Generic IMC press pass template for IMCs
Design by Bill Huston (WilliamAHuston@gmail.com / 607-321-7846),  

... after an original design I saw on RealityExpander.com, a site for a Public Access TV news program in Austin TX.

Here is my generic IMC press pass template (this is what you want). It's in GIMP .XCF format.

Quickstart guide:
  1. Download GIMP:
    http://www.gimp.org

  2. Download the XCF master template here:
    http://binghamtonpmc.org/bhuston/presspass/imc_presspass_template.xcf

  3. Use GIMP to customize your Presspass
    with
  4. Print it out and sign it

  5. Laminate it

  6. Grab your camera, notepad, or audio recorder and
    GO GET THE STORY!
    You are LEGIT now!


Actually, you are legit without any press credentials:

CASELAW:
Demarest v. Athol-Orange Community Television, 188 F. Supp. 82 (D.Mass. 2002):

The federal district court ruled that a citizen-journalists for local community access
television had the same rights as other members of the media ...

 ... but you will feel very confidant wearing your new PRESS CREDENTIALS! 
It really looks snazzy, and your will be way cooler than most of the "real" news outlets!

Details:

GIMP is a Photoshop clone that runs natively on Unix and Linux. There are ports for Mac OS-X and MS-Windows which are now very good. Info on GIMP is here: http://www.gimp.org. (To save the template, you will probably have to right-click and select "save link target as" before attempting to work with it.)

Brief Open-Source rant: If all you have ever used is expensive, propritary, closed-source software, do yourself a favor and take that old Pentium II machine collecting dust in your garage and install Redhat, Mandrake, SuSe, or some Linux distribution on it. Not only does GIMP usually comes pre-installed, but you'll be amazed at what you can do with a real operating system, and you'll sleep better knowing that you aren't supporting predatory and capitalistic attempts at enclosing what should be our collectively owned commons. More info on linux is here: http://www.kernel.org. More info on the open source movement is here: http://www.gnu.org. If this sounds a bit nutty, please become informed on what's at stake here.

Sample: This design is quite professional looking and very effective at getting access to where you need to be.
This and a little moxy/chutzpah(*) should be all you need. 

(* this is really the secret ingredient at activating this badge!
And a little moxy/chutzpah with no press pass works almost as well!)

Here is a sample:

press pass
Click for a large view.

Customization for your IMC:

Here is a little image which will help you in the customization process. Please make sure
to customize it, i.e., don't use the Binghamton IMC logo, or mailing address, or URL.


instructions

Note on GIMP's Dynamic Text:

Most (all?) of the text is Dynamic Text, so it should be easy to make changes.

However, some older versions of GIMP have a few minor bugs and cavets.
Best to upgrade to the latest version, and everything should work fine.

You first should use the move tool (hand or 4 arrows) to select the text you want to change.
If you grab the wrong thing, just undo (control-z), and try again.

Once you select the right text, click on the text tool from the GIMP tools window.
You should be able to modify the text without having to retype everything.

This is especially handy in big blocks, such as the two blocks on the back side,
one of which -- the top block -- you'll have to customize.

Final touches:

You should pick a serial number for each person.  It could be random, or perhaps it could be based on a number which has meaning for your IMC. Once you pick one, use one of the free barcode generators available on the net, such as http://www.milk.com/barcode/server/  or http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php. This could be just for looks, or you could use this to provide access to your building. If you really want to scan your barcode, do some research first, because there are many different encodings to use.  More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_code.

Printing/Laminating:

In the U.S., you can print these out at Fedex-Kinko's in color for about $2 in computer time and printing costs, and about $3 for laminating. I have found that you can print 2 press passes on a single 8 1/2" x 11" page, and after trimming and signing the back, you can laminate them together to reduce costs.

OBSOLETE PROCEDURE: Before you laminate it, be sure to cut a large opening around the black guide mark at the top front. Make the hole about 2x what you think you really want. Then, after laminating, cut the plastic to the actual desired size on the inside of the area you cut out on the paper. The idea here is to make sure you are cutting only plastic, and not paper. If you don't pre-cut the paper first in this manner, you will end up with a pass which may be vunerable to taking on moisture and peeling.

NEW PROCEDURE: Now when I make press passes, before I laminate, I trim the whole thing to a 1/2" white border on all sides. This means I cut off the whole top part entirely (the white area with the black rectangle for the hole).

Then, after laminating, I leave 1/2" of laminate border around the whole thing, execpt at the top, where I leave 2". Then, I just cut a hole somehere in the center of the top laminate for a lanyard or badge clip*. This means there should be no paper anywhere near underneath where you cut the hole. You should be cutting through pure plastic. Use a tiny blade like an X-acto knife to cut.  (* They sell these at office supply stores like Staples.)

I hope you find this useful.

Bill Huston, IMC-Binghamton (NY) 2005
WilliamAHuston@gmail.com

(CC-BY-NC)