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● Introduction & Index ● What is PR ● Job Expectations ● Types of Media ● Building Relationships ● Media, Hams & FCC Rules ● The Basic News Release ● Interviews and Live ● Making your own show ● Easy P.R. ● Public Service Events ● Piggy-back to Events ● Pictures NOW! ● P.R. Research Aids ● Making Friends ● ARES® PIO ● Final Exam Information Next Page

PR and non profit organizations While there are many types of non profits, from major corporations to local clubs, the role of Public Relations in non profit voluntary associations simply cannot be over-emphasized. People have the free choice to become allied with an association, positively aware of them, neutrally ignore them or battle against them. Let’s take “Save the Whales” as an example. I like whales (most people do). But our general feelings about the animal may not transfer to the organization, so their PR campaign seeks to make friendships and positive feelings by showing whales every chance they can. I saw them as friendly people who I can trust and who will do good. Then came a television show that documented one of their ship excursions to battle Japanese whalers. I did not like the people I saw. I did not like what I took to be whining, immaturity, and pathetically planned pranksterism. I turned negative. I still like whales, but what happened? The organization and its goals didn’t change, but my perception of the people in it did. I would not want the people I saw on that TV show as friends and seriously doubt I could trust them. So, any possibility of joining or contributing died in me long before I was even asked to do so. Image can be everything in PR. Our job as a PIO in a non profit association is to create an image for Amateur Radio’s people of being friendly, trustworthy and technically savvy. We’re seen as “geeks” - OK, but we are NICE geeks! We’re the kind of geeks that you can go to and get help, or learn how to do something, or just enjoy chatting with us. For better or for worse, the image that most of the American population has for a ham radio operator is frozen at male and about 60 or so years old. We can work to change that image with numbers and pictures, but it will be hard to do. In the meantime, we can and must work on the personality that goes with that image. I know many 60+ year old males who are really nice people. I also know some who are simply grouchy even on their good days. You are the front person for us all. You, as a PIO, will set the personality stereotype that will brand us all. Before anything else, your job is to establish the image of being friendly, trustworthy and technically savvy. Now that doesn’t mean you have to have a PhD in electronics - just know enough to understand the gist of a reporter’s technical question and know who could answer it best for them. You cannot be all things to all people, but you can be a friend, and the relationships you build are the energy sources for really effective PR in your area.