How to Build Good Government Relationships – 3/21/12

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This event was rescheduled from December 2011.

 

Political advocacy isn’t just for lobbyists. Public relations practitioners are getting more involved in political arena – whether it’s honing the message for your client’s communications with its congressional delegation, coordinating grassroots campaigns or being the key contact with local elected officials.  But political advocacy can be daunting and unpredictable.  It’s all about relationships!  This program will walk you through the basic steps for building a government relations strategy into your PR plan and provide useful tools for even the most-seasoned practitioner.

March 21, 2012 , 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Where: The Elliot at River’s Edge, Manchester, NH (directions)

Cost:

$20 for Members
$35 for Non-members
$10 for Students/Interns

Register HERE

About the presenter:

Gina Balkus, APR, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Home Care Association of New Hampshire, a non-profit trade association representing the state’s home health providers.  Prior to joining HCANH in September 2011, she was Director of Government Relations for Dartmouth-Hitchcock, where she implemented public policy strategies for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the 900+ physicians in DH community practices.  From 1986 – 1999, she was the lead lobbyist and media spokesperson at the NH Hospital Association, where she served as VP, Public Affairs.  In the mid-1990’s, a Medicaid Advocacy Campaign she created for hospitals won  the “Best of New England Lamplighter Award” from the New England Society for Healthcare Communications (NESHCo) and a national “Banner Award” from the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development.  In 2002, NESHCo honored her with its Evans Houghton Memorial Award for exemplary achievement in healthcare communications.  Gina currently serves on the Board of Directors of the NH Healthy Kids Corporation and St. Mary’s Bank. A native of New Hampshire, Gina graduated from Dartmouth College and was a Fulbright Scholar in Poland.

12/1/11 — How to Build Good Government Relationships

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The December 1 program (How to Build Good Government Relationships) has been cancelled.  It will be rescheduled for sometime later in 2012.


Proposed Chapter Changes

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To all Yankee PRSA members:

Last year at the PRSA Leadership Assembly, new national bylaws were adopted. As a result, all local chapters are required to review their own bylaws and bring them into compliance with the new national bylaws changes. The YPRSA Board appointed a committee to review our chapter bylaws and draft any changes necessary to come into compliance. The committee, under the Board’s direction, also looked at our current bylaws to see if anything needed to be updated. Finally, over the past several years the Board has contemplated changing the chapter’s fiscal year to a calendar year (versus our current 7/1 – 6/30 fiscal year) to bring our year into line with the other 99% of chapters around the country and also with PRSA national. The bylaws committee used this opportunity to address that issue as well.

See proposed Bylaws (pdf) HERE.

See proposed Bylaws w/annotations (pdf) HERE.

In large part, the changes being recommended by the committee and the full Board of Directors for the Yankee Chapter are non-substantive. However, two issues – the change in fiscal year and the structure of the Leadership Assembly Delegates positions (required to be in compliance with the new national bylaws) – are highlighted here:

  • Policy Issue: Change of fiscal year from July 1–June 30 to January 1–December 31 to be in sync with national and nearly all other chapters. This would also improve coordination with other chapters, district and national. In order to accomplish this change, YPRSA would need to close its books as of December 31, 2011 (thus shortening our current fiscal year by six months in order to start a new year on January 1, 2012). This is the common way to adjust an organization’s finances when changing its fiscal period.The other issue raised by a fiscal year change is the terms of the officers and board. It was decided by the Board (with the concurrence of national) that it makes more sense to lengthen the terms of office by six months rather than shorten the terms. This would help the chapter in its fiscal year transition. The following chart shows the current terms of the officers and Board and what their terms would be if the fiscal year change is approved.
Chapter Position Current Term Term if Fiscal Year Changed to Calendar Year Term for Next Set of Elected Positions
Officers (President, President-Elect, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Secretary) 7/1/2011 – 6/30/2012 7/1/2011 – 12/31/2012 1/1/2013 – 12/31/2013
Directors (2) 7/1/2010 – 6/30/2012 7/1/2010 – 12/31/2012 1/1/2013 – 12/31/2015
Directors (2) 7/1/2011 – 6/30/2013 7/1/2011 – 12/31/2013 1/1/2014 – 12/31/2016
Assembly Delegate 7/1/2010 – 6/30/2013 7/1/2010 – 12/31/2013 Would be replaced with a Director*, term: 1/1/2014 – 12/31/2016
Assembly Delegate 7/1/2011 – 6/30/2014 7/1/2011 – 12/31/2014 Would be replaced with a Director*, term: 1/1/2015 – 12/31/2017

* Replacement with a Director position would be optional, but would retain the current size of the Board. The duties of the Assembly Delegates would be assumed by the President and President-Elect. See next bullet for details.

  • Procedural Issue: One change in the national bylaws was the minimum requirements for Leadership Assembly Delegates. A recommendation strongly encouraged by National is to designate the chapter president and president-elect as the chapter delegates for the annual Leadership Assembly. In our chapter’s case, because our membership numbers currently allow for two delegate representatives, the Board is recommending we send our chapter president and president-elect. This would ensure that our Delegates would be in compliance with the requirements outlined by national’s bylaws. Our chapter’s current delegates would serve out their terms of office. At the end of those terms, the sitting President and President-Elect would assume the duties of the Assembly Delegates. As our current delegates meet national’s requirements, there is no issue with them serving the remainder of their terms.

In addition to these two main issues, the bylaws committee and the full Board of Directors are recommending the adoption of some non-substantive changes to the chapter bylaws. In brief, they are as follows:

  • New Sections: Following the suggested template established by national, the Board recommends adopting the following new sections to the bylaws:
    • Stating the chapter’s territory and locations
    • Scope of the Board and Officers’ role within the Chapter
    • Requiring the chapter to abide by applicable IRS and federal/state laws
    • Appointment and dissolution of committees (replaces our current language, but would not affect any standing committees)
    • Several miscellaneous sections that are standard to most bylaws
  • Deleted Sections: There are several deleted sections that are either no longer applicable to the chapter or have been replaced with new language in other parts of the bylaws.

All other bylaw changes that the committee would put forward are simple language clean-ups and the flow of the document and formatting.

Nov 3, 2011 – The Real Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Taste-full PR Strategy

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The Grand Poobah of Public Relations for Ben & Jerry’s, Sean Greenwood, will share his expertise on how the innovative ice-cream company’s public relations and marketing strategy contributes to the company’s three-part mission.

Greenwood will speak to students at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. The public is invited. The talk will be in the Morgan Room of Aiken Hall, at the corner of Maple and Summit Streets. There is parking nearby. The presentation is sponsored by the Yankee Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and hosted by Nancy Kerr, PhD, APR, the Program Director of Media Communication for Champlain College (www.champlain.edu). Cost: $20 for PRSA members, $35 for non-members. Champlain College students, staff and faculty attend at no charge.

Ben & Jerry’s (www.benjerrys.com) was born and raised in a garage in downtown Burlington in 1978, motivated by the slogan, “If it’s not fun, why do it?” Later their philosophy blended social and environmental activism with sorbet and sundaes, parlaying their waffle-cone confections into an international organization advocating peace, justice, and premium homemade ice cream for all.

Now their eclectic and funky-named ice-cream flavors form the frozen solid foundation of a trifold mission: product quality, economic reward and community commitment. Hear how and why they do it from Director of Public Relations Sean Greenwood or, as he prefers to be called, the Grand Poobah of Public Relations.

Questions

Contact Tom Bebbington at 603-498-5881

Date/Time

November 3, 2011
2 – 4 p.m.

Location

Champlain College, Burlington, Vermont – Morgan Room of Aiken Hall, at the corner of Maple and Summit Streets.

Cost:

$20 for Members
$35 for Non-Members
$10 for Students/Interns

Registration:

Click HERE to go to our registration page.


Leveraging Social Media & Measuring Influence

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Thursday, October 13, 2011 –  2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Session Description: Join Rebecca Lavoie, Producer, “Word of Mouth” NH Public Radio and Jennifer Zingsheim, Vice President, Products and Services, CustomScoop for a two-part session that explores leveraging social media platforms and determining online influence.

Opening the discussion, Rebecca shares vital information for communications professionals, content providers, and businesses, about leveraging the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter. Decoding the “game” of social media is a critical part of understanding how to use it. Using real examples of businesses and communicators that make the most of Twitter and Facebook is one of the best ways to begin to understand the game, and how to use these powerful tools to your best advantage. Unlike a perfect press release, social media is not all about content, nor crafting a brand. The platform is, simply, about relevance, and building a network of followers based on the conversation you want to have with the audience you want to target.

Many tools have recently sprung up that attempt to quantify online influence. Raw scoring systems usually miss a key component of real trust, real authority, and real influence: these components are all contextual, and need to be viewed through the lens of your intended audience. Jennifer’s presentation examines the available tools to score influence – their accuracy and possible issues – and how to use research to supplement and refine your search for online influencers who genuinely impact your target audience.

Presenters: Rebecca Lavoie is Producer of the New Hampshire Public Radio magazine program Word of Mouth. In that role, she manages online content for the program and has implemented and maintained an active social media presence to disseminate show content, generate ideas, book guests, and further establish Word of Mouth’s brand as a source for innovative ideas and new conversations. Rebecca is also the co-author of two books, and a prolific freelance writer who has written for New Hampshire Magazine, Newsweek, Playboy, and playboy.com.

Jen Zingsheim is Vice President of Products and Services for CustomScoop, driving product development plans to better meet the needs of public relations and marketing professionals. In addition, Jen oversees CustomScoop’s media analysis offerings, including BuzzPerception Reports, which track messages and trends in social media for Fortune 500 clients. Jen has an extensive background in government and public relations. She previously held the position of Senior Account Executive at Fleishman-Hillard, serving in the Public Affairs practice group at the firm’s St. Louis headquarters, working with clients on regulatory, grassroots, and word-of-mouth marketing programs. Prior to joining Fleishman-Hillard, she served as a lobbyist and research director for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Jen received a B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

Location:

NH Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF)
4 Barrell Court
Concord, NH 03302

Cost:

$20 for Members
$35 for Non-Members
$10 for Students/Interns

Registration:

Click HERE to go to our registration page.


Nov 17, 2011 – How Southwest Airlines’ Communication Strategy Builds Brand Ambassadors and Contributes to Keeping Customers and Employees Happy

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Among the many accolades from this year alone, Southwest Airlines ranked fourth on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Company list and has consistently ranked as one of the top companies in customer service by Consumer Reports, MSN Money, JD Powers, and many other reputable organizations. Southwest Airlines was even toted as the “Greenest Airline” by ClimateCounts.org. During this program, learn how Southwest Airlines’ communication strategy builds brand ambassadors and contributes to keeping customers and employees happy.

Presenter

Chris Mainz is a primary spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest airline in terms of domestic customers boarded. In addition to handling the company’s regional media relations, Chris specializes in executive communication, reputation management, special event planning, and story placement in national and regional publications.

In addition to his media relations duties, Chris is chief writer for Southwest’s CEO Gary Kelly and founded the Speaker’s Bureau for Southwest Airlines.  In 2005, he lived, quite literally, in Southwest’s terminal at the Baltimore/Washington Airport as Southwest participated in the filming of a reality series for the Arts & Entertainment Television Network. Chris supervised the on-location production for the reality series, which filmed Southwest’s daily operations in four cities.

Chris began his career at Southwest Airlines in the Customer Relations Department as a writing representative, where he researched customer situations and drafted personalized responses in order to resolve conflicts and win customers back.  Chris became a senior writer and eventually served in a leadership role in customer relations before making the jump over to public relations.

Date/Time

Novemer 17, 2011
2 – 3:15 p.m.

Location:

Southern New Hampshire University
2500 North River Rd.
Manchester, NH

Cost:

$20 for Members
$35 for Non-Members
$10 for Students/Interns

Registration:

Click HERE to go to our registration page.

The PR Benefits of Mobile Marketing and Communication

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Thursday, September 15
2:30-4:30 pm

Mobile technologies, platforms, and services are part of American culture. There are currently 78 million Americans (and nearly 250 million people around the globe) walking around with smart phones. Moreover, each is a potential customer; potential partner; potential friend; or a new contact with whom you may interact. Mobile users all desire the same things: information and entertainment. It is critical for organizations to learn how to use the tools of the mobility trade—smart phones, tablets, and other devices—to reach busy, rapidly moving audiences where they live, work, and play.  Please join Adam Vicinus and Tom Herer, co-owners of The Atom Group as they discuss how to:

  • Leverage social media. Facebook, Twitter and other social marketing tools are changing the landscape every day. Organizations should utilize these tools to achieve business, marketing, and communication goals.  As an increasing number of people access social networking via smart phones and tablets, organizations must find exciting new ways to spotlight their companies, brands, products and services. Meanwhile, get used to multi-tasking as you network, share information, and garner customer feedback.  Adam and Tom will discuss the newest tools and how to ensure social media and marketing efforts are integrated into your organization’s comprehensive PR and marketing strategy.
  • Compete in the increasingly cluttered “app universe.” Organizations must build creative and compelling apps if they want to connect with key audiences.  Using innovative technologies, your audiences or constituencies can register for events, enter contests, access social media, and surf the mobile web on a variety of mobile devices while on the go.  You can provide your audiences with critical information anytime and anywhere.
  • Create a mobile-ready website. It is no longer enough to have “just” a basic website.  Now, the most successful sites are mobile-ready to grab the mobility marketplace and segment consumers in ways that delight and amaze.  Adam and Tom will provide an overview of what makes a site ready for the mobile web, and why the mobile web is so important in today’s mobile culture.

Location

The session will be held at the offices of Long Term Care Partners in the Appledore Island Room, first floor; 100 Aboretum Drive, Portsmouth, NH  03801.

Register today!

$20 for Members
$35 for Non-members
$10 for Students/Interns

About The Atom Group

Save the Date – International Conference Oct. 15–18

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Imagine. Create. Inspire.
Become inspired by thousands of your colleagues at the industry’s most anticipated event — the PRSA 2011 International Conference, Oct. 15–18, in Orlando, Fla. With this magical city as the backdrop, learn the latest strategies in communications from the visionaries who imagine and create the most innovative techniques in the business.

  • Imagine the impact of public relations on your bottom line. Deepen your understanding of its value.
  • Create and define your three-day learning experience. Shape your agenda with rich knowledge from industry leaders.
  • Inspire and network with a diverse group of industry colleagues. Expand your world of information exchange.

Gain in-depth insights on hot industry issues.
We have gathered more than 150 experts to lead lively and informative discussions on the hottest issues facing the public relations industry. Each of the 90+ Professional Development sessions center on topics you need to know now, and fall under one of five learning tracks:

  • Track 1: Strategies — Sessions address strategic thinking and planning, reputation, behavior change, branding, marketing mix, risk communications, collaboration and policy development.
  • Track 2: Tools & Techniques — Sessions address proven tactics, techniques and case studies in public relations, integrated communications, messaging, word-of-mouth, media pitching, content creation, skills building and social media.
  • Track 3: Specialization — Sessions include targeted content for PRSA Professional Interest Sections-sponsored programming, focusing on specific audiences and industries. Topics include health, global, travel, employee communications, diversity and financial, among others.
  • Track 4: ROI — Sessions address the roles of research, social media measurement, ethics and brand value, as well as The Business Case for Public Relations™.
  • Track 5: Leadership & Management — Sessions address corporate culture, qualities of leadership, transitions, conflict resolution, managing and embracing change, mentoring and the evolution of public relations.

Bring along your wish list and envision the future of public relations. Join your colleagues at this year’s Conference, where you will create and inspire ideas that will benefit you and your organization in more ways than you can imagine. Save $200 when you register by Aug. 26.

NE District Conference Sept. 28

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The Rochester chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) will host the organization’s Northeast District Conference on Wednesday, September 28, at the RIT Inn and Conference Center.

The theme of this year’s 2011 conference is “Communicating Without Walls,” and will feature a morning keynote presentation from Mike Fernandez, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Cargill, and a lunch keynote from Rosanna Fiske, APR, CEO and Chair of PRSA.

In addition, a total of 20 breakout sessions will take place throughout the day, and will be presented by public relations professionals from across the country. Some of the session topics include crisis communications, employee/internal communications, social media best practices, video marketing, social media and politics, and a media panel featuring local print, television, and radio journalists.

Register today for the conference and take advantage of the Early Bird pricing before Thursday, September 1st!

Click here to register.

Feb 24 Qualities of an Entrepreneur Session Cancelled

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The February 24 professional development session on the Qualities of an Entrepreneur has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience! See you in March for the Essentials for Effective Public Relations, a half-day professional development session, to hone your skills in the following:

  • Internal communications and the role of employees as ambassadors
  • External communication:  what’s working and what’s not in today’s world?
  • Media relations & social media, including a panel discussion with practitioners with seasoned media expertise
  • Behavioral public relations theories such as the diffusion process and behavioral model
  • The basics of research and how it is being used for planning and evaluation
  • Developing a public relations strategic plan

The session is scheduled for March 21 and will be presented by seasoned public relations practitioners Gail Winslow-Pine, APR and Robin Schell, APR.
There will also be an opportunity to network with the Chapter’s senior practitioners over lunch from 12-1 p.m.

Click here for more information and to register.