From the Desk of the First Assistant

I will be presenting a shorter version of this during committee reports on Thursday.

Campus Mailings

The campus dorm mailers have had some hiccups. Mostly, the heads of the residence hall communities on campus are not that willing to have us stuff student mail boxes with the mailers. Negotiations are on going and I’m pressing the head of Myers community to let us have greater access to the students than the currently proposed (by the Myers Sec.) method of getting the mailers to the RAs and hoping that they put them around so their residents can see them.

Media Coverage

I’ve been very happy with the local media response that we’ve been receiving so far this semester. Sending out weekly press releases to the Athens Banner-Herald, Red and Black, AJC, and Flagpole have yielded our events being mentioned in most of those publications on a weekly basis. This strategy will continue as I plan to increase our visibility on and beyond our beautiful campus.

The Website

The website is getting a little neglected. I am going to take to initiative to work the Historian (Sister Guined) and the Web Master (Sister Baker) to rectify this issue. Things we need from you: Get a bio and picture to one of us as soon as you can so that you may be featured in the “Members” gallery on the site. If you don’t know how to update the web site, let Sister Baker or I know and we can show you at some point—possibly at the next PR meeting.

P.S. I would be great if the alumni who want to get involved in fostering a nice little community on PhiKappa.org would get involved in the comments section on the site. :)

The Other Internet Stuff… and things…

Facebook. We need more people to suggest our page to their friends (link). Twitter. I abandoned Twitter as a means of PR beyond simply reposting our Facebook updates and links to updates from our site. This happens automatically. Listen, Twitter isn’t very good for raising awareness on campus; but, it’s a great way to keep updated if you don’t get on Facebook very often. Our lovely second assistant (Sister Bardagjy) has taken the initiative to use the Google Calendar (link) that I have set up to post all of the events that are coming up there before they are posted anywhere else. I urge you all to subscribe to this calendar in GCal or any other ical compliant calendar program (.icl or .xml).

PR Notebook

I have begun assembling a PR Guide to allow for the person who takes the reigns from me next semester a very slick transition. Included are the email addresses and deadlines for the Local Press, Master Calendar, Student Org. Listservs, etc. I have also written copy to attach to the bottom of our press releases in an “About Phi Kappa” section.

Traditional Methods

This semester, I’ve been trying to target our PR efforts into those areas that are the most beneficial to us. This means that the traditional methods of PRing have taken a back seat for the first few weeks. This includes: hand billing, flyering, and painting Sanford Dr.. However, now that I have streamlined the e-PRing that I have been doing full force for the first few months, these methods will be coming back with a vengeance—but with a twist. 

Instead of hand billing with half sheets of paper to people who don’ts care, we will be targeting those we see in our classes and around campus that we would like to see in the hall with business cards. Sexy business cards that will leave the recipients inquisitive. For flyering, I have been doing targeted postings depending on the debate topic for the coming week. I’m thinking taking the blind ad approach that was started but never finished last semester. Maybe even by painting something intentionally vague on Sanford. Since we’re on the topic of ads… have I mentioned to you recently that the public is vastly ignoring ads subconsciously now? Just sayin’.

Image

I’ve been working hard with Sister Shuck to revamp our graphic identity. This includes a logo and type face re-tool which will be on the new business cards and sign-age. This is probably my favorite project of the semester. It all looks very good. Everyone can expect to be able to buy coffee mugs, shirts, and more with the new logo on them very, very soon.

Cheers,

Br. Schwegler