Now that our first Community Week of 2014 is about to get started, it's time to do another blog introducing the ways in which you can get involved in the group this year. A lot of people have found that projecteducate gives them a great platform to have their already awesome articles noticed. This is very true! projecteducate not only helps educate the community through what you write, but also gives you a chance to have your artistic voice heard. At the time of writing this blog we have over 1,200 members and over 2,000 watchers. This means that the blogs we submit go out to hundreds of people. So why not use this method of communication to share your knowledge, tips and insights?

Community Volunteer Weeks

This is when a Community Volunteer (CV) takes a whole week to educate you about a chosen art form. This is usually done through interviews, features, tutorials, educational articles and the occasional contest or chat event. If you think you've got something to contribute to an upcoming CV led week then just note the Volunteer involved and propose your idea. You can see what's coming up by visiting the schedule here.

Community Weeks

These occur every other month and the next one is due on April 7th - April 13th 2014. We're about to start one right now which is why you will likely be seeing a huge mix of incredibly useful articles appear in your inbox. The idea of these weeks is that all sorts of people get involved thus bringing a mixture of all sorts of educational materials. You can even come on board to run a contest throughout that week if you fancy it, and we can sort the prizes out for you too (within reason!) Generally, two articles a day get posted during Community Weeks but if we have an influx of participants we will of course, allow more!

Artists Toolbox Weeks

These occur every other month as well and the next one is due fairly soon - February 17th - February 23rd. The idea of these weeks is to bring you a mix of articles focusing on all sorts of Artists Tools. You can get an idea of what we covered last time by visiting the roundup here. If you have insider knowledge about the particular 'tools' of a trade then you may well find you could write an article for the group! We also welcome people who don't have particular knowledge but whom are willing to research (and cite their sources) which is a great way of practicing for any official college/uni articles that you may have to write in the future.

So how do you get involved?

For both of the above Community involved weeks we have editors available to ensure that your articles are accurately correct and that you have any assistance with coding (like 'bold' and 'underlining') where you need it. The editors can also help with the projecteducate skin.

Note projecteducate with your proposed article idea including the title of either 'Community Week' or 'Artists Toolbox Week' so that we know which project you are interested in contributing to.
The group administrators will review your idea to ensure it hasn't already been recently covered, or doesn't clash with another Deviants plan.
Once reviewed and accepted, you will be asked to draft up your article in st.ash. Help is on hand if you need it! You will also be invited into the projecteducate group as an admin so you can see all the backroom workings and read the guidelines
You will be asked for your completed article 5 days before the scheduled 'Week' is due to launch. You will then be given a time slot to post in, so you can go ahead and use Scheduled Submit in sta.sh
If you don't have access to scheduling, we can help! We also give guidance for using the Project Educate official CSS (journal skin).