Top 10 New Year's Resolutions for FPRA Treasure Coast

Hello FPRA Treasure Coast!

Some people hate them, others love them…New Year’s Resolutions. I personally love New Year’s Resolutions, but keeping them can be challenging. Most resolutions involve losing weight, spending more time with friends and family, learning something new or quitting an old habit. Unlike personal resolutions, the Treasure Coast Chapter of FPRA has its own set of goals still ahead of us. It is hard to believe that we are only a few months into this membership year with so many professional development opportunities yet to come.

Top 10 resolutions for 2009 for the Treasure Coast Chapter of FPRA

10. Surpass the 83 members goal
9. Celebrate our 25th anniversary at the Sunrise Theatre in beautiful, historic downtown Fort Pierce
8. Continue the exciting monthly programs with over 50 attendees each month
7. Arrange Community Service Program at Martin County High School and present Indian River Council professional development seminar
6. Host spectacular Local Image Awards event with over 75 guests
5. Host highly-successful Media Conference with over 200 attendees
4. Schedule, test and pass at least one candidate each for APR and CPRC
3. Promote our Chapter throughout the Treasure Coast as the premier public relations association in the region
2. Present at least three scholarships to annual conference to deserving members and send record number of attendees to annual conference

And last but not least…drum roll please….

1. Win the Florida Public Relations Association’s Chapter of the Year! (wink, smile!)

Thinking back to our Installation Ceremony, I want to remind you that YOU are an IMPORTANT piece of the FPRA Treasure Coast Chapter puzzle and we can’t reach any of our goals without YOU! Please add “Participating, volunteering or attending FPRA Treasure Coast Chapter events!” to your list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2009. It’s an easy resolution to keep and one that will help you become a better public relations professional at the same time!

I wish each of you a prosperous, safe and healthy new year! See you in 2009!
Linette

Happy Holidays!

Hello FPRA Treasure Coast!

Congratulations to FPRA State President Lanette Hart, APR, CPRC on the arrival of her new baby boy Philip Alexander Mallory Hart. He arrived on Thursday, December 11 at 6:48 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs., 7 oz. and is 19 ¾ inches long. Mom and baby are doing well.

Farewell to Debi Malcomson, our Chapter's Treasurer! She leaves us this week to move out of state. We wish her the best of luck on her new endeavor and hope she'll keep in touch. We welcome Lisa Swyryn in as our new Treasurer! Thanks, Lisa, for accepting the position of Treasurer mid-year!

Image Awards Tips from Adrienne Moore, APR, CPRC
As mentioned last week, it’s time to review the requirements of the two-page summary. The judges see the two-page summary before they review the supplemental materials in the booklets and the summaries carry with them 70% of the scoring.

Here are the principles of the R.A.C.E. formula that we all use everyday:

4. Research / Situation Analysis: Why did you do this project? What did you consider before establishing goals, tactics and evaluations? What occurred that helped you to identify a problem, a target audience and eventually a strategy. Research can be formal or informal. The judges need background of the problem or issue in this section. It can’t just be that your boss said to do the project. Setting up the situation makes the goals and objectives fall into place easier.

5. Objectives: What are your goals? What are your objectives? What will you hope to accomplish by doing this project? This is the section that concentrates on quantitative not qualitative. The judges are looking for specifics that will hopefully come about when the project is completed, such as increasing your membership by 50%, or collecting $200,000 from a special fundraising event, or gaining $25,000 in FREE publicity.

6. Implementation: This is the action plan. What steps will you take to accomplish these goals? Establishing a communications plan, a budget, a special event, a newsletter, and other items are all tactics to obtain the results of the project.

7. Evaluation: Did you increase attendance? Did you earn $200,000 in donations? Did you gain free publicity? In other words, the evaluation must spell out what you accomplished. This section is directly connected to the Objectives. In the Objectives, you spell out what you want to accomplish. In the Evaluation, you show you accomplished it.

8. Budget: This year there are new requirements for the budget section of the summary and below is the new requirements for this section. Explain the financial outlay required for development, implementation and evaluation of this program or tool. (Reporting staff time agency/corporation/non-profit/government should be expressed in a total dollar amount for the entire number of hours. Hourly rates, salaries or total number of hours are not necessary.) Explain how these expenses relate to the project’s success.

Next week, we’ll take a look at the requirements for the booklet.

Treasure Coast Ad Fed Announces Call for Entries for the 2009 ADDY Awards
The Treasure Coast Advertising Federation has announced its Call for Entries for the organization’s 2009 ADDY Awards competition. The awards recognize exceptional advertising created in the Treasure Coast market, including print, broadcast, out-of-home and public service advertising. To be eligible for consideration, all work must have been published or aired between January 1 and December 31, 2008. Entries can be dropped off at the Palm Beach Post Building on Kanner Highway in Stuart, Florida on January 9, 2009 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. All entries must be received on or before that day. Single entry fees are $57 for Ad Fed members and $114 for non-members; campaign entries are $72 for members and $144 for non-members. Students can also enter their advertising creative in the student portion of the ADDY competition; the student fee is $20. For information on submitting your entry prior to January 9, contact Ad Fed President Gail Goldy at 772-223-2333. Entry rules and categories are online at http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etreasurecoastadfed%2Ecom&urlhash=idby&_t=disc_detail_link .

The Treasure Coast ADDY Awards Competition is the first tier of a three-tier national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation. The ADDY Awards, which recognize excellence in advertising, are the world’s largest advertising competition. Treasure Coast ADDY Awards winners will be honored at a formal dinner gala on March 14, 2009 at the Willoughby Golf Club. Winners are eligible to compete in the second tier of the competition at the district level. The district winners are then eligible for the ultimate competition, the national ADDY, presented in June.

Finally, I wish you all a very happy holiday season! May you enjoy a relaxing and blessed time with your friends, family and loved ones!

Linette

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas!

Hello FPRA Treasure Coast!

The Christmas and Holiday spirit was with the Treasure Coast Chapter of FPRA during the Ultimate Holiday Mixer last week. Thanks to all who attended ~ it was so much fun to share the season with our friends and colleagues from the Treasure Coast AdFed and the Association of Fundraising Professionals! A wonderful time was had by all and we collected over $350 for the Treasure Coast Food Bank. The Port St. Lucie Civic Center was a beautiful venue, the food was fabulous and the specialty drinks (see photo!) were full of holiday fun! A special thank you to Bryan Beaty, Judy Cruz and Robin Delgado for their efforts in organizing this fantastic event!

Twenty-five tips for Image Awards
Last week, I introduced the “25 tips for Image Awards” sent in by Image Awards Committee member Adrienne Moore, APR, CPRC. Here are tips number 2 & 3:

Now that you’ve reviewed your 2008 projects and selected the entry category, it’s time to begin thinking about the next steps in preparing an Image Award entry.

2. Two-Page Summary: This is the primary narrative needed to explain the project, its objectives, its action plan, and its evaluation. Start thinking how you developed the project, what your objectives were and what tactics you coordinated to get it completed. Then review the results or evaluation of how well the project worked.

The final step in the summary is the budget, which has new requirements this year. Those will be spelled out in later Image Award “tips.”

3. Format of the Two-Page Summary: Your summary can ONLY be two pages and should be on 8 ½ by 11 paper, one inch margins all around, double spaced. It should be typed in a WORD document, Times New Roman font and a minimum of 10 point type. The topics to be discussed should be identified in the narrative: Research, Objectives, Implementation, Evaluation and Budget.

Next week, we’ll begin to review the individual topics in the two-page summary. Remember, the judges place 70% of the scoring on the two-page summary. If your summary is more than two pages, the extra pages will be removed from the entry, which means the entry will be missing one or more of the topics. The judges can disqualify your entry for not meeting these specifications.

The 2009 Image Awards entry requirements are available at
www.fpratreasurecoast.com.

Finally, congratulations to Lauren Anderson on the birth of her 3rd son, Liam, last Monday! Lauren is the Marketing Director for Stuart Cardiology Group and serves on the Programs Committee for the Treasure Coast Chapter of FPRA. She was kind enough to share the following information about him and a photo of baby Liam at 10-minutes-old!

Liam Alfred Anderson
Born: 12-08-08
Time: 2:58 PM
Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz.
Length: 20”

According to mom, both Liam and mom are doing well and “resting” at home.

Have a great week!
Linette

It's Time to Mix & Mingle Like Kris Kringle!

Hello FPRA Treasure Coast!

Tomorrow is our Ultimate Holiday Mixer from 4-7 p.m. at the NEW Port St. Lucie Civic Center. Thank you to all who have RSVP’d online and to all of those who have already donated to the Treasure Coast Food Bank. I understand everyone is very busy during this holiday season, but if you can’t attend the event please consider making a donation to the Food Bank. Any donation, whether large or small, is greatly appreciated and you can still donate online by clicking http://www.fpratreasurecoast.com/index.php?template=events&nav=4&event=26 then “RSVP HERE.”

Twenty-five tips for Image Awards
In sixteen weeks, the Treasure Coast Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association will be collecting the 2009 round of Image Awards entries from all of you. The deadline date is Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 5 p.m.

While that seems a long way off, it is truly just around the corner when you consider the Christmas holidays, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, and lots of other day-to-day assignments coming your way. During these few weeks, the Image Committee wants to provide you with some tips for preparing an Image Award and to encourage you to enter this annual review. It is a great way to validate that you are on the right track with the way you present and develop projects for your business or your clients. A “win” in this awards program also brings a smile to your boss’ or clients’ faces. Now that's what you like to see!!

Here is the first step: Sit down in the next few weeks and write out all of the possible projects that you would like to enter. After all, you don’t have to enter just one!!

Go through each project to determine how strong an entry each would be and then decide on one or more that you could enter and why. Review your objectives and then see if they met your results. That’s how you’ll know you have a great Image Awards project!!

Start those brain cells rolling through your project list NOW!!

Update on the 2009 FPRA Annual Conference Update from the Annual Conference Committee:

PR on F.I.R.E. ~ Foundation, Innovation, Reputation, Education

We know it’s only December, but we hope that you are gearing up for the 71st FPRA Annual Conference in August! Your conference committee is planning the details to make sure that you get the most out of state conference this year. But before the planning goes too far, the committee would like to make sure that we do our research and ask for your feedback. We want to make sure that we are meeting your professional development needs.

Please spend 10 to 15 minutes taking this survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=pHpRth3NK8mJgh4Xhcg4fw_3d_3d. Your opinion and comments are important, so please take the time to complete the survey. Please respond by Friday, December 12.

SAVE THE DATE
Location: Boca Raton Resort and Club, Boca Raton, FL
Date: August 9 – 12, 2009
Registration Fee: $595/person

Have a great week!
Linette

Holiday Happiness!

Hello FPRA Treasure Coast!

Only one more week until our Ultimate Holiday Mixer on Tuesday, December 9th from 4-7 p.m. at the NEW Port St. Lucie Civic Center. FPRA will join forces with the Treasure Coast Advertising Federation and the Indian River and Treasure Coast Association of Fundraising Professionals to co-host this networking event. Tours of the new Civic Center will be available and Center staff will also be on hand to answer questions about how you can have your next event in this beautiful new facility. We will also take this opportunity to raise funds for the Treasure Coast Food Bank to assist them in serving those in need during this Holiday Season. Staff from the Food Bank will also be on hand to accept a “BIG CHECK.” The media will also be invited to cover this event.

Invitations have already been emailed, so RSVP now by clicking http://www.fpratreasurecoast.com/index.php?template=events&nav=4&event=25. Also make your contribution to the Treasure Coast Food Bank online by clicking http://www.fpratreasurecoast.com/index.php?template=events&nav=4&event=26 then “RSVP HERE.”

Tomorrow (Dec. 2) at 3:30 p.m., the Board of Directors will meet at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce. Bryan Beaty has reserved Conference Room 210 in the newly renovated Administration Building.

To kick off your holiday season with a laugh, click here and enjoy!
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/R5oVzNzFBYQw814e#/owner/R5oVzNzFBYQw814e

Linette