Public Affairs: Media & Community Engagement
Media and Community Engagement
City Newsletters
Looking to build your relationship with the community? Start by signing up for the City's newsletter so you can be the first to know about events and activities near you. For example, the City of Kenmore publishes this great newsletter, which incidentally contains links to their official social media channels and Community Calendar.
Community Calendars
Suggestion: Work with your Unit Recruiter (if you have one) to complete this task! Once you’ve created a database with the relevant contacts, submit all open house, recruitment event, and weekly meeting info to any papers within a logical radius of your Unit! Most newspapers have an online calendar that allows you to create recurring meetings, and you can often set them out for a year or more in advance, too!
Make creating these entries a part of year-end tasks!
Media Database
(required for Technician rating)
PAOs need keep a database of media contacts. For those PAOs just starting out, here is a great website to get you started: http://www.abyznewslinks.com/unite.htm
From here, you should be able to look up the media resources near you.
This is not a "complete" list, so use Google too!
Besides tracking the URL for the contact’s website, it is helpful to make note of the related URL for any community “events calendars.” This is FREE advertising for you (see Community Calendars).
Working with the Community & Squadron Asset Assessment Form
(excerpted from CAP's Unit Commanders Course)
Know how to reach out to other organizations and citizens in their community in order to appropriately expand their squadron’s exposure to, interaction with, and possible membership recruitment from their local community.
Media Contact Information Form
While NOT a replacement for a proper Media Database and/or storing admin info in the IT module in eServices, the Media Contact Information Form collects local Media Agency Information, as well as your own internal Social Media and Website administrator information at your fingertips.
Update this yearly and be sure the information corresponds with what you've listed in the IT module in eServices. Unit PAOs should also provide a copy of this information to the Wing PAO for Crisis Communications planning and continuity purposes.