COMM344 - Lucy Moment!

Growing up with a mother who had a unique and terminally funny sense of humor was a more than interesting yet exciting. Our Mother awarded our childhood adventures with names for many different things in our lives. The one term that has stuck around all these years is “Lucy Moment.”

For those to young to remember I Love Lucy was a television show that originally in Black and White (yes I said black and white tv) featuring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The comical couple often had to endure Lucy’s crazy antics where she would find herself in unusual and funny predicaments.

This week I had another one of my Lucy Moment’s. Let me paint the picture for you, I arrive at the ME department to pick up their prized 8 seat canopied solar powered golf cart. This cart is the one with the white marine leather seats, revved up engine and hunter green canopy that screamed sophistication.

After a short instructional session on the use of the golf cart and my promise to return it in the same pristine condition I grabbed the carts keys, started up the engine and headed out the back gated area towards the parking areas.

How-To Drive a Golf Cart

Not more than 25 feet outside of the gate the cart starts to buck and barely managed to make it up a small incline. Terrific, I have had the cart less than 1 minute and I already broke the thing!

I noticed that the ME person is still standing outside and yelled across a large parking lot area that I was stuck and the cart wouldn’t move. He nicely walked over to the cart asked me the issue and I explained that it wouldn’t move one more foot.

He took a look around and then smiled; did you by any chance take off the parking brake?

Welcome to my Lucy Moment.

I smiled lowered the parking brake and headed down the breezeway in the golf cart quite sure that I was now the poster child for every woman driver joke.

COMM314 Does anyone really know what a VNR is?

This week in COMM314 we are asked to write a VNR for our selected non-profit group.

I had to ask myself... what is a VNR?

According to Wise Geek an VNR also known as “aaa B-roll or fake news.” This is where a company will carefully edited and package an video with their scripted message in the form of public service / news story and provide the video to local media for broadcasting. These VNR’s are not quite infomercials yet most often they aren’t news stories either.

Little did I know but there are actually several different types of VNR’s. At VideoNews Release.net they primarily deal with three types (1) Full, (2) B-roll, and (3) Evergreen. Now you may ask yourself what these one word names mean. Evidently, a Full VNR would be one that includes a produced news and natural sound package with additional sound bites and b-roll. The B-roll VNR would included only b-roll film that which is about the subject. These are great to hand out to the news media at press conferences etc. The evergreen type VNR would be a type of video that has some shelf-life and would be good for a long period of time.

Interestingly enough the Federal Government via the US Product Consumer Safety Commission actually has goals and guidelines for VNR’s. They list what a VNR should contain so that the average person won’t be scammed. They even state “Public Affairs has worked with a number of manufacturers and various production companies to produce VNRs for a variety of products. We would be happy to sit down with you, watch sample tapes, and explain some of the factors that went into the production of each VNR and the crucial elements of the monitoring report.”

What does this all really mean? In my opinion a VNR is a short PR message that looks like a news story.

What do you think?

COMM344 - The Festival finds a fiend…

Hot on the heals of the Bernie Madoff scandal, South Florida finds itself reeling from the next wave of cultural investors gone wrong. Welcome to Hurricane Stanford.

Blowing in from the west R Allen Stanford made a name for himself in South Florida / Palm Beach County through his association at the Stanford Field polo grounds which is a local brokerage firm in Boca Raton.

Hurricane Stanford rose to a CAT5 storm with the news of the SEC's filing a formal complaint following a January visit to Stanford Group's Florida offices. There state and federal investigators made copies of computer hard drives. According to rumor mill Stanford actually managed more funds than Madoff!

Hurricane Stanford had an impact on our county where he was a supporter of the arts and he donated tens of thousands of dollars spread to a variety of cultural groups, according to the Palm Beach Post. Among the group which received much needed funds to operate is our own Boca Festival of the Arts of which Stanford gave $10,000 last year.

South Florida was most recently hit by Tropical Storm Madoff and is still recovering from the financial hit the Ponsi Scheme Manager had on the residents of Palm Beach. Now comes Hurricane Stanford…

Given the enormity of the monies being lost by the supporter of the arts in South Florida what is a cultural institution to do? Perhaps it is time to go back to basics. Many local cultural / art organizations are using the “coin jar method.” This method no longer concentrates on the “major” donors who donate $50,000 and up but the donations that start at $5 dollars and can come from anyone at anytime. This gives the organizations the much needed cash to remain operating and brings in new philanthropic donors.

How ever the arts and cultural associations decide to handle the recovery / relief from these two major storms you can be assured that all organizations will be more skeptical with who and how there monies are managed.

COMM314 - AIDA… What does it mean to you?

If you ask a musician what AIDA means the person will most likely speak to you about Verdi’s Opera AIDA. The saga of an Ethiopian princess who was captured by the Egypt and found love with Radames, a military commander that the Pharaoh’s daughter also loves.

If you ask a free-diver what AIDA means the person will explain that it is the Worldwide Federation for breath-hold diving, established in 1992 which manages and oversees the recognition of records, organizes competitions, and sets the standards for free-dive education.

If you ask a cook / chef what AIDA means the person will talk about the Food Network show Ask Aida. Aida Mollenkamp is a cooking expert that prepares delicious dishes and answers viewers' questions on her interactive cooking show.

Now ask a PR practitioner what is AIDA? The answer is the format that is used to communicate a message that causes a reader to respond in the manner that you want them to. Every time you write a letter or email you should adhere to these four items:

ATTENTION: You need to get the person reading the letter
INTEREST: You need to create interest in the cause by providing them with facts that will interest them.
DESIRE: Create the desire that will entice the person to give you what you want.
ACTION: Gives the reader what you want them to do.

These four items are especially important to those who raise monies via annual giving letters. The letters are often the way an organization raises unrestricted (can be applied to the organizations greatest need) funds help the group to operate / cover daily operational expenses.

A book I purchased is a called Fundraising Fundamentals: Annual Giving Guide to Professionals and Volunteers that provides information on how to create a successful annual giving campaign and uses the AIDA format.

PR Nightmare - COMM314

This week we have heard a new catch phrase…

With the economy is disarray due to dramatic overspending, company’s releasing employees faster than the dollar is dropping in value and national sports heroes’ soul searching and using the media as a confessional we now have a wonderful new term…

PR Nightmare

Tonight’s news showcased the latest PR Nightmare for the new president’s administration, the resignation of the second nomination for Commerce Secretary. This merry go round of recommendations and IRS plagued nominations has created a media catastrophe for the Obama camp. Yet they are not alone…

Hawaii is a blissful state with perfect weather, beautiful beaches and a legislature who just voted themselves a 36% pay increase. Is it me or are you wondering what they were thinking? The article printed in the All Hawaii News begins with out latest catch phrase “Hawaii legislators face a PR nightmare this year” yes even in paradise there are nightmares.

Another PR Nightmare, no not A-Rod that would take up the entire blog to talk about the mess of that situation, is Google. Yes that’s right, the giant web browser was caught with their hands on the keyboard! Imagine everyone’s surprise when they Googled the U.S. Government, WebMD or Joel Olsten and got the message “this site may harm your computer.” A single keystroke caused one hour’s worth of error messages that affected the entire world. This media booboo was reported by PC World and has officially been dubbed “Google Goof”

Did anyone say Pizza? That’s right even my favorite Friday night dinner suffers from PRN syndrome. Topics for conversation with the pizza companies’ are to get ready for a food fight! They need to be prepared for their own possible PR Nightmare. PMQ, the pizza industry magazine, talks about the battle between Papa Johns and Pizza Hut a “hand tossed” PR Nightmare that took place and should be a lesson to other pizzerias.

No person, industry or government agency can hide from this latest phrase only to hope that they hire the right PR professionals to dream away the nightmare and wake up to a sunny happy day.

Ethics A Lesson - COMM344

Ethics and libel are the topics that were assigned this week for following from a professional blog. How ironic that this is week to write on these important subjects, especially ethics.

Ethics is defined by World Net /Princeton as a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct. Another website defines ethics as the principles and values which guide public and private behavior. For my blog this week I will discuss the latter definition.

I have often wondered how associates in a competitive environment would act towards fellow employees when they are stressed or desperate. If given the opportunity to take advantage of a situation that would present themselves in a positive manner, would they be ethical?

Unfortunately, this week I had my question answered.

Over the years I have been fortunate to have been successful in sales. I make a point to respect colleagues, treat customers as if I were them, fulfill my promises and follow up with clients to make sure that the process for them was a positive experience.

Although my newest position is not defined as a sales position it does deal with people who donate / gift so I adhere to the same ethical practices and follow company policies and procedures.

As most company’s, we have a computer system that all the data is entered. Last week I was so excited to enter in a gift into the tracking that would benefit the civil engineering program. Several days later I was reviewing my weekly progress and noticed that the record had been altered.

I was stunned! A co-worker had removed my name and inserted her own and therefore taken the credit.


Do you know the 5 stages of recovery?
Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

After I recovered from the initial shock, I realized that I was in the first stage of recovery. Denial, how could this person do this to me? What was the motive?

It didn’t take me long to enter stage 2, Anger. I spent several long minutes venting on the phone with my husband and then our conversation turned to how we can make this

situation better - welcome to stage 3.

When I began to speak again I felt drained and hurt but not quite depressed - I was clearly well into stage 4. More conversation flowed between me and my husband and finally I had

to resign myself to the fact that this had actually happened.

Many may wonder what I was in recovery from – after all this happens all the time in business. Call me naïve but I like to believe in the best of people.

For me my loss was that of my innocence in believing that this person had ethics and the loss of respect for a colleague. Truly tragic…

COMM344 - Arts and Donors …Madoff equals the demise of the arts

South Florida once thought a Little New York and the second cultural capital on the United States is now in distress. In 2009 South Florida experienced Bernie Madoff combined his financial mis-dealing with a serious economic crisis that left the South Florida Cultural Society is in distress.

Madoff’s schemes, , finally revealed, has affected many South Florida arts programs not only the cultural arts but also the school arts programs. I personally know of one school system that has had to cancel EVERY arts associated field trip due to their INVESTEMENTS with this Ponsie Scam Artist. Add to that the demise of the Picower Foundation of Palm Beach, Florida, with nearly $1 billion in assets and a major contributor to non-profits across the nation.

South Florida, Madoff’s winter home, looks to take a serious hit from the unethical / immoral and underhanded dealings of Madoff. On his list of clients where non-profit organizations who invested with Mr. Madoff and now may suffer not only from the demise of their own investments but will also suffer from losing the support of foundations that previously donated regularly but are now broke because they too invested with Madoff.

Gone is the Era of Unbridled Trust for the remaining South Florida non-profit arts organizations that now have to hire a private investigator to ensure the firm / person they are investing the organizations money is legit. Not to mention the search has begun for hundreds of art associations to find the elusive individual donor that can help these deserving organizations recover from this financial crisis and possibly rebuild failing programs.

What is next for South Florida arts and culture programs?? No longer are the “I know your friend” investors acceptable and most investment firms are off limits. So what does that leave? That’s right a Plain Jane savings, aka Back to Basics Finances, that will guarantee emergency funds and the money is there to pay the bills.

COMM314 - WHAT THE HECK WAS SHE THINKING!

I read Professor Vanhorn’s bog this week and must say she has been reading my mind! The topic I had planned to blog this week was this single woman of 6 who had 8 more children, by choice, with out a father.

I examined this situation from many aspect and have come to the conclusion THANKFUL I am not this woman’s PR person. As a mother I would be hard pressed to separate my personal and professional personas.

Professionally, this type of client would place me in the “Defending OJ” category, which as seen in the book by his former agent is not a good career move. How can PR people put a positive spin on a woman who does not have a job, caused her parents to lose their life savings and now will burden the tax payers in a time of economic crisis

Personally, I have serious doubts about this woman’s moral character. I recall a comedian I saw many years ago…She stated she would like to have kids but thought – I am no superwoman I need help! My own belief is that a child should be provided with the support of two parents who care and can share in not only the caring of the child but also the financial aspects too.
How can I in good conscious bring a helpless child into the world that I could neither provide care or a stable home? When did becoming a mom with out a dad or a support system become fashionable? Just ask Larry King his opinion on this subject!

I have a daughter and two wonderful step children. Both my husband and I believe that even though we have moved forward in our lives we still appreciate our past spouses for their dedication to making our children’s lives complete.
It took a dedicated support system to raise the children each person contributing to the welfare and moral compass of the children. Nowhere in our vocabulary did it say – have babies and cost other people money.

This leads me to my title…