Concerto is a brand new way to communicate on campus for the RPI community. A community-driven, web-based digital information system, Concerto allows anyone with an RCS ID and password to log in, submit content in the form of graphical flyers or text announcements, and see their content rotating live across a number of high resolution displays in key areas of campus. In addition, Concerto makes transmission of this information a trivial task, as new screens can be added to websites in the form of web portlets that act in the same manner as the flat panel displays that are around RPI's Troy campus.

In order to get started with Concerto, visit this link and log in with your RCS ID and password. Visit Concerto Support to learn more about the system and how to use it.

Campus communication in the 21st century begins now.

This calendar is run and maintained by students for the entire Union community--staff, students, and guests. You can add your club's meetings, social events, and other business directly to the calendar, which also carries events over to the master calendar for the entire Institute as seen at RPInfo. Access the calendar at uec.union.rpi.edu.

To log in and add an event to the calendar, visit this page. All club officers should automatically have the ability to log into the calendar administration panel and add, edit, and remove events from the calendar. Log in using your RCS username and password.

RPI TV, the student-run television media organization within the RPI Union, moderates a campus events advertising system that broadcasts on Institute cable channels 2, 6, 13, and 50. Televisions tuned to these channels are also found in some key areas of campus, such as the DCC Great Hall. You can submit a full-screen, static slide to play on the cable channel to rpitv-slides@union.rpi.edu at least 3 business days before the slide is to be aired. Also specify when RPI TV should begin to air the slide and when to take it down.

Guidelines for Slide Design

In designing a slide for the system, you are trying to convey a message to students and other members of the RPI community. Here are some tips:

• Emphasize the parts of the slide, such as the name of an event, your club or organization, or the time and place of an event in a large, readable font face.
• Save the slide as a compressed JPEG image at 800px x 600px resolution.
• Leave about 10% free space on all sides of the slide for margins. This space will likely get cut off during broadcast (see the graphic to the right).
• Use fonts at size 20pt or higher. Stick to sans-serif fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana (not serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Book Antiqua).
• Try to stay away from super-bright colors such as pure white, bright yellow, and hot pink. If you have to use a bright color, use it very sparingly.
• Don't use copyrighted content unless you get permission beforehand from the copyright holder. There might be an exception if you use fair-use materials. If you can't tell if something is copyrighted or not, don't use it!
• Remember that each slide you submit is broadcast for only 15 seconds per rotation. If that's not enough time to comunicate all the info you need to get across, consider breaking up the information into multiple slides.

Direct any other questions to rpitv-slides@union.rpi.edu.

The Union Administrative Office on the third floor of the RPI Union has its own Facebook account to promote Union events via the popular social networking site. Administrators maintain a group called RPI Student Activities. It is an open group that anyone can join.

Advertising through the Union's Facebook Group

• Give a description of your event to Melissa Termine-Goetz, Erika E. R. Lawson, or Cameron McLean (they all have offices in the Administration Office on the third floor of the RPI Union). They will help promote your event through the Facebook group.
• Email or bring them a flyer for an event your organization may be hosting. So that they can upload it to Facebook.

While many people already belong to the group, be sure to let your organization know about it! As more people join the group, more RPI students will be able to find out information about your events and others happening on campus.

In 2006, the Student and Faculty Senates approved a new Institute Sign Policy, which regulates the posting of signs on campus and affects all people, clubs, and organizations who post signs on campus. Anyone thinking of doing large-scale postering or advertising on campus should consult the full policy, which can be found online. But at it's core, the policy can be summarized as follows:

• Signs are generally only allowed on the exterior of the CII, DCC, and JEC.
• Signs must have a clearly legible take-down date (the date after the event or for non-event signs, 1-15 days after posting) in the bottom-right corner.
• The people posting are responsible for removing their signs by the specified take-down date.
• If an organization is posting a sign, the sign needs to have contact information on it.
• Signs are only allowed to be posted on the footbridge railings with masking tape.

For any signs posted on the interior of a building, the permission of the building coordinator must be obtained (they will generally employ a red stamp to indicate approved posters). This list is included as an appendix to the sign policy document; an updated list can also be obtained from Physical Facilities.

For extenuating circumstances, exemptions to provisions of the sign policy may be granted. In addition to the President and Vice Presidents of the Institute, permission can also be gotten from the Coordinator of Student Activities in the Student Union, the Grand Marshal, or the Dean of Students.

The Polytechnic is RPI's student newspaper. Each new issue of the newspaper is released in print form and on the organization's website on the Wednesday of each week during classes.

Poly Credits

Most Union-funded clubs are allocated some amount of Poly credits that can be used to place advertisements. These are the "currency" you can use in place of money to advertise in the newspaper. If you are not sure whether or not your organization has an allowance of credits, check in the Union Administration Office on the third floor of the RPI Union.

Submitting an Advertisement

In order to advertise in the newspaper, club officers (or any club member authorized by the club leadership to represent the club) must do two things:

• Reserve space for the advertisement by emailing the advertising editor by 5 pm EST on the Friday prior to the issue in which the ad is to be printed. Specify the organization, date of issue, and size of the ad. See the Poly advertising rate card for more details.
• Email a digital copy of the final advertisement to be printed to the advertising editor by 5 pm EST on the Monday prior to the release of the issue in which it is to be printed.

Each new issue of the Poly comes out on the Wednesday of every week. Consider submitting advertisements to the publication at least one week before the event. For more information check out the Poly's advertising page.

Chalk is not allowed by RPI's Environment & Site Services on any campus buildings, walkways, or other outdoor surfaces in public areas!

Don't waste your time and money making intricate chalk murals that will get washed away by Institute staff.