Content Conception
There is no single or recommended way for a council to conceive of content to produce—it could be anything from a proposal from a council member to a brainstorming session during a committee phone call. Once the council has decided to work on a content item, however, council liaisons will notify the ASIS Content Team in case additional follow-up is necessary (the idea, for example, may be identical to an idea for an article in Security Management, which might spur coordination at the least).
Content Development
ASIS International staff will not be involved during the development phase of written content, except or unless coordination with other ASIS content or projects is necessary. ASIS staff will not be available to design, write, or edit content.
Any content that bears a council’s name must undergo a creation and approval process that is developed by the council. ASIS International provides the following draft process for councils to consider:
- Ideas for content development are vetted with the council. Once the council approves a project, the appropriate content type is identified, a timeline is established, and the ASIS staff council liaison is informed.
- A draft of the content is peer-reviewed by at least two members. In addition to an overall look at the content, the reviewers should also provide readability and copyediting changes and suggestions.
- A final draft of the content is reviewed by the council chair or a designated member.
Content Publishing and Promotion
Once a content item has been finalized and accepted by the council, a PDF of the content should be posted to ASIS Connects. The easiest and best way to publish the content for the ASIS community is to post a new message in the Open Forum and attach the PDF. Once the post has been saved, you can access a link directly to the PDF (only ASIS members who have logged into the website or ASIS Connects will be able to access the file). For members needing assistance, ASIS Connects has several helpful resources under the “Participate” tab.
In addition, the ASIS staff council liaison should be notified, and the liaison will notify the ASIS Content Team.
ASIS International provides the following recommendations for promoting new content published by the councils:
- Encourage the authors and other council members to promote the content through their own personal social media channels and networks. (Note: the content will only be available to ASIS members.)
- Council members should monitor and respond to any members who comment on the Open Forum post with the attached content. Even if the comment is as simple as “Thanks for this resource,” replying by asking how the content was helpful will help promote the content.
- If there are other ASIS Connects communities that could benefit from the content, council members should add a discussion post in those communities. Best practice would be to not attach the PDF in an additional community, as this creates another copy of the content. It is better to post a link to the content in the Open Forum.
- If the council has a newsletter or other means of communicating with council members, promote the content through those means.
Note: ASIS International may promote the content through other means, such as through ASIS or Security Management social channels. This type of promotion is solely at the discretion of the staff and ASIS volunteers responsible for the channels. As long as the council liaison has been notified of the content, there is no need to reach out to ASIS staff. Please be aware that ASIS is a robust organization with the need to communicate many messages to members and limited availability to do so. Depending on volume and competing priorities, not all council content, and perhaps not even most of it, will receive any promotion beyond what the council does.
