The HeartBeat 
                                                                                                     October  2010
 You now have a "Distinguished"
Email Address!

Use your new official email address for recruiting and communicating with your program's contestants, volunteers, sponsors and media!



How do I use my new email address?

1.  Your new email address is  . 
2.   Visit www.DistinguishedYW.org and click on the login page. You'll see a link at the bottom of the page to login to your program's email account.
You can also use the direct link to login to your account: http://mail.distinguishedyw.org/.  
3.  Type in the name of your program that appears before the @ symbol in the space provided for username.  If this is your first time accesing your account, your password will be scholarships.  You will be prompted to change your password upon your first login.  

 

Click here for important information on how to use your new email account  



How do I set up my email address? 
Your program's email address is already set up - all you need to do is login and become familiar with the system and begin distributing it.     is the email address our office will use to communicate with you. 
  
What are the benefits for using my DistinguishedYW.org email address? 
Using your program's email address helps others recognize your program as an official part of Distinguished Young Women and gives all of our program uniformity. By using the new address you are sharing our new brand, promoting our new website, and helping to create the connection between your local or state program and the national program. In addition, using the new address will help create consistent means for communication from  year to year. 

How do I change my email on www.DistinguishedYW.org?
Login to www.DistinguishedYW.org, click on "my profile" on the right hand side.  Click on "account" on the right hand side.  Enter   as the email account. Your password will remain the same.  Click on "update". You will now login with your new email account and password.  For programs that have Co-Chairs only one person can use    for www.DisitnguishedYW.org as their email address.   
Have more questions?  
We are excited to offer you this opportunity but understand that new opportunities are often accompanied by questions and sometimes complications. Please let us know if you need help in using your new address or if you have any questions.

Committee Member Email Addresses
We encourage your committee members to incorporate the new name into their personal email address, but unfortunately, we can only create one for each state and local program on our server.  They must follow these guidelines when creating such addresses:  The only abbreviation they may use is DistinguishedYW, not DYW.  Again, this is to solidify the new brand as much as possible.  We are the only organization of our kind with the word "Distinguished" prominently featured in the name and we want to promote as much as possible so people relate that word to our program  


We will only provide DistinguishedYW.org accounts to Local and State Chairpersons.

     For Local Programs with co-chairs an email sent to    can be accessed by both chairpersons. Whichever co-chair accesses the email account first will need to notify their co-chair of the new password. 
Note: If you forget your password, please contact Nicole@DistinguishedYW.org to have your password reset.

WEB WONDER
 

The DistinguishedYW.org websiteis up and working!  Please begin to use this web address (instead of AJM.org) and update your web links to reflect the change.  So please let everyone know that you can use the new web address for anything you need to do on your site. Go ahead and try it out: www.DistinguishedYW.org/login.  

 

We know how important it is for your program to have a strong presence on the web in order to attract potential participants and reconnect with alumnae. State Programs now have a web addresses that are shorter and make more sense. Now you can skip the bulky web addresses and visit Georgia's page at www.DistinguishedYW.org/GA. A link from that page will lead you to Georgia's traditional homepage where you can find links for local programs, news and contestants. We know that these pages still say "Junior Miss" and unfortunately it requires a Cold Fusion programmer to correct that.  We are still searching for someone with those skills and will resolve the problem as soon as possible.

 

We also plan to spend some time in the near future researching ways to better need your program needs through your webpage. Please spend some time looking at your site, making updates and thinking of ways that you can use it to maximize its potential! There are resources in the web library that can help you.

 

Please remember that your website should be the primary place for your program's information and resources online. Please do not set up your own website for your program and be careful that your social media sites do not take the place of your webpage. Facebook, Twitter and blog sites are excellent ways to reach potential and past participants, but they should not take the place of your webpage and should always refer back to your program's webpage.

Remember to use the FAQ document that addresses the most common questions that Chairpersons experience when using the website.  Click here to view document.  The document is in the online Library under Programs.   

BRANDING INFORMATION

 As we make the transition to Distinguished Young Women from America's Junior Miss the information below are hard and fast rules to be followed at all local and state programs in order to implement the new brand efficiently and effectively.

Branding Rules to live by:
1. All state programs will choose their first Distinguished Young Woman of "State" during their program for the 2011 Graduates.
2. All local programs will choose a "Local" Junior Miss during their program for the 2011 Graduates using the bronze AJM medallion.
3. All local programs will choose their first Distinguished Young Woman of "Local" during their program for the 2012 Graduates using the bronze Distinguished Young Woman medallion.
4. The name of local/state programs are Distinguished Young Women of Local/State.  Not: Alabama's Distinguished Young Women.
5. The name of the representative for your program is the Distinguished Young Woman of Local/State.  Not: Alabama's Distinguished Young Woman. 
6. Do not use the acronym DYW in any press releases, recuitment materials, email addresses, etc...   

YOU TALKED WE LISTENED!

 

Logos and Brand Manual

First of all thank you for your support as our organization moves into the future.  We know this transition is emotional as we have experienced the same feelings and we are humbled and comforted by your support and continued love for this amazing program.  After assessing the feedback from many State and Local Chairpersons we have added the tagline: Scholarship Talent Leadership to the State and Local Logos. Use these logos moving forward on any collateral materials for your program.  Click here for the updated Brand Manual. 

 
The AJM Guidebook online now has a Preface that explains the transition and the new brand manual (The Official Guidebook is saved online under Library and Programs).  Please print out pages 1-13 to add to the front of your guidebooks.  The Distinguished Young Women Guidebook will be updated and disseminated this summer to reflect the name change and any other changes for the upcoming years.

 

New Logos

All Distinguished Young Women Logos for State and Local Programs are temporarily located on the ftp site (ftp://ajm.fusionpointmedia.com).  New Logos are not on www.DistinguishedYW.org.  If you are having problems viewing or dowloading the logos try doing the following:

Open web browser and type ftp://ajm.fusionpointmedia.com

  • Enter username: ajm and passoword: ajm
  • At the top of the page are instructions to follow to view the logos in Windows Explorer (which will allow you to save the logos in jpeg format).
  • To view the ftp site in Windows Explorer find the top right of your browser, click the arrow next to "Page" to view the dropdown menu, and then click "Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer" usually located near the bottom of the drop down menu.  Click on "allow" and enter the username and password again.  This should open the ftp site in Windows Explorer and will allow you to view the ftp site as if it is a folder on your computer. 
  • Find logo and copy and paste it to your computer.  (Note: you may have difficulaty accessing the ftp site using FireFox or Safari.  Please use Internet Explorer instead.)
 PR Update

This year we hired Tucker & Associates to help us promote the new brand and new name. From placing news stories about our programs and new name throughout the country, to arranging Madison's interview on Fox & Friends, Tucker & Associates has had a combined advertising and public relations impact of more than $2.7 million for Distinguished Young Women. Click here to view Tucker's Media Impact Report for mid-May through early July.

FOUNDATION INFORMATION

Paige Yance is the new the Foundation Administrator.  Her email address is foundation@DistingushedYW.org and the phone number is (800) 256-5435.  Paige will be in the offie on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  She will check her voice mail and email messages regularly throughout the week. We would like to thank Kim Setser for her many years of service and dedication to our organization. She is pursuing a full time job opportunity with an accounting firm and will remain a faithful volunteer.

The Foundation administers scholarships for approximately 350 State and Local programs.  This is a service that we offer free of charge to State and Local programs to relieve the burden of administering scholarships, following appropriate tax regulations, and allowing individuals to receive a tax-deductible donation credit for a contribution to a program's scholarships.  Within each of those program accounts, there are at least 50 girls with individual scholarships.  The Foundation employees a 1/2 time person to administer all these funds, so we are working to streamline the process and provide the best service possible. Click here for the new policy regarding how we will handle tax-deductible donations from individuals to your program. 

You, as chairpersons, can help your scholarship recipients receive their funds quickly by providing them with the correct link to the web site to access the forms they need to complete before submitting www.DistingushedYW.org/about/scholarships.  We ask that you do not hand out these forms at your program but rather include instructions on how to retrieve the proper information.  Since many programs happen a year or two before the contestant will be claiming their money for college the forms can be oudated and might cause delays in the processing their scholarship.  For example, some forms might still have our PO Box that is no longer in use.  We receive many calls during peak times (a month before a new semester starts, for example) from parents asking why they have not received the funds, and it is most often because the scholarship recipient did not complete the forms correctly or because she failed to provide either proof of enrollment in school or receipts for which she is asking reimbursement. Please help us with this!
For your information:  Three times annually, The HeartBeat Newsletter is sent electronically to create a better connection between with local and state programs to the  national office.  The local and state volunteers are the heartbeat of the Distinguished Young Women.
 
Your beat will allow Distinguished Young Women to live on for the next 50 years!