Volunteer Class Secretary Guidelines

Welcome, Class Secretaries! 

The class notes are the most widely read section of the College’s award-winning quarterly magazine. We rely on you, our volunteer class secretaries, to gather news for and write this essential section. The notes help every member of a class feel included and informed.

About the Magazine

Amherst is the winner of several national awards and a finalist for the Sibley Award, the top honor in the field. The magazine has a print circulation of 25,000. It reports on the activities and ideas of the College and its community, connecting readers with Amherst and with one another.

Your Role

As class secretary, you prepare one column per quarter that shares the news of your classmates. You also write or delegate timely In Memory pieces in accordance with the wishes of the family. The class notes are a significant undertaking, and your partnership in adhering to deadlines, space constraints and editorial guidelines allows the process to be smooth and productive.

Your Deadlines

March 1 (summer issue)
June 1 (fall issue)
September 1 (winter issue)
December 1 (spring issue)

Plan ahead to ensure you meet these deadlines. Because it takes many weeks to produce the class notes, late submissions may not be included. Secretaries who are consistently unable to meet deadlines will be asked to work with the alumni office to find a replacement secretary.

To submit your column, email it as a Google or Word document to your class liaison or to alumni@amherst.edu.

Length

You have 70 words per classmate “mention” (as defined below), up to 2,500 words total for 36+ mentions. Submissions that meet the quarterly deadline but are over the word limit will be returned to you, with revisions due back within three business days. If you are unable to revise within that time frame, if the original text came in late, or if your revision exceeds the word limit, the magazine staff will complete the necessary edits.

A “mention” is substantive news of a classmate, such as details of a job change, a move to a different city or a volunteer activity, the essence of which must not have already appeared in a prior edition. A name in a list (of wedding or reunion attendees, for example) will not count as a mention.  

If you are unsure whether a particular item qualifies as a mention, contact your ACE liaison in advance of the quarterly deadline to confirm your word count.

The 70-word rule is an average. Many secretaries include shorter reports about some classmates, balancing them with longer mentions of others and with introductory and concluding text.

Shorter is better. There is no requirement to use every word you are allotted. In fact, research shows that readers prefer concision. An effective way to reduce your word count is to paraphrase and summarize submissions rather than quote them in full.

Editorial Guidelines

Subject Matter

The class notes are the perfect place to share news of a classmate's personal and professional activities.

We will edit out text that falls outside of the following subject matter guidelines:

We do not publish inappropriate, off-topic or potentially libelous material. 

We do not publish political candidate endorsements (even if the candidate is your classmate), critiques or praise of a specific politician or party, and other partisan commentary. Feel free to report that a classmate is running for office, has joined a campaign or is passionate about a cause, as long as there is no partisan commentary or endorsement attached. 

The class notes are not an op-ed section. You might instead submit (or encourage a classmate to submit) relevant commentary to magazine@amherst.edu for consideration as a letter to the editor.

When adding your own commentary about a classmate's news, and also when paraphrasing a classmate, ensure that you are guided by collegiality and kindness.

Do not include any untrue information, even if it’s intended as a joke. This style of humor does not always translate well on paper.

We are unable to include fundraising requests or other solicitations for non-Amherst College causes.

Quotations

Quotations are true accounts of what a person actually said or wrote. Anything not in a person’s own words should be offered outside of quotation marks. 

It is acceptable to condense quotes by editing out extraneous words, as long as the original meaning and context are preserved. Use ellipses to indicate the deletion of words in condensing quotes.

For clarity, be careful to use both opening and closing quotation marks.

Privacy

When news of a classmate arrives from a third party, it is your responsibility to confirm with the classmate that it is OK to include that news in your column. It is also your responsibility to confirm with a classmate before reprinting information about them from social media. (There is no need to confirm information from a legitimate news release.)

We identify children under 18 by first names only.

We do not include mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses of classmates. Instead, your column can direct readers to the Alumni Directory.

Timing

Amherst magazine, like most quarterlies, has a lead time of several months.

Be careful about the use of present and future verb tenses. Someone who writes, “I will soon begin my second year of law school,” will likely have finished the semester by the time the magazine is in print. In that example, it is better to paraphrase: She is in her second year of law school.

We will edit out seasonal references that date your column (“Happy New Year,” “I’m excited for basketball season to start,” “It is snowing”).

We will edit out references to births, weddings, trips and job changes that have not yet taken place at the time of submission. We recommend that you encourage classmates to re-submit such news after it occurs. We do not report on pregnancies and engagements, as those outcomes unfortunately are not certain.

Style

Amherst magazine generally follows Associated Press style. The College’s Editorial Style Guide covers exceptions and points of particular interest. Here are additional style points specific to the class notes:

• Website addresses: These work well in print if they are short and easy to remember. Do not include URLs that are very long and/or have a string of random numbers and letters, as they are almost impossible for readers to recall.
• Names of classmates: Bold every mention of the full name (Michelle Brown is excited for reunion.) Do not include a class year. Do not bold mentions of a first name only (Michelle is excited for reunion).
• Names of alumni from other classes and current students: Include a class year after the name, and do not use bold (Michelle had dinner with Rick Johnson ’90 and his son, Mark Johnson ’23).
• Names of non-Amherst spouses and friends: Treat a widow or widower as you would a classmate, bolding every mention of their full name (Jane Smith, widow of Bob Smith). Do not bold the names of other spouses or of non-Amherst friends.
• Name changes: If a classmate uses a married name, indicate in parentheses their undergraduate name: Michelle (Brown) Jones. If the classmate uses both last names, the treatment is Michelle Brown Jones. In both cases, every component is bolded. If a classmate changes their name for reasons other than marriage, do not include the previous name without that classmate’s permission.
• Nicknames: To avoid confusing them with maiden names, nicknames should be set off in quotation marks: Michelle “Shelley” Brown. 

Checking Names 

It is your responsibility to use the Alumni Directory to confirm all name spellings and class years.

Plagiarism

Class secretaries must never plagiarize and must give proper credit to avoid even unintentionally passing off someone else’s work as their own.

Editing and Publishing

All class notes may be edited by the magazine staff. The publisher of the magazine is Amherst College.

Your Sign-Off

Conclude each column with your name and email. If your class has multiple secretaries, include all of their names and emails and indicate which secretary wrote this quarter’s column. We do not publish closing phrases such as “Yours truly” and “With best wishes”; these fall outside the format of the class notes.

How to Gather News

Email: Alumni and Constituent Engagement will send a quarterly call for news to classmates. To supply your own text, send it to your class liaison at least two weeks in advance of your quarterly deadline. Otherwise, we will use standardized text. Replies will go directly to you.

Online: If your class has a website or social media page, check it regularly for news—but always confirm with a classmate that it is OK to publish such news in the magazine.

Phone: Your ACE liaison can provide a contact list. This is confidential information—do not share it with others or use it for any purpose other than gathering notes.

News Releases: We’ll forward relevant releases to you as we receive them. 

As you reach classmates, you may learn of name changes and new contact information. It is enormously helpful if you report these changes to us. Please email updates to alumni@amherst.edu or call (413) 542-2313.

Online Class Notes

You are welcome to work with your class web editor to post an expanded version of your class notes, which could include photos and an unlimited word count. Separately, and concurrent with the print publication, the notes will appear in the online magazine.

In Memory Pieces

An In Memory piece is a hybrid of a news obituary and a personal tribute. It usually represents the final time a classmate will appear in the magazine. The length may not exceed 300 words.

When you learn of a classmate's death, please notify your ACE liaison right away, before you start writing or delegating an In Memory piece. This important step will allow us to verify the loss. Equally important, it will help us to ensure there is only one In Memory piece submitted for each classmate, and that every In Memory piece is published in accordance with the wishes of the family. 

We encourage you to delegate In Memory pieces to relatives, or to classmates who were close friends. Please ask writers to submit these pieces both to you and to your ACE liaison by the quarterly deadline, which is the same as for class notes. Make sure to inform writers of the 300-word limit. 

An In Memory should include the full name of the deceased classmate, the date of death and a brief statement—if the family desires—of the cause of death and survivors. Briefly note educational, professional and personal highlights, as well as some details of the classmate’s Amherst years. If Amherst alumni are among the survivors, include class years after their names. 

In some cases, the Amherst College Biographical Record (published in 1973, 1983 and 1993) or the Alumni Directory will be the best or only source of information about a classmate. Your Olio yearbook and reunion books might also be helpful.

We are able to publish an In Memory only after confirming the death from a family member, through public records or a published newspaper/funeral home obituary.

We are happy to post the following on your behalf on the College's public In Memory pages:

Thank You!

Volunteering as a class secretary is among the most important and, we hope, fulfilling ways to give back to the College. Your hard work creates and enhances ongoing connections among classmates and in the broader Amherst community. Thank you for your efforts to serve our readership and your fellow alumni.