MarketingAlert

Marketing Alert # 3

What: NER Council Public Relations

Why:Building the Scout Brand

How: Attachments Below

Follow-Up: Robert T. Sadock, MD,203-249-5187

Craig Poland 908-839-9459

Website:

A key component of “Building the Scouting Brand” is positive public relations. Developing media contacts, sending out press releases and media alerts are essential to spreading the word about the positive work Scouting is doing in local communities.

Training local units to assist in this process is also an effective way to maximize public relations efforts. Allowing and encouraging units to participate in this process is a great way to build morale and forge a closer working relationship with the council.

Below are samples of public relations tools used by Don Sachs, Marketing Director for Minsi Trails Council, located in Lehigh Valley, PA. In the past 2 years, through Don’s leadership and the support of council volunteers and units, Minsi Trails Council has had over 1,000 stories/pictures printed by local media. This success has had significant positive impact on all areas of council operation.

If you have a marketing success story, please send it to us so we can share it with others!

Contact Info: Council Office: 991 Postal Road, AllentownPA18109. Contact: Don Sachs, Marketing Director, office phone: (610) 465-8572, cell: (610)737-0424, e-mail:

Here are some tips to help make news stories happen for your unit:

Developing your news story:

  1. Determine which papers are best to contact about your event (use the media contact list)
  2. Talk to your local editor about the newsworthiness of your event
  3. Give editors at least several days lead time to schedule coverage (a general rule is to give papers one week’s notice)
  4. If the paper cannot schedule coverage, write up your story as a press releaseand submit it with photos
  5. Send your story copy or announcement via email
  6. Answer the questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? And sometimes How?
  7. Submit your announcement as part of the email message or as an attachment done in Microsoft Word
  8. Spelling counts, particularly scouts’ names on photos (left to right)
  9. To protect your Scouts, don’t give too much individual youth information
  10. Avoid using youth ages with their names
  11. Avoid giving specifics about where a youth lives or goes to school
  12. Phrase it like - “David Jones, son of Jon and Thelma Jones, earned his…” and not stating where the Jones family lives
  13. Always get parents’ permission to use a child’s name and photo in the newspaper

Using photos (remember a picture is worth a 1,000 words)

  1. Set digital cameras for BEST IMAGE or HIGHEST QUALITY
  2. Newspapers use only high resolution (often one or two megabytes)
  3. Make sure lighting is good
  4. Avoid taking photos of people in front of windows (your subjects will be too dark)
  5. Use your camera’s flash to light the subject
  6. Be sure the subject is in focus
  7. Use candid photos for kids actually working on a project or an activity…get close
  8. Use posed photos for shooting award presentations…get close to the group
  9. Don’t try to shoot whole bodies, the papers and readers want to see faces…not feet
  10. Take lots of photos so you can pick the one that is best to submit (and only send one or two)
  11. For large group activities, don’t try to get the entire group - that’s just a snap shot
  12. For large groups, try to get a close up of a boy and parent working together or a few boys working together - that’s a photograph
  13. Remember the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” …submitting good quality photos will help to get coverage (even if it’s only the photo with a compelling caption)

For more information, please contact Don Sachs, Marketing Director Minsi Trails Council. We want your story ideas.

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Contact: Don Sachs, Marketing Director

Minsi Trails Council Phone: 610-465-8572

P.O. Box 20624 Fax: 610-264-2599

Lehigh Valley, PA18002-0624 E-mail:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 18, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

Scout Night at the LehighValley Velodrome Season Opener

(Lehigh Valley, PA) – Scouts from throughout the LehighValley descended upon the Lehigh Valley Velodrome on Friday evening June 15th for the Velodrome’s season-opening event… the Red Robin’s Keirin Cup.

Local Scouts were guests of the Velodrome as they watched the fast-paced action of the Keirin Cup event. This exciting event involved cyclists drafting behind a motorcycle while jockeying for position and then racing into the final laps after the motorcycle leaves the track. Reaching speeds of 30 miles per hour, the race is a true test of the riders’ ability and courage.

Nearly four hundred Scouts and their families attended this great evening of cycling at the Velodrome. Cycling is of interest to many Scouts and is one of the more than 120 Merit Badges that can be earned for advancement in Scouting.

In addition the other Scouts attending, Cub Scouts from Pack 99 of AllentownSchool District’s ClevelandElementary School were the special guests of Olympic cycling gold medal winner Marty Nothstein in reserved seating for this terrific event. Nothstein, from Trexlertown, was the Olympic match sprint champion winning the Olympic Gold Medal in 2000 becoming the first American cyclist in 16 years to win the gold.

For nearly 100 years the Boy Scouts of America has providedyouth leadership and character development programs. The Minsi Trails Council today serves nearly 32,000 youth through the leadership of 5,500 adult volunteers throughout Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region, Pocono Mountains and LehighValley along with western New Jersey. The Minsi Trails Council serves six-counties including Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Carbon, and Luzerne, and Warren counties. Learn more about Scouting at

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EDITOR’S NOTE: please see additional attachments for photos of this event.

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA Contact: Don Sachs, Marketing Director

Minsi Trails Council Phone: 610-465-8572

P.O. Box 20624 Fax: 610-264-2599

Lehigh Valley, PA18002-0624 E-mail:

MEDIA ALERT

Photo and News Opportunity: Saturday, May 12, 2007

Boy Scout with Cerebral Palsy Earns Eagle Scout Rank

DATE:

  • Saturday, May 12, 2007

TIME:

  • 2:00 p.m.

PLACE:

  • EastHillsMoravianChurch, 1830 Butztown Rd., Bethlehem, PA

(Lehigh Valley, PA) – Blake Tange, son of Lynn Woolf-Tange and Mark Tange, will be award the Eagle Scout Rank on Saturday May 12th. Blake earned this rank, achieved by only 5% of Scouts nationally, even though he is physically challenged with Cerebral Palsy.

Blake has been in Scouting for nearly 12 years since starting out as a Tiger Cub in 1995 and working his way through Scouts at Troop 362 to the Eagle Rank. He is a senior at freedomHigh School where he is active in many other interests as well. Some of Blake’s accomplishments include:

  • Earning 55 Merit Badges, more than twice the required 21 badges for the Eagle rank
  • Being awarded the Lehigh Valley Second Mile Award
  • Winning the Altruism Award at FreedomHigh School
  • President of S.A.D.D.
  • President of the Community Service Advisory Board of FreedomHigh School
  • Completion of more than 800 hours of service

Blake, who uses with a walker as a result of his Cerebral Palsy, is planning to attend NorthamptonCommunity College in the fall.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION…please contact his parents Lynn Woolf-Tange or Mark Tange at (610) 974-9067; home address: 832 Radclyffe St., Bethlehem.

The Minsi Trails Council today provides leadership and character development programs to nearly 32,000 youth with 5,500 adult volunteers throughout its six-county service area in Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Carbon, and Luzerne Counties, Pennsylvania and parts of Warren County, New Jersey.

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