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It's time to nominate your favorite public relations volunteer for the 13th annual Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award. The deadline for nominations is May 21, 2004.
We know there are a lot of deserving nominees out there!
The award will go to an ARRL member who has demonstrated public relations success on behalf of Amateur Radio, and exemplifies the volunteer spirit of Phil McGan.
Phil was the first chairman of the ARRL Public Relations Committee in the late 1980s, and helped reinvigorate the League's commitment to public relations. He also served for several years as Public Information Coordinator for the New Hampshire Section.
If you're nominating someone for the McGan Award, please be sure that his or her work is specifically directed at bringing Amateur Radio to the public's attention (usually via the media) in a positive light. This may include traditional methods like news releases, or non-traditional methods such as hosting a radio show or being an active public speaker.
In the past, we've received nominations that are public service related. While being involved in emergency communications, running a net or taking part in public service events are important activities, they don't fit the definition of "public relations."
1) The award is given only to an individual (not a group) who must be a full ARRL member in good standing at the time of nomination. The nominee must not be compensated for any public relations work involving Amateur Radio (including payment for articles) and may not be a current officer, director, vice director or paid staff member, or a member of the current selection committee.
2) The winner of the Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award will demonstrate volunteer public relations success on behalf of Amateur Radio at the local, state or national level, and will live up to the high standard of achievement exemplified by Philip J. McGan.
3) Anyone may make a nomination. Nominations must be on an official entry form, available from ARRL Headquarters. The nomination will include a written summary and supporting documentation whenever possible.
4) Deadline: Nominations must be received at ARRL HQ in Newington by 5 PM May 21, 2004. Nominations arriving after the deadline or without an entry form cannot be considered.
5) Eligible nominations will be screened by the League's Public Relations Committee, which will forward its recommendation to the Programs & Services Committee of the ARRL Board of Directors. The Board will make a final determination at its July meeting and the winner will be notified shortly thereafter.
6) To obtain an entry form, call ARRL HQ at 860-594-0328 or e-mail apitts@arrl.org.
Ask for an official Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award entry form.
7) Return the completed entry form and supporting materials to: Philip J. McGan Memorial Silver Antenna Award, c/o Allen Pitts, W1AGP ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.
Information on the McGan Award, including the rules for nomination, appeared in the February 2004 issue of QST.
Giving talks on Amateur Radio in your community helps foster a positive image of ham radio, shows people why ham radio is so much fun, and may be vital if an emergency hits your area.
Some people seem to have a knack for public speaking. For most of us, however, it takes a bit of practice to create a good presentation, and to feel comfortable in front of a crowd.
Here are some public speaking tips that may help:
Find places to speak
Rotary groups are always looking for speakers, as are town libraries, senior citizen centers and other community organizations. You might also call a few local schools or scout troop leaders and offer to do a presentation. Ask around, make calls, watch the newspapers and you may find many more local groups that would welcome your offer to speak.
Establish a theme for your talk
Maybe it's QSL cards, emergency communications, DXing or the friendships you've made on the air. Your theme will likely depend on your audience. People attending a library talk may want to hear about how ham radio serves the public. Young people will be fascinated at the prospect of talking to an astronaut in space. Picking a theme will help you prepare for your talk, and staying on-topic will help maintain your audience's attention.
Open with a grabber
Your first few lines are important. If your audience's interest isn't piqued right away, your speech may not be successful. Try opening with a unique personal anecdote or throw out a few interesting facts that will leave them wanting more.
Stick to a structure
Most successful speeches have just a few key points. An effective speaker will introduce them, explain each one, and wrap up the talk by restating those key points. Structure will help you stay on track and keep your guests focused.
Maintain eye contact
Audience members want to feel that their speaker cares about being there, and maintaining eye contact is a good way to prove that. You can choose just a few people in the room to focus on, or a couple of areas within the audience -- whatever works best for you. If you've got an eye on the audience, you'll know too if people are starting to lose interest or are getting confused. If people seem confused, slow down and explain further. If you notice that there are points in your talk during which interest seems to wane, you can decide to skip certain information next time, or figure out how to liven up those parts of your presentation.
Set up a live demonstration
What better way to introduce ham radio than to let people see how it works for themselves? You (or your ham assistant) could make a few contacts through a local repeater on a handheld radio. A more elaborate setup (time and space permitting) may bring in some DX contacts. They're always a hit!
Practice
This one might seem obvious, but everyone is busy these days, and you might think it would be easier just to "wing it." Try to practice your talk with family members or friends so you know what you want to say, and how long your prepared presentation lasts. Rehearsing a bit first will allow you to do a bit of fine tuning.
Dress for success
Here's another seemingly obvious tip, but not everyone considers what they should wear during the presentation. If your audience will be dressed in business attire, you should be too. If the group is more informal, you should still wear something nice. Err on the conservative side if you're just not sure. Ham radio is a leisure-time activity for most, but speaking opportunities should be treated differently.
Create vocal variety
For good speech delivery, you'll want to animate your voice, slow down the pace and use pauses to create effect at the appropriate times. It may take some practice to achieve the right mix. You want to keep your speech as natural sounding as possible.
The bottom line with public speaking is to relax and have fun. Don't think of it as a chore, but as an opportunity that you can't pass up!
Very soon on the League's PR pages, you'll be able to read biographies on ARRL's Officers and several key staff members who speak at conventions and other events. Bios for ARRL Directors and Vice Directors are also in the works.
Hams in the field are often looking for a speaker's or a guest's bio to complete convention programs. The information also comes in handy when it's time to write a press release announcing a reelection or an award winner.
This may be something that clubs want to try -- creating and posting bios of club officers. The bios may be of interest to other club members, potential new hams in the community, or even reporters who visit your Web site. ARRL Section leaders and emergency groups that maintain Web sites might also consider posting bios of their VIPs
To get started, we sent off a list of questions to get some basic information to complete the bio. Here is a list of survey questions that you can modify as needed:
Not all of the questions will be applicable for everyone, and some people may not want certain information made public. Handing out the same list of questions, however, will give you a framework to use.
There are a lot of other good questions to ask, too. If a club officer has been involved with emergency communications or public service activities, for example, ask him or her to list specific events. You could also ask for most interesting QSO, favorite book or movie and other bits of information that will make each bio interesting and fun to read.
According to current FCC regulations, radio and television stations are not required to air public service announcements. However, many stations continue to adhere to the practice in the name of serving the public interest.
A recent survey conducted by New York City-based West Glen Communications yielded some interesting findings about the current popularity and on-air usage of PSAs. Some of the results were published in the November 2003 issue of PR Tactics, a monthly publication of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
West Glen found that the current usage of PSAs in broadcast and print "continue at the record levels seen in 2002."
A few key findings from the survey as published in PR Tactics:
More PSA survey results from West Glen can be found here.
Over the years, ARRL has offered public service announcements for television and radio, and we continue to get requests on a regular basis, most often from hams who work in the broadcast industry. Amateur Radio PSAs do get airtime.
Click here to listen to or download the League's radio spot from the Web. If you're interested in obtaining a CD copy, or for information on our television PSA offerings, contact Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP at 860-594-0328 or send e-mail to apitts@arrl.org.
Please note that due to a very limited budget for PSA duplication, we prefer to send out spots when they have a reasonably good chance of getting on the air. Your local public service director will be able to tell you if the station is interested in a spot promoting Amateur Radio.
Since 2002, ARRL PR volunteers and others have been using the League's public relations e-mail reflector as a forum for discussing all things having to do with ham radio PR activities.
Among the 271 participants currently on the list, we have ARRL Public Information Coordinators and Officers, club PR volunteers, Section Managers and other League officials, members of the League's Public Relations Committee and hams who work in the news business.
The reflector is particularly useful for newer PR volunteers who have questions about writing press releases, putting on local presentations and reaching out to town officials, along with a host of other PR-related issues.
If you or someone you know would like to join the list, please send a request including full name, call sign and e-mail address to apitts@arrl.org.
Please note that if you have an arrl.net address, you'll need to submit the "real address" to which arrl.net is attached. The listserve does not recognize forwarding service addresses.
For good advice on writing effective news releases, check out this page, offered by www.prweb.com. Along with tips on formatting and content, the page offers a sample template and common news release errors.
