Pen Newsletter Policy
Employee Communications is providing the following guidance with the understanding that it is not all inclusive, and we reserve the right to update this information as needed.
Word Count
Articles submitted to the Pen should be 200 words or less.
Items Accepted for the Pen
The following items are acceptable submissions to the Pen:
- Department/employee awards and major achievements
- Employees going above and beyond
- New department projects and initiatives
- National observances (i.e., National Public Works Week)
- Department charitable giving
- Questions for Ask HR
Items Accepted for the Pen Extra
The following items are acceptable submissions to the Pen Extra:
- Births (your child or grandchild)
- Weddings (must be a Pinellas County employee or a child of a Pinellas County employee)
- Graduations (high school and above; must be yourself, your child, or your grandchild)
- Kudos (must be a Pinellas County employee or a child of a Pinellas County employee)
- Memorials (must be a current or former Pinellas County employee)
- Obituaries (must be a Pinellas County retiree)
- Items for sale (only Pinellas County employees and retirees may submit an item)
Items Not Accepted for the Pen
The following items are not acceptable submissions to the Pen:
- Employee of the Month
- Employee(s) attended a conference
- Personal stories, essays, poems, etc.
- Promotion of a business
- Opinion pieces
Note, some items not accepted for submission to the Pen may be acceptable to be shared on the County’s intranet site, MyPinellas. Contact Employee Communications at employee.communications@pinellas.gov.
Images
Employee headshots should not contain other people in the photo. Employees should not be wearing sunglasses or other items obstructing their face or be looking away from the camera. See headshot photo tips.
Please include a caption with photos. If the photo contains employees/interns/volunteers, include their names and titles in the caption. Note, if a photo contains more than 5 people, the individuals do not need to be identified by name as we do not have room for long captions.
Employee Communications reserves the right to not use a photo or to crop a photo for use in the Pen.
Additionally, Employee Communications is limited on the number of photos to use with each article, so we may not be able to use all of the photos submitted.
Deadline
The deadline for submissions to the Pen is the 10th of the month for the newsletter published near the end of the month. If you submit content after the 10th of the month, your submission may be held until the next month’s issue. Additionally, if Employee Communications thinks that your submission would work better in a future edition of the Pen, we will contact you to discuss.
Submit Items to the Pen
Use the links below to submit items for the Pen newsletter.
5/7/25