Public Affairs lacking on all levels.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Wow, I make a couple of comments, leave for a few days, and this thread becomes a flame war!

The PA academies help, or will help. There's a national one coming up in August about two hours away from here, in some little mouse-infested burg you might've heard of, Orlando. Encourage your PAs to go there.

Knowing that travel isn't an option for everyone, we need a way to get a professionally put-together PA course into the hands of EVERY PA. There's already a CAP PA course available through AFIADL, or whatever it's called these days. And knowledge needs to transfer through all levels of PAs, using workshops and other meetings.

We won't be able to train the next Pulitzer Prize winner, and we never will, but we can raise the bar when it comes to shooting even the most mundane award presentation. We can raise the bar when it comes to writing an effective press release. We can realize synergies in words and visuals. We can even make our Web sites look professional -- for a federal organization to have many Web sites that look like a 14-year-old put them together is a craptastic shame.

That's what I hope for.

[Smithsonia]

There have been Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners (Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Ted Sorenson AND John Kennedy as examples) who've written Public Affairs pieces. To say these weren't better than average standard pedantic PA blither would be wrong. These writers were engaging an idea or arguing for a cause and to do so, they brought skills and pluck to the page.

I think if you examine the first page and half of threads on this topic, you'll find the arguments were based on items other than craft. To introduce craft to the topic is an aid. Of course, aid can be dismissed, denied, or refused by anyone. 

Perhaps -- Instead of writing a news release and complaining, " that no one cares?" The better question is to write a press release and ask... "why should someone care?" Then completing your task only when you make sure there is public benefit front and center... and not just institutional justification to your release.

We have the same issue when a Television executive wants a piece done about some tech-wiz golly gosh new weather radar unit for the TV weather cast. What the executive wants is techno-speak, "a kajillion watts of power throttling glowing silly-adjective-over-speak"... what we change it to a viewer benefit "you'll get more accurate severe weather information, faster." The TV executive usually thinks they wrote it just that way and the audience understands why this expensive toy is important to them personally. It ain't rocket science. In fact, it is just the opposite.

I can't jump up and down on this dead horse any longer as there are live horses (clients) to ride. I hope the new CAP/PA academies will be attentive to craft. If not, we'll have this discussion again when there's a brand new barn full of dead horses to jump up and down on...

With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[BuckeyeDEJ]

There have been Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners (Dr. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Ted Sorenson AND John Kennedy as examples) who've written Public Affairs pieces. To say these weren't better than average standard pedantic PA blither would be wrong. These writers were engaging an idea or arguing for a cause and to do so, they brought skills and pluck to the page.

No, what I said was that CAP will not train and develop the next Pulitzer winner.

I think if you examine the first page and half of threads on this topic, you'll find the arguments were based on items other than craft. To introduce craft to the topic is an aid. Of course, aid can be dismissed, denied, or refused by anyone. 

Welcome to CAPtalk....

I agree that attitude has a lot to do with selecting things to play to outside-CAP audiences. And a PA has to put a positive face on CAP activities.

And going into all those technospecifics doesn't help, unless it's germane to explain what ARCHER does or how triangulating an ELT signal pinpoints a beacon.

The academies will help. But they'll only help a small number, compared to the number of PAs out there. The word HAS to get to them all, to commanders, and to anyone who's remotely interested in PA... which, to an extent, is everyone. That's why uniform wear is important. That's why attention to detail by the average member is important.

[Smithsonia]

Maj. Jessmer;
In a way writing and craft are like marksmanship --  Aim low and you'll only scuff boots. Aim higher and you'll hit'em in the head and the heart. When I write, that's my aim.

In doing so:
1) You'll create proper decorum by something more than official orders... you'll create order through inspiration and aspiration. I suggest we need both 39-1 AND PA craft-skills... thereby, developing a real and personal sense of responsibility and integrity. This personal sense works better than fear of retribution.
In practicing this soft-craft better, should help our cause.

2) Regarding Pulitzer Prize Winners -- If your only model/template/formula is standard PA press releases then you'll likely follow along that "boot-scuffing" way. By pointing out that Public Affairs has been written for higher purposes, I've attempted to point out new templates. Examine these and you'll discover the reasons public affairs is important and should be taken seriously. Read Martin Luther Kings "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and you'll see what I mean.
3) IF your only purpose is institutional justification (to please your boss, or justify your job title... let's say) then you'll continue on the routine path. You won't include reader/viewer benefits. Once again this is "Public" Affairs. Remain wedded to the unsuccessful and you'll remain ignored. I assume this is not your purpose. Right now I see lots of "make work projects" that fall in to this category. In that, these are likely and orginally made for "training purposes" only, that quite surprisingly over years of repetition, became the "practices of the job." 

To urge you further with specifics: You can find better written press releases, better Public Affairs articles, better done PA events, and higher examples of PA soft-craft work by searching the web. Look at some of those items. Instead of chugging out a routine press release... put together a press event. I'm working on a couple of those. One is on ES (The Largest Single Mission Save in CAP History, 30th anniversary commemoration). One is on History and the Curry Award. (In that one, Maj. Gen. John F. Curry is buried in Denver at Ft. Logan National Cemetery. I propose that we should salute his memory, attend to his grave, and award new Curry decorations in one single event... and do it yearly. Have a color/honor guard and Gen. Curry's family in attendance too. Perhaps tie it in to Wreaths for America, the founding of the CAP, or the anniversary of Gen. Curry's Death or Birth. I'm still working out details. I think it will be better attended than the standard Curry Awards Ceremony at a squadron meeting. I think it will mean more to CAP cadets and senior members. I think it will mean more to the press and I think it's a good and uplifting press event also.) Find some of your own and make it an event. Do 2-3-4 a similar things a year, add a couple of missions and you've got good press 6 times a year up to once a month. Stuff like that. In other words do fewer but bigger Public Affairs projects. AND now back to the marksmanship analogy, don't spray and pray, aim your shots and target your audience. In this way the pen is also mighiter than the sniper.

So, make it important to CAP, make it important to the public, provide a larger story, teach some history, learn from the PA mistakes of the past, do better work than is expected, and in doing so, better serve the patrol.

With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[BuckeyeDEJ]

If we only accorded the Curry achievement ribbon once a year, that'd put cadets as much as a year in the "motivational phase." Maybe CAP can do more with Curry's legacy, but I'm not so sure that the first achievement in the cadet program needs that sort of elevation.

I've never thought of the metaphor of writing and marksmanship, but I can see it. It's important to remember that press releases aren't works of art, nor should they be. They can be a great starting point for working media to develop a story; if not, they can be briefs or whatever an editor sees fit. A good PA is a facilitator more than a content generator. The PA should be a tool for transparency. Let the media do their jobs, and let the PA help guide the newsgatherer.

For audiences of house organs, like the Volunteer, longer-form writing can go farther. But more alternative storytelling is also appropriate, whether it takes the form of statistics, quotes, diagrams, whatever. Sometimes the best way to tell a story is no story at all.

[Smithsonia]

Maj. Jessmer;
I'm not for holding all cadets to the once a year Curry Award schedule but gathering those during a particular month for the commemorative event. Not to get too in to the particulars, but those that would attend would have higher uniform attention and drill. It would be good for your 39-1 issues and better for PA also.

Public Affairs Suggestion Specifically For Florida: Find as many of your old Florida CAP Anti-Sub Pilots and crew as you can, see if any of the planes still exist, see if any of them are around, put together an event... coordinate with the next national CAP event that is scheduled for Florida, say in 2010. OR, the Sun and Fun Fly-in... or something similar. Do your own band of brothers. I'll bet you somebody from that group is close to you and would like to talk to you about it. If they have a reunion soon, all the better! Make it a thing.

If you can sell the big stories, the little ones will be treated better by the press too. Become a resource for news not just a beggar of coverage.

In this way you'll develop respect for your product (Florida Wing of CAP) and train PA, AEX Officers, Historians, and Cadets how to run such a project. If that doesn't wind your clock... do a similar thing of your own design and good luck to you all.

By the way, I just photographed Gen. Curry's Home from 1946-1973. I don't know what I'll use it for.. but heck it was only a mile from where I live so it made for a nice Sunday walk. Someday, I'll likely need it for something like a Gen. Curry Biographical Lecture. In this and so many other ways coincidence makes providence. Find these coincidences and make them providential and these things get easier to do over time.
With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[BuckeyeDEJ]

The coastal patrol bases here are now all gone. Recently, there was a story down here about how the last one, which I believe was near Palm Beach, closed. (To my understanding, CAP's coastal patrol activity was on the Atlantic coast. I'm in the Tampa Bay area, over on the Gulf.)

I don't think we'll have a big national CAP event in Florida for a while. National Board is in Orlando, two hours' drive east of here, in August. The National Board rotates between the seven regions, and the last one in Southeast Region was in Atlanta, several years ago.

I think this thread has pretty much died, don't you?

[BillB]

Your right, there is no National event in Florida for a long time, next month to be exact, The National Board and Conference at Kissimmee.

At Lantana, there is a CAP memorial to the "sub-chasers" A museum that is to open at Keystone Heights, FL will have a CAP section including 1942 uniforms.

And the new Squadron that has started at Kissimmee, MAY have their cadets at the Conference wearing old unforms from 1942-1985 and be able to tell the story of each style uniform.

[mikeylikey]

And the new Squadron that has started at Kissimmee, MAY have their cadets at the Conference wearing old uniforms from 1942-1985 and be able to tell the story of each style uniform.

That would be awesome!  I hope that pans out. 

[SarDragon]

I know we're starting to drift, but I have two comments.

Why shouldn't our press releases be works of art? If the average press release is only written as well as the average post on here, I would be ashamed to lay any claim as a CAP member. I am one of the resident Grammar Grumps on here, and I am appalled at the lack of care about good English in many of the posts on here, especially from folks who have PAO in their sigs.

I am by no means perfect, but I consider the quality of the appearance of my posts as important as the content. If we present ourselves in poorly worded articles with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, it's really no different that using pictures with poor uniforms.

Writing is an art as well as a technical skill. It requires practice and attention to detail. I view this forum and Cadet Stuff as arenas to practice in. Our PAOs should put out their best product all the time.

YMMV. Enough on that rant.

My second comment concerns my present location, Denver, Colorado. If I can work it in, I may make a trip to the Curry grave site, and get some pictures. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with them, but I'll take some anyway.

Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion.

[RiverAux]

Why shouldn't our press releases be works of art? If the average press release is only written as well as the average post on here, I would be ashamed to lay any claim as a CAP member. I am one of the resident Grammar Grumps on here, and I am appalled at the lack of care about good English in many of the posts on here, especially from folks who have PAO in their sigs.

Obviously there is some minimum level of readability that a press release has to meet to avoid being thrown in the trash immediately.  However, beyond that I think it depends quite a lot on the purpose of the release and where you are sending it. 

Something like a mid-day mission press release (no find yet) will probably not give you a lot of opportunities to write Pulitizer-winning material in the first place, and you have to realize that you're primarily providing facts that someone will incorporate into their article anyway.  I took the FEMA Basic Public Information Officer course last year and they were teaching everybody to just lay the facts out there, pretty much in one-sentence chunks and no more than a page in length (double-spaced) as fast as possible. 

Of course, if you're writing something that you know will probably be published as written, thats a different situation. 

[Smithsonia]

When you hear good writing and you think flowery prose... then you know nothing of good writing. Commanding, brief, on target, potent, spare, all are components of the command language formula.
Similarly all are components of good writing.

Which of the following phrases is more commanding? "Get this done." "Get the done, please." "Call me when you're done." "Do it." If you know the answer, you'll do better as an IC/IO. You'll do better as a writer too. The answer is -- at certain times any of these choices are best. Since command is about results, you must be ready with lots of practiced choices.

Craft is knowing the large number of options. Having this large number of options at the ready. Picking through the large number of options quickly. AND, producing the best product. One formula doesn't always get you where you want to go. It just like driving directions... do you want the scenic route, the fastest route, or the shortest route? When you have all the right skills brought upon the problem in very critical times -- You're in the thick of it. Well, for CAP Public Affairs this is that time. Do you know the short, scenic, and fastest routes?

Let's see your skill set. How many variations on the press release can you do? There's more than one basic template, you know. How about invitations to an event? How about a news article? How about a critical review of a subordinate? Analysis of a problem with a solution in text form? How about a speech written for the commander? How is that different from a speech written for yourself? If you don't have answers you'll likely just have more complaints. Complaining that you don't understand solves nothing. Entering into a personal development plan would help. Study the problems you face. Research the best PA solutions and spend 30 minutes a day reading and test writing. Develop a new skill every month. Practice the new skill too. Make it part of your PAO skills kit.

Talk to each other. Share your work with each other. Research the web. Answers abound. PAOs with the right stuff don't. Take personal responsibility for improvement and like a fine steak you'll be rare and HOT!

Good Luck. With regards; ED OBRIEN

[mikeylikey]

DEAD Horse says what?!?!         

[MIKE]

Lock.