MEETINGS
Media Savvy: Get Reporters to Eat Out of Your Hand, Not Bite It
Do you know the two phrases guaranteed to tick off a journalist? On the flip side, do you know the two things that every reporter wants from you? Do your sound bites have sizzle?
It's easy to get good publicity -- if you're media savvy. Lorri Allen will show those at the March IABC meeting the low-stress, high-results way to guide external communications and promote a positive public image about their organization.
Allen runs Good News!, a company that works with people who want to craft a clear media message and with organizations that need to communicate quickly in a crisis. She is the author of a book on dealing with the media and the writer/host of a two-part video training series.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 27
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $20, nonmembers $25, students $18 (online sign-up add $1)
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Publc Relations, Politics and Power
Scooter. Rick. Hillary. These names can be found in the news on any given day, but what's it like to work in the public relations hot seat for high-profile politicians? Anne Swanson knows -- she has done press work for George W. Bush, his wife and the grandma who wanted to be governor -- and the stories she can tell. Make that will tell, at the March 7 (moved up a week) PRSA meeting.
Swanson spent the first 10 years of her career in television news, working as a reporter, anchor and producer in Lubbock, Bryan/College Station and Austin. She left TV news to be Fox Kids Club host in Austin. She was communications director for the March of Dimes Southwest Central Texas Division in Austin. A graduate of UT Austin and Emerson College in Boston, she works in internal communication for Northrop Grumman IT.
Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Mach 7
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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Bush and Barbecue
Bring your appetite for good food and lively discussion to Shady Oak Barbeque & Grill in Arlington on Thursday, March 22, for a look at the pros and cons of locating the George W. Bush presidential library at SMU.
Tony Pederson, journalism chair in the SMU Meadows School of the Arts and the Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism, will lead a panel discussion on the proposal. He will be joined by Edward Countryman, SMU Distinguished Professor of History, and J. Matthew Wilson, SMU associate professor of political science.
The idea of locating the library at SMU has alternately piqued and pleased the campus and received national media attention. Some SMU faculty and Methodist clergy have cited concerns over academic freedom, the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy and the controversial war in Iraq as reasons to put the library elsewhere.
Time & date: mingling 6 p.m., eats around 6:30, then the program Thursday, March 22
Place: Shady Oak Barbeque & Grill, 1600 E. Copeland Road, Arlington (south side of I-30 at the Nolan Ryan Expressway exit)
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students
Menu: brisket, sausage, chicken, plenty of sides, iced tea and corporate parent Spring Creek Barbeque's signature bread; cash bar
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STRAIGHT STUFF
One in five Texas children lacks health insurance, reports the League of Women Voters of Texas, which is working with the Insure Texas Kids Campaign to improve the situation. The groups are tracking relevant bills introduced in the 80th Legislature and lobbying to implement changes to CHIP and Children's Medicaid. A forum at 7 p.m. Monday, March 5, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1330 S Fielder Road, Arlington, with Gregory Preston, Cook Children's Health Plan; Anita McNew, Catholic Charities; and Sandy Rivers, Arlington Independent School District, will detail what's needed and what's being done. ...
SPJ will select 12 students to produce The Working Press, a daily newspaper to be published during the 2007 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference, Oct. 4-7 in Washington, D.C. Interns will receive convention registration, most meals and hotel stay. Apply by April 17. Contact Joe Skeel at 317-927-8000, ext. 214, or jskeel@spj.org. ...
The Freedom Forum is accepting applications until March 31 for the seventh American Indian Journalism Institute, the premier j-training and summer internship program for Native American college students, June 3-22. Students attend AIJI for free and receive other financial assistance. Information and applications: Janine Harris at jharris@freedomforum.org or 605-677-5424. ...
The Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition offers nine winners an expenses-paid j-study trip to Japan and South Korea. Postmark deadline is March 31. Contact Sue Porter at 513-977-3030 or porters@scripps.com. ...
