Around the Installation Management Community (Around IMCOM for short) serves as an up-to-date chronicle of installation life through great photography.
Thirty images are selected each month to illustrate the breadth of activities supported by IMCOM garrisons worldwide and to recognize good photography. Many IMCOM products feature photos originally collected for this set. Most significantly, Around IMCOM appears on a display in the Pentagon near the entrance of the office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management. The collection also plays in the lobbies of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command headquarters on Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas.
We make the collection available online:
Photo of the Month:
Among those 30 photos, one is selected as Photo of the Month.
Members of the IMCOM PAO staff make the choice based on photographic excellence and relationship to the IMCOM story. IMCOM acknowledges the best photo with a small logo in the photoset and a certificate.
Guidelines:
Any photo submitted to Around the Installation Management Community can be considered for photo of the month. Photos from any source, including (but not limited to) Public Affairs staff, CE publication staff, volunteers, interns, unit public affairs representatives or family members. Any photo submitted is eligible.
Keep in mind, our goal is to maximize participation. We're flexible, as long as the suggestion is fair and makes it easier for everybody
Unless it's an extraordinary circumstance, we accept up to the first 10 submissions per garrison. "Extraordinary circumstance" covers important breaking news (such as a POTUS visit or natural disaster), after you, in a spirit of kind proactiveness, already sent in 10 pictures.
Tell us where the cutlines are. Embedded? OK, but please be explicit when you send it in. Try to hit at least the first four W's.
Practice strategic selectivity. We only run 1-3 photos per installation in each edition. They are evaluated on photographic quality and relevance to the IMCOM story. Though we try to maximize the number of installations represented, if you send just one and it isn't good, we'll probably skip it. If you send 10, don't expect us to instantly recognize your favorite.
Submissions close on the announced date, usually the last Monday of the prior month. Photos submitted after that are considered for the next set.
Do not submit a photoset with more than 10 images. If the photo you want to submit is in a set, send only the URL for that photo. If you do submit a set, make certain the cutline for each photo is obvious.
That said, creating a Flickr album or a CORE slideshow especially for submission to Around the Installation Management Community is encouraged. Several garrisons did this and it worked quite well.
Just email high-resolution images, or CORE or Flickr links to those images, with complete cutline information to the IMCOM PAO mailbox, usarmy.jbsa.imcom-hq.mbx.public-affairs-office@mail.mil <mailto:usarmy.jbsa.imcom-hq.mbx.public-affairs-office@mail.mil> .
If we receive submissions but none meets the minimum standards for a good photo in the opinion of our staff, we will not select a photo of the month and we will try again next month.
REPEAT WINNERS:
What happens if the work of two or three photographers keeps taking Photo of the Month?
Individuals whose photos are honored twice within a calendar year receive Master Photographer status. They'll receive additional recognition-- a certificate, a label on their photos -- but their images won't be eligible for the Photo of the Month tag. Instead, at the end of the year, all masters' submissions (photo of the month or not) will be used to determine an annual winner. Everything resets at the beginning of the next year. We judge individual photographs for photo of the month; we'll evaluate a body of submissions for the annual winner.