Gazette seeking community contributors for caucus night coverage

The Gazette is looking for people who want to write about their experiences at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and share them with others.

We'd be glad to share your experiences at political events leading up to the caucuses, too. You don't have to be a supporter of any candidate and, in fact, we'd want you to tell us if you are. All you have to be is interested in the political process, events unfolding in Iowa that you'd observed and would like others to know, access to a website and the ability to put your thoughts in writing in a way that informs others.

I'm telling you this to plant the seed in your mind. I am encouraging you to check out the easy steps that give you access to our caucus website, www.IowaCaucus.com, and allow you to be a citizen reporter for this important event that focuses on our state. The steps will be at the end of this column.

We are seeking people who plan to attend the caucuses; see something they think the rest of the region, state or country should know and then want to share it. What information do we seek? Interesting things people are saying or to which they are reacting. Unique twists that strike you as unusual and worth sharing. Disputes that emerge, and how they get resolved.

Do you have an interesting photo? Send it our way. We'll share it in the same way we will share your stories – on our website but also in The Gazette printed newspaper if the story is big enough to warrant such treatment.

Here's the easy rule of thumb: If you see or hear something and ask yourself or a friend, “Where is a reporter when you need one?” you could report it yourself. We send a lot of reporters and photographers to cover political events and the caucuses every four years but we cannot be at every one of them.

A few guidelines:

• We are looking for your observances on what you hear and see. We will edit for grammar, style and redundancies.
• We will vet information you submit before publishing, as we do with our regular reporting staff.
• No opinion pieces please. Readers periodically submit to us community contributions that are opinion pieces rather than news stories. We ship some to the Opinion Page for consideration as letters to the editor. Some submissions I've seen are opinion letters from various parts of the country that simply call on people to support a particular political candidate. I delete those if I cannot verify they are from Iowa and also because the purpose of our community contribution set-up is to spread news, not opinion.

Which gets me to how you can be a citizen journalist and report what you observe at the caucuses, or at any of the events leading up to the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Go to www.IowaCaucus.com. In the right-hand corner you will find a feature called “Get Involved: Submit your story now.” From there, the directions are easy. Give your submission a title and then write the story in the space provided. We have a prompt from where you can attach photos or documents. We will take it from there. Part of the submission process includes telling us who you are because you take the full credit if we publish your story.

It is that simple.

If you have questions feel free to e-mail me at lyle.muller@thegazette.com.