Public Relations: Strategies for Reaching Today’s Rotarian ©Michelle M. Maresh-Fuehrer, Ph.D.

The Challenge  Reaching a new audience  Reducing misconceptions about Rotary  Strengthening Rotary’s image  Gaining public awareness of Rotary’s purpose/projects  Increasing membership  Retaining membership  Standing out from other service-oriented clubs

The Importance of Public Relations  Today’s public is increasingly concerned with social responsibility  Today’s public gathers information from media/social media  Today’s public will not know about or trust Rotary unless we have an established public presence

What is Public Relations?  PR =  Public Relations  Positive Relationships  Building a long-term relationship with the public, which results in:  Positive media coverage  Positive word-of-mouth

Getting Started  You must first have effective internal public relations (happy Rotarians!) before you can focus on external public relations (community, donors, media, prospective members, etc.)

Measuring Internal PR  Ask yourself:  When is the last time you asked a Rotarian why they were discontinuing their membership?  When is the last time you asked current Rotarians in your club about their experience with Rotary?  When is the last time you solicited project ideas/discussed projects with your entire membership?  When is the last time you publicly acknowledged members who helped with a project?

External Public Relations  To build trust in the community, we must be transparent.  We must be proud to:  Openly discuss our good deeds with others,  Letting donors know what their money is being used to accomplish,  Working with the media to create an image in the public’s mind  Making sure our logo is present and obvious at our events/projects

PR Toolkit  Developed by Southside Corpus Christi’s Michelle M. Maresh-Fuehrer specifically for Rotary  Introduces readers to a variety of methods for reaching journalists with story ideas/establishing effective media relations.  Explains how to handle negative social media posts  Instructions, ideas, guidelines, and templates are included

PR Toolkit Templates  News releases  Used to release an announcement to the news media with the intent of it being turned into a news story  Pitch letters  Used to pique a journalist’s interest in your story  Media advisories  Used to alert/invite the media to an upcoming event  Radio spot announcements  A written script to be read live on air by a disc jockey (DJ)  Social media posts  To facilitate two-way communication between the organization and public

Free Download  Click on “Membership”  Click on “Ignite Membership”  In the left column titled “Page Download Files,” click on “Public Relations Toolkit”

District Conference PR Workshop  For the rest of the story attend the District 5930 Conference:  Fri. April 17 - Sun. April 19  Corpus Christi, Texas  Presenter: PE Michelle Maresh- Fuehrer, D5930 Public Relations Committee, Rotary Club of Southside Corpus Christi