOC, PDF, JPG, or TIF format.

WITHOUT EXCEPTION, EVENT NOTICES MUST INCLUDE:

event name
sponsoring group
dates
times
site address
registration *
NAME (SCA & modern), email address and phone number of the event steward.

* Registration: As of March 2016, there has been a change in our terminology regarding our fee structure as determined by our Corporate and Society Financial Officers: As we are a participation based organization, the SCA has adopted the use of the term "membership event registration" and "event registration" in lieu of "event fees," "site fees," "non member surcharge, or "member discount." These are the correct terms going forward:

"Adult Registration" (non-member)
"Adult Member Discount Registration" (member, $5 less)

Here is an example of correct terminology for an array of registration options:
Adult Day Registration (18+): $15
Adult Day Member Discount Registration (18+): $10
Child Day Registration (6-17): $5
Youth Day Registration (0-5): Free
Family Cap Registration: $25

Note that the structure of costs for children, where we previously did not charge NMS, should be at least $5 less than the "Adult Event Registration." We do not assess $5 for children.

Website URLs and simple driving directions to the event site are useful but not required. All clip art images in event notices must have a source listed and be used in accordance with the terms of use. All artwork MUST include an SCA Creative Release form from the author(s) or artist(s). SCA Model Releases are required for identifiable persons in any image. Release forms are available at www.midrealm.org/chronicler. Submissions are edited for grammar, spelling, space constraints, inflammatory or explicit language and compliance with Middle Kingdom Law. Editorial decisions are final. Letters to the Editor are not permitted per SCA Inc. regulations.

OUT-OF-KINGDOM EVENT NOTICES and MERCHANT ADS are due on the deadlines and in the formats noted below; send payment to The Pale Exchequer.

RATES: A $20 service fee applies for event notices that require excessive editing with no attempt at correction by the author.

Quarter page: 3 5/8.W x 4 7/8.H $35
Half page: 7 1/2.W x 4 7/8.H $60
Full page: 7 1/2.W x 10.H $115

PAYMENTS: Make checks payable to SCA INC - MIDDLE KINGDOM. Send to Janice Drake, 360 Blair Pike, Peru, IN 46970

NOTE: As of October 2016, Middle Kingdom event notices may be listed free of charge. Please do not send a check for in-kingdom event notices.

DEADLINES: All submissions for The Pale are due by the 25th of the month two months prior to publication (i.e., February 25 for the April Edition). Send submissions for The Pale to thepale@midrealm.org. The Editor will send a receipt for all submissions received starting the week after the deadline. If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail, the Editor did not receive your submission. Deadlines are absolute.

Clip Art and Articles

NEW! Dover Clip Art and cd rom PA Document Rights highlighted(.pdf)
Citing Your Sources in Your A & S Documentation
Chicago Manual of Style - Brief Citation Guide

What is Plagiarism?STRONGLY recommended. (External link)