CONTACT - May 2016
Vol 14 # 5
In this issue:
SKYWARN Gets Media Hit in TX, OK
“I Didn’t Know I Was On The Record”
The 2016 Field Day PSA is now live on the ARRL web site. The 29-second audio PSAs are suitable for any radio station. There are two versions: one with space at the end for your group or club to provide local contact info, and another with a tag to the ARRL Field Day web page. Any club or group is welcome to use them.
SKYWARN Gets Media Hit in TX, OK
Grayson County, TX Emergency Coordinator Rick Simmons, K5ECX, was recently interviewed on KXII-TV 12 in Sherman, TX, about how ham radio and weather spotters report data to the Grayson County (TX) Office of Emergency Management and the National Weather Service. It’s a great piece that goes a long way in defining Amateur Radio and SKYWARN volunteer’s roles to the general public. Nice job, Rick!
Thanks to these individuals for becoming ARRL PIOs. Please join me in welcoming them to the team!
PIOs:
Tennessee: Keith Gaines, KC4YYF
PICs:
North Carolina: Irv McWherter, K3IRV
Northern Florida: Scott Roberts, KK4ECR
The window to nominate your group’s PIO or PR person for the ARRL Phil McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award is closing fast! Deadline for nominations is end of business Friday, May 20. The ARRL Board of Directors bestows the McGan Award to an Amateur who provides the best example of volunteer public relations to the non-ham community.
The award’s namesake, journalist Philip J. McGan, WA2MBQ (SK), served as the first chairman of the ARRL’s Public Relations Committee, which helped reinvigorate the League’s commitment to public relations.
If you know a ham who has gone above and beyond the call to promote Amateur Radio to the outside world, this is the way to honor them. Complete information on the McGan award is online.
ARRL Headquarters will be offering a training session for ARES Emergency Coordinators, District Emergency Coordinators and Section Emergency Coordinators on local, section, and state level Memorandums of Understanding for ARES. The training webinar will be Tuesday May 25, 2016 at 8pm Eastern Time. You may register for the webinar here. The webinar will be recorded and made available online afterward. All EC's, DEC's and SEC's are encouraged to participate.
“I Didn’t Know I Was On The Record”
One of the cardinal rules of doing an interview with the media is there’s no such thing as “off the record.” Here’s a reminder from Forbes on ways this has impacted industry leaders, and some ways to prepare for an interview to minimize the chances that something you say off the cuff ends up in print.
Dayton is upon us once again! PR Committee Chair Scott Westerman, W9WSW, will be leading the charge on a new PR tactic: taking it to the streets (or the aisles and flea market, as the case may be). While nearly 25,000 people pass through the turnstiles at Hara Arena every May, only a fraction of them visit ARRL Expo. Scott, along with other members of the PR Committee, will go "pedestrian mobile" and leave the Expo area and ask the Hamvention crowd at large what’s on their mind about ham radio in general, and ARRL in particular. We’ll take our findings and use that information to craft new outreach efforts in the months ahead. If you’re a PIO who will be attending Hamvention and would like to help with our efforts, drop me a line and we’ll add you the ARRL Dayton Outreach Team. Even if you can assist for only an hour, it will be much appreciated.
Scott will also be talking about the new Field Day social media bonus and ways to keep using social media well after Field Day at the ARRL Field Day forum, Sunday, May 22 at 9:15am in Room 2
I’ll be working with Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, at the National Parks on the Air booth. Please come by and say hello or if you have something on your mind.
See you at Dayton!
Thanks for what you do.
Sean Kutzko, KX9X
Media and Public Relations Manager
About ARRL >> Media and Public Relations >> Contact Issues >> Contact 2016 >> May 2016
