1. MTF = Team Work!
Sandy Triolo - Communications
Sub-Committee Chair

2. USATF Masters Communications
USATFMASTERS.ORG

3. INTRODUCTION
The Communications Sub-­‐Committee grew out of the former Media Sub-­‐Committee, chaired by Bob Weiner,. The concentration was on building a national MTF audience through traditional media exposure. The new committee was created in January 2018, with the recognition of the expansion into greater web, social and new media. With focus on Team Work Bob Weiner agreed to become the Director of Championship Media, covering the bi-­‐annual National Championships, as part of the new committee. MTF now has the best of traditional and new media to share our message and grow our sport.

4. WHAT WE DO
The Communications sub-­ ‐committee is concerned with all communications that might be necessary for MTF to achieve its objectives. Additionally, the committee looks to improve existing procedures as well as suggest new ways to improve communications internally and externally.

5. Comm Sub-Committee Responsibilities
Website
Press – Press Release
Social Media
Photography - Video
Announcers
Promotion of Events
Marketing

6. Building on our Strengths
Committee Members:
Joy Upshaw, Amanda Scotti, Jerry Bookin-­‐Weiner, Lisa Rosborough, Jeff Brower and George Melichar. Advisory members are Cathy Utzschneider, Michael Arata, Clinton Aurelien, and Andre Baynes.
To be successful and useful good communications requires input from many different people and areas of MTF.
Good Communications requires TEAM WORK!

7. WWW.USATFMASTERS.ORG WEBSITE OVERHAUL

8. Increased Exposure – Growth in Awareness of MTF

9. Increased Exposure – Growth in Awareness of MTF

10. Social Media Growth
The biggest area of growth continues to be in social media where our account reach has steadily risen. In 2015 the Facebook page had 500 followers, today it has 2700, the Facebook private group is over 1200 members and growing in a little over a year.
The benefit has been that we have multiple ways to reach our members, the challenge is to harness the power of these platforms beyond simple communication to find new members to advertise and to show potential sponsors the power of our members.

11. As many as 70k+ views a month - 6-10k avg weekly reach
SOCIAL STATS
Platform
Followers/Members
STARTED
Average
Traffic
Facebook Page
2700
2015
3-7 thou avg reach
Facebook Group
1200
2017
1000 engagements mth
Twitter
1165
Varies 79k in sept!
Instagram
3100
5 thou impressions avg
YouTube 27
2018
New
RSS/Specific Feeds 31
DAILY REACH
7143
As many as 70k+ views a month k avg weekly reach

12. National Championship Media Coverage – Bob Weiner
2018 Media Highlights
Contact and promote National meets to local and national media outlets
Arrange on-­‐site media coverage and interviews
Manage on-­‐site media visits, liaison with USATF at events
Help athletes with interviews and media connections
Assist with creating and releasing championships press releases
Track championship coverage, collecting links and information
March 19, Centenarians break world records at track meet
March 17, The newest -- and oldest -- rivalry on the track
March 17, Hurricane Hawkins has no plans of slowing down
July 27, PM USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships TV coverage
July 28, PM USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships TV coverage
July 29, PM USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships TV coverage
July 30, PM USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships TV coverage

13. 2018 Accomplishments New Communications Methods
Expanding Announcing Options
Created New website! The USATFMasters.org site was completely rebuilt from scratch. All pertinent information was moved from the “old site” to the “new site”. The old site remains online as an archive for the depth of information there, some of which has not been moved. The new site went live just before the WMA Championship in Malaga.
Created RSS Feed/Website Syndication: (really simple syndication). This is a simple service with a powerful effect. Those that sign-­‐up get notified automatically that new information has been posted. We will collect these s for use in future marketing and newsletter production.
Promoted New Communications Methods: Google Docs, Google forms, FB group, Whatsapp, building a new list, specific feeds -­‐ newsfeed,
Expanded Announcing Options: In Spokane, we hired an announcer local to the region, Paul Merca. He lives in Washington State and came highly recommended. Although he was not as familiar with Masters Athletes as say, Pete Taylor, he is now more familiar then he was before Spokane Outdoor Nationals.
MTF Announcing GOALS
Expose more professional announcers to the world of MTF
Have multiple choices for announcing around the country
Have options for 2nd announcers (better coverage of field events)
Note: Pete Taylor will return for our Indoor Championship in Winston Salem, and JDL will supply a 2nd announcer.

14. 2018 Accomplishments - cont
DATA (and more data)
Announcing
Increased use of existing Data: This year, considerable hours were spent building a large spreadsheet (ever growing) of Masters Athletes who had registered in the past few championships. The spreadsheet contains many data points such as hometown, events, awards, records WR and AR and HOF. This was created by Jay Wind and enables searching for individual athletes by state and/or by records as well as speeding up the production of lists for building press releases for instance. Many thanks to Jay Wind for his work on this!
Expanded Announcing Options
MTF Announcing GOALS
Expose professional announcers to the world of MTF by engaging announcers around the country
Have 2nd announcers for field events
Better coverage of field events
Note: Pete Taylor will return for our Indoor Championship in Winston Salem, and JDL will supply a 2nd announcer.
In Spokane, we hired an announcer local to the region, Paul Merca. He lives in Washington State and came highly recommended. Although he was not as familiar with Masters Athletes as say, Pete Taylor, he is now more familiar then he was before Spokane Outdoor Nationals.

15. Growing Trends NEW WEBSITE FEATURES DYI MTF PROMOTION Website Goals
Expanded & Specialized Events Lists - Corporate, LDR, Racewalk
Expanded news: Masters News, Masters in the News, Videos, Championship News, Press Releases
Links – Photographer sites and more
Privacy Policy
Coaches Corner – Cathy Utzschneider & Eric Dixon so far
Website Goals
Expanded Regional Information
Coach List & Infomation
Team Lists & Infomation
Encouraged, involved and provided support to Masters Athletes projects and ideas to improve MTF communications or personal projects related to promoting MTF. Some of these are still in beginning stages, some are further along, but all speak to a growing community of involved athletes in our sport. Clinton Aurelien – SWS Video Interviews Clint Flash Santoro and Josh Robbins – Arizona Videos John McKenzie - Survey - Others

16. 2019 Goals 2019 the year of MTF Video! LARGER GOALS
Why? We have new equipment!
2- handheld video cameras for interviews on the field & at the track during events
1- 4k camera for footage for promotions (does slowmo) higher end interviews
GoPro for creative production
Create Interviews with Masters Athletes across age groups and events
Create promotional media for MTF social media and website and Youtube acct
Bring additional Masters Athletes into the communications committee
Marketing – experienced marketer
Encourage/Help MTF Ambassadors
Add Masters “stories” to our website
Add Coach and Team Lists and info on website
Enhance marketing of regional events
Build photo collection online
Engage Ideas

17. THANK YOU
Looking forward to a great 2019!
GO #TEAMUSATF