A Star is Born!

All our Rotary clubs do good work both in our community and internationally, but this work isn’t always recognised and our fundraising events are not always publicised as much as we would like, so we don’t always get the number of paying attendees which we might like.

Our District has recognised this and sought to help us and other clubs to improve our ability to publicise what we do and want events we are holding.  To this end, a number of “Media Workshops” have been held by Peter McCafferty (District Media Relations Manager) to provide help and support to clubs in this area.  The latest event was held at the studios of Gateway 97.8, a community radio station in the Eastgate shopping centre at Basildon on May 16th, 2015.

Members Peter Strong and Peter Greene attended this workshop on behalf of the club.  It was a most interesting experience!  Not only was there an exposure to the way a community radio station works, but also insight into what makes a good radio program and particularly how to construct an item which would appeal to the station, and therefore, which it would want to broadcast.

There was also a hands-on opportunity to record an item, for broadcast (yes - really broadcast) in a live item the following week.  Peter Greene provided the input, in this case, about the forthcoming RotaKids Mad Hatters Day at Quilters Junior School, and Peter Strong constructed the item and was interviewed by Station Chairwoman Yvonne Williams to record the broadcast.  Yvonne had spent time giving us tips on how best to construct our item and how to make the most of the broadcast, and made the process completely painless.  We must do more to make use of radio as a means of publicising our actions.

Finally, the session ended with a talk by David Fenn (District Advertising Manager for 1240 News) who gave us an insight into what his club had done to improve publicity and attract new members.  The session explained the need for a long term plan to build the brand of the club, with hints and tips on how to get better publicity for our clubs.  His club’s success in this area provided us with good ideas on how to improve our exposure.  Watch this space!