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Over the years, the League's Public Relations Committee (PRC) has become more visible and taken on a more important role as an official ARRL advisory committee. This group is comprised of League members throughout the country who have a serious interest in Amateur Radio public relations, and assist the League's PR program in a variety of ways. They all serve as volunteers. The League's president appoints members to the committee, and the group works closely with PR department staff.
In January 2004, President Jim Haynie appointed four new members to the committee and reappointed six members, some of whom have been part of the committee for a number of years. Of the ten, five are past McGan Award winners and nearly all currently serve, or have served, as ARRL Public Information Coordinators (PICs) or Public Information Officers (PIOs) in their respective sections. All are active in various aspects of Amateur Radio and work in varied professional fields.
Meet the 2004 PR Committee Members
Sherri Brower, W4STB, Chairman
A returning PRC member, Sherri was appointed to chair the committee this year. She also keeps busy as the League's Southern Florida Section Manager. She's done her fair share in Amateur Radio public relations over the years and has conducted PR training sessions for section appointees and club officers. She's also appeared on radio and television to promote local Amateur Radio events.
Rich Moseson, W2VU
Rich has served on the PRC, since its inception. We're fortunate that he keeps agreeing to come back! Many of you may recognize Rich's name. He's the Editor of CQ magazine and Editorial Director of CQ VHF magazine. Prior to his work in the ham radio news business, Rich was a writer and producer for CBS News and a writer for the Associated Press. Early in his career, he worked in broadcast radio news. He is a longtime League PIO and served eight years as the Northern New Jersey Section Manager.
Diane Ortiz, K2DO
Diane also is a returning PRC member, and is a former chairman. She is the Public Information Coordinator for the New York City/Long Island Section, and was able to tell the ham radio story after September 11, 2001 and other disasters in her section. Diane also writes the "YL News" column for QST, and is active in more organizations than we have room to list. One of her PR successes was a monthly cable television show on ham radio in New York City. In her day job, she handles communications support in the newsroom of Newsday, a large Tribune Company newspaper in Melville, New York.
Bill Morine, N2COP
Bill joined the PRC in January, and we're happy to have him onboard. He was recently appointed PIC for the North Carolina Section and has done an excellent job garnering media hits over the years. Bill has a knack for working with youth, and he's very involved with scouting. As for PR experience, just out of college Bill worked as press secretary for the Massachusetts attorney general candidate. He also worked as a writer and producer for WCVB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Boston.
Tim Lewallen, KD5ING
Tim is also new to the PRC, and the League's most recent McGan Award Recipient.
Tim is Public Information Coordinator for the Nacogdoches Amateur Radio Club in Texas, and an ARRL Public Information Officer in his section. Tim was a brand new PIO when the shuttle Columbia disaster occurred in 2003. When ham radio operators answered the call to assist with disaster relief efforts, he jumped in with both feet to handle the related press duties on behalf of Amateur Radio. He did an outstanding job. Tim is very involved in ham radio public service, and is a Certified Advanced Stormspotter with the Deep East Texas SKYWARN group.
Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR
A member of the PR Committee for a number of years, Jeff recently chaired the group in 2002 and 2003. He is the PIC for the Santa Barbara Section, and has worked in the media communications field for more than 30 years. He's also the mayor of Agoura Hills, California. Jeff has been instrumental in advancing the group's agenda over the years. As chairman, he worked to increase the PRC's outreach to PR volunteers, and that effort continues to be very important to the committee, and to the League.
Jim McDonald, KB9LEI
Jim was reappointed to the committee this year. He's a PIO for the Muncie (Indiana) Amateur Radio Club, and a PIO for the League. He formerly worked as a news writer and photographer for a small newspaper where "you learn how to do everything." Jim has worked for Radio Shack for the past 17 years, and manages a store in Muncie. He is also active with SKYWARN and the county's EOC. Jim has made a lot of contributions to the PR Committee, including heading up the group's revision of the Public Information Officers Handbook in 2002.
Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO
This will be Bob's third year on the committee. We knew of Bob long before that, thanks to his successful public relations efforts in Eastern Pennsylvania. He won the McGan Award in 1995 for his part in bringing a Ukrainian ham radio operator to the United States for medical treatment. Bob says that "friendship through Amateur Radio" was the theme of the story. For the past five years, Bob has covered Amateur Radio public service and emergency communications for CQ VHF and CQ magazines.
Tony Zona, WB3KGT
Tony was appointed to the committee this year. He currently works in the Information Technology Department at the Erie (Pennsylvania) Daily Times. Before taking that position, he was the paper's city editor for nearly 20 years. Although he began his career as an industrial chemist, he obviously had a passion for news. He started out as a reporter and photographer at various Pennsylvania newspapers. Like many of his fellow committee members, Tony strongly believes in Amateur Radio public service, and was instrumental in forming an Erie-area SKYWARN group. He's also been active in ARES and RACES.
Robert Weinstock, W3RQ
Last but certainly not least, we have new PRC member Bob Weinstock. Bob has served ARRL in a number of capacities over the years, including a year as Vice Director for the New England Division in the late 1980s. One of Bob's recent contributions was his work with VITAC Corporation to create an open-caption version of ARRL's Amateur Radio Today video. Bob is a Systems Trainer in Information Technology Services and an English instructor at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. In 2003, Bob hosted the League's donor recognition event on the Gallaudet campus.
Members of the 2004 Public Relations Committee contribute to discussions on the League's PR reflector. You can also meet them in person at the annual Dayton HamventionÒ PR forum, May 16, 2004.
A top priority for the Public Relations Committee (PRC) this year is to help the League's Public Information Coordinators (PICs) develop their own section-wide speakers bureaus, specifically for presentations to non-ham groups. Maintaining a speakers bureau is in the "job description" for PICs, but few have one in place.
ARRL's Board-level Programs & Services Committee asked the PRC to take on this project, knowing that the group was well qualified to assist.
PRC members are currently drafting several "how-to" papers to help PICs get started. Topics include identifying and recruiting speakers, and how to promote speaker availability within the community. PICs will be offered a list of potential non-ham audiences and topic ideas that will be of interest to those audiences. The PRC is also developing talking points covering specific topic areas or geared toward specific audiences.
Once the PRC's role in this project is complete, the PICs should have enough information to get started in their individual sections. Coordinating efforts with their Section Managers will be an important ingredient for success.
If you're a PIC, stay tuned for more information. If you're a ham who's willing to give a talk on ham radio, we're sure that your PIC will want to hear from you!
There's no doubt about it -- Amateur Radio clubs get good press. As a group, clubs promote their license classes, public service activities in the community and, of course, Field Day. Human interest features are also popular with the press, and putting a few of your fellow club members in the spotlight might be another way you can promote your club and continue building positive public awareness about ham radio.
One way is to find that club member who uses ham radio in conjunction with his or her other leisure activities. Over the years, ARRL has talked to plenty of hams who use their radios while hiking, biking, working with scout groups or even rock climbing. If that sounds like someone you know, try pitching that angle to your local press.
A second outlet you might consider is the employee newsletter. While it may not be considered "mainstream press," company newsletters are widely read and often run articles on what employees enjoy doing outside of work. It's a great way to reach non-hams, and if any readers have questions, they can approach their coworker for more information. If you're interested in trying this publicity approach, ask around to determine which club members have company newsletters that would run this type of story. You can pitch the newsletter editor, or prepare a pitch on behalf of your ham friend.
If either of these approaches works for you, please let us know!
Promoting Amateur Radio's role during storms and other emergencies is a top priority for the League. As we work with legislators in Washington on spectrum protection and on other pressing issues such as BPL, it's extremely important to push the emergency service angle whenever possible. Our public information volunteers have been extremely helpful in that effort.
Here are some things you can do before, during and after a disaster to promote emergency service efforts in your community, and assist the League at the same time:
Before
During
The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists located in St Petersburg, Florida. The institute's Web site, http://poynteronline.org offers a variety of articles covering all aspects of the journalism field, including an interesting column called "30 Tools for Writers."
