Ending on a Good Note

From the last few posts, many readers assume it is really hard to find appreciation (other than one's own) when working unpaid or as a volunteer.

This is true for many. However, an optimistic view can turn the glass half full after all.

I constantly found myself struggling throughout the semester managing my time between school and work. This was very hard on me for the longest time.

Even so my Father informs me that is the real world. Compliments are rare, and appreciation thin. But at the end of the day, I received this letter and found myself more gratified than ever.



Basically thanks comes randomly, and its the simple pleasures in life that count. So don't hesitate to volunteer, it will never waste your time.

What Now? Crisis Management Checklist

1. Alert Public Relations immediately
2. Establish emergency alert procedure
3. Establish centralized spokesperson
4. Determine the facts
5. Establish news media station, or command post, or situation room
6. Assist media
7. Log information released
8. Don't release information prematurely
9. Don't specualte
10. Correct false information
11. Control camera crews
12. Keep info flowing once verified
13. Ask, 'What next?'

Last Thursday our PR group that is currently set to graduate Spring 11' was lucky enough to have a guest speaker who had direct experience in crisis management.

Katherine Voss, current head of PR for Oschner Clinical Foundations, was at the source of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Upon directing Oschner's chain of hospital's public relations she never imagined having to implement the actual crisis managment checklist.

When her team found out that Hurricane Katrina was headed for New Orleans the main goal was to successfully move all intensive care patients to the main hospital and maintain contact with all employees in order to continue health services throughout the disaster.

However, when the National Guard was deployed to the area surrounding the hospital because all of the land was under sea leavel, the strategy changed. Suddenly half of the Oschner hospital staff was immediately missing - the families had left town. Businesses surrounding also closed and were evacuated. The hospital went under 'lock down' and was actually boarded up leaving all employees in town to survive at the hospital together.

The hurricane hit and left Katherine to defend the hospital from the media to soon arrive. For the following two weeks, she was constantly battling negative press and fighting for the Oschner Foundation's well being. The hospital managed to suffer minimal damage while continuing care for the intensive unit patients. Back up generators and Red Cross supplies kept the people living inside alive.

Her story was moving and seemed a PR major's dream or nightmare. It continued onward with tales of struggling to survive while maintaining the image of the hospital, as it was flogged with people needing medical attention after the levvy broke. The rest of her story left us with this list.

This list of checkpoints was developed after the hurricane. It is provided that under any given crisis a PR team should follow these checkpoints in order to correctly address a problem, and make a succussful message follow.

Katherine is one of many who after the disaster stressed the necessity of such a list, so here it is for all, fellow bloggers and PR followers.

ARC Social Media Handbook

The American Red Cross released this guide for not only its own good, but for the non-profit industry as a whole. In researching it's applicability to other non-profits, social media is now a developing crucial tool for organizations to maintain communication with their publics.

Developed by the ARC's Wendy Harman, its contents include guides to setting up accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and blogging sites in order to develop a 'conversational' relationship with affiliates.



“It just seems like it’s human nature to reach out and be in touch with the people who support you – our donors, our supporters, our volunteers. We have to connect with these people in order to remain a viable organization.” –Wendy Harman

Harman is very credible for the contents of this guide. It is now being used to find new membership and continue the mission of the American Red Cross. It was interesting to find that this guidebook was created as a direct effect of Hurricane Katrina.

After Hurricane Katrina the ARC received a lot of negative feedback for its efforts in the crisis. Desperate to find new ways to make sure volunteers and affiliates new their concerns, even if negative, were being heard, she then went to social media.

Social media provides an environment to carry out discussion and even use constructive criticism. There are many uses these media have yet to even be discovered for, which is why this developing medium is so interesting.

Any person or organization can sign up to use these tools, and the hand book does step by step instruction in creating and implementing a social media strategy. If used correctly, targeted publics are communicated to and given an open opportunity to share as well. This advantage as compared to public service announcements on television is huge.

To conclude the handbook is available online in PDF and Powerpoint format. Any and all looking to form their own social media goals can use this as a viable source to guide and accomplish. I highly recommend it.