Club_Officers_Handbook_2016

Choosing a Medium for Your Message Now that your public relations campaign has taken off and everyone in your community knows what Ruritan is and what your club accomplishes, publicity for your achievements is not far behind. By establishing a strong public relations program, you have laid the foundation for future publicity about your Ruritan club. Conventional wisdom says there are two kinds of publicity: good publicity and bad publicity. Good publicity comes from successful public relations. If your public relations campaign has fulfilled its purpose and created trust and goodwill between your club and the community, then good publicity will surely follow. Bad publicity usually comes from scandal or disagreement that originates within a Section 3: Beginning with a Message What Do You Want to Say? You need only two things to create a public relations campaign within your community, a message and a medium. The message is what Ruritan membership means and, more importantly, what your Ruritan club has done to improve the community. The medium you use to spread this message can be many things. Flyers, posters, road signs, news releases to your local newspaper, radio announcements, paid advertisements, and word of mouth can all be important and inexpensive methods of gaining recognition for your club. Think of your public relations campaign as selling Ruritan. If you’ve ever sold anything, you’ll realize that the more you know and believe in the product you’re presenting, the greater your ability to sell that product. If you, as a Ruritan member, are the salesperson, then everyone in your community who is not a member of your club is a potential customer. The key to successful sales (and public relations) is knowing your product. As a salesperson, what is the product you’re presenting? What is the message you should be spreading to your community? What should you tell people about “America’s Leading Community Service Organization?” If someone asks you, “What is Ruritan?,” can you answer the question? From the Officers’ Handbook, Ruritan is a community service organization with the purpose of creating a better understanding among people and, through volunteer service, making their communities a better place to live and work. The slogan of Ruritan is Fellowship , Goodwill, and Community Service . Section 4: Publicity and Media

club. It is very important to avoid bad publicity when it comes to your Ruritan club. One incident of bad publicity can create a lasting impression and it may take months, or even years, for your club to recover the community’s confidence. As mentioned earlier, publicity is the attention and recognition your Ruritan club earns for its achievements within the community. Your club generates its own publicity through public relations, but the publicity that will help your club the most is publicity from sources outside your Ruritan club. When you start to think of publicity (and your Ruritan message), keep two things in mind: (1) the source of the publicity, and (2) the target of the publicity. The target for your publicity is everyone in your Tell people about what it means to be a Ruritan member. Tell the community what your Ruritan club plans to do in the future. Tell them how they can share the accomplishment and pride that comes from improving the community through Ruritan membership This description of Ruritan barely scratches the surface of what Ruritan membership means. Ruritan also means educating the community and club members (through scholarship programs and monthly Ruritan club programs), serving the needs of the community, and caring enough about others to help in times of need. Besides these things, Ruritan also means the Goodwill and Fellowship that members share both at meetings and in serving the community. When you tell someone in your community about Ruritan, always focus on your club’s activities. Tell people how each club meeting features a meal and also a program of entertainment or information. Tell your friends and co-workers what you learned at your last club meeting. And never forget to tell what your club is planning for future meetings. Last, but most important of all, tell people what your local Ruritan club has accomplished for them . To successfully spread the Ruritan message, it is vital that you mention your club’s latest contribution to the community. Has your club awarded a scholarship, sponsored a youth program (such as scouts or 4-H), helped with local disaster relief, adopted a local highway, or raised money to help someone in the community? These are the things that people want to know about Ruritan. Who better to tell them than you?

PR

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Revised 8/2016