The Veterans of Foreign Wars has announced their annual contest:

VFW Announces Annual Publications Contest

National deadline is April 1, 2016

January 04, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The VFW Publications Department announced today that it is accepting submissions for VFW’s 2016 National Publications Contest. Like last year, the VFW National Publications Contest will be judged within sub-categories based on publication frequency (one to four times per year and five or more times per year).


The four categories are:


Department:

• Overall Design and Content of Newspaper
  (defined as being printed on newsprint)
• Best Feature Story
  (all frequencies judged together in this category and submitted separately)
• Magazine
  (defined by physical size and paper stock)

District/Post (combined):

• Overall Design and Content 

Each category will be awarded three places: a grand award (first overall), silver (second overall) and bronze (third overall). The silver and bronze awards will take the form of a certificate suitable for framing.


Our awards system conforms to that of professional societies within the association publishing industry: National Mature Media Awards, Association Trends, Society of National Association Publications, Society of Professional Journalists and Communications Concepts. In other words, the same types of awards for which VFW magazine competes.


Please note that our Best Feature Story category is no longer retroactive. (That was a one-time introductory offer.) All stories submitted to this category must have been published sometime between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2015. The story must be a published article of at least 300 words. It can be originally written by your newspaper staff or by a freelance writer or be reprinted from a newspaper within your state.


Examples of eligible subjects include operations of state VA departments, National Guard/Reserve unit deployments overseas, troop-support activities, Department VFW programs, dedication of state memorials, state or local commemorative events for the 50^th anniversary of Vietnam and editorials advocating positions on veteran issues within your state.


All national entries must place first in Department-level contests. One copy of each winning Post and District publication — as well as one issue of the Department newspaper and one copy of the Department’s selected “Best Feature Article” — must be mailed by Department adjutants, 

Department quartermasters or Department editors by APRIL 1, 2016, to:


Publications Contest
VFW magazine
406 W. 34^th St., Suite 523
Kansas City, MO 64111


All issues and articles published between Jan. 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2015, qualify.

Click here to download the contest entry form.


Download the updated judging sheets using the individual category links below:

Department Newsletter
Department Magazine
Post/District



For questions or additional information, contact Kelly Gibson, kgibson@vfw.org.






veterans