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Public Affairs

Started by CAP428, November 05, 2006, 06:01:12 AM

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CAP428

There's not a huge purpose in this thread, but I just wanted to give a round of applause  :clap: for Maryland Wing's Public Affairs division.  Their website is great,and I really like their radio show "Civil Air Patrol Today," it is very professional.

Unfortunately, I see that a lot of CAP PA stuff is not so professional and appears that it came from the Stone Age of the Internet.  Anyway, good job Maryland Wing!

What are some of your opinions/suggestions for bettering CAP Public Affairs?

Major Carrales

Quote from: CAP428 on November 05, 2006, 06:01:12 AM
There's not a huge purpose in this thread, but I just wanted to give a round of applause  :clap: for Maryland Wing's Public Affairs division.  Their website is great,and I really like their radio show "Civil Air Patrol Today," it is very professional.

Unfortunately, I see that a lot of CAP PA stuff is not so professional and appears that it came from the Stone Age of the Internet.  Anyway, good job Maryland Wing!

What are some of your opinions/suggestions for bettering CAP Public Affairs?

Here, here, KUDOS to "Civil Air Patrol Today!"

On the other matter, Public Affairs will only improve if we take it as seriously as other departments.  If the PAO is a pariah and looked down upon as an ancillary position, one will GET what they paid for.
"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Pylon

Quote from: CAP428 on November 05, 2006, 06:01:12 AM
What are some of your opinions/suggestions for bettering CAP Public Affairs?

CAP Professional Development Workshops for PAOs, attending speakers and sessions and workshops by the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), best practices sharing, and professionally-designed media templates from NHQ for squadron use.
Michael F. Kieloch, Maj, CAP

Major Carrales

Quote from: Pylon on November 05, 2006, 08:13:57 PM
Quote from: CAP428 on November 05, 2006, 06:01:12 AM
What are some of your opinions/suggestions for bettering CAP Public Affairs?

CAP Professional Development Workshops for PAOs, attending speakers and sessions and workshops by the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), best practices sharing, and professionally-designed media templates from NHQ for squadron use.

I agree, when I became a PAO was was baiscally told to "start writing stories."  My only training was from High School and College Journalism classes and UIL competition.  Other than that I was on my own...literally and the only comment was from those that felt they needed more exposure.

I did a bit of extra stuff, after reading the PAO materials available from the USAF I got in with Radio/TV and newspaper people and sort of "learned the ropes."

Our new group PAO is going to put together stuff, but our group is larger than some wings and classes require overcoming "distance issues."

"We have been given the power to change CAP, let's keep the momentum going!"

Major Joe Ely "Sparky" Carrales, CAP
Commander
Coastal Bend Cadet Squadron
SWR-TX-454

Lancer

Quote from: Pylon on November 05, 2006, 08:13:57 PM
Quote from: CAP428 on November 05, 2006, 06:01:12 AM
What are some of your opinions/suggestions for bettering CAP Public Affairs?

CAP Professional Development Workshops for PAOs, attending speakers and sessions and workshops by the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), best practices sharing, and professionally-designed media templates from NHQ for squadron use.

This is a very useful thread seeing as I have every intention of following this as my primary 'Specialty Track'.

Everyone questions 'why' CAP is the Air Force's best kept secret, well, to be honest, if more emphasis was placed on Public Affairs, it would not be a secret anymore.

Everything Pylon pointed out is a great step in the right direction. In this day and age, the internet is vital to the way we (the general public) communicate. In the same line with professionally designed media templates, we need to have uniformity online.

Squadron/Group/Wing websites vary so widely, it's amazing we are all a part of the same organization. You've got 1 and 2 page squadron sites that look like they were abandoned in 1995 to some of the most amazing, proffessionally done sites that are on the internet. There is no uniformity for the image we portray online, and that needs to change. Domain names and hosting providers vary just a greatly as well. Websites on Geocities, Yahoo, Tripod etc. that assault you with advertising don't help either.

There should be some 'top down' effort put into effecting this change. I would love to hear from some of the membership here in the IT arena. Let's get some initiative flowing and effect some change here.

Lancer

Quote from: Major Carrales on November 05, 2006, 08:31:20 PM
Our new group PAO is going to put together stuff, but our group is larger than some wings and classes require overcoming "distance issues."

Thank God for WebEx and GoToMyPC...and if cost is an issue there, there is http://vyew.com/always-on/collaboration/ which offers free web conferencing.