Planning an Effective Communications Campaign

1
Planning an Effective Communications Campaign
2
The Presentation

• Tips and Tactics you can use for
• - Ongoing Communication with your community
• - Talking points regarding the proposed
  Amendment Items

3
Getting Started

• Four Steps to Effective Communication
• Research
• Planning
• Implementation, and
• Evaluation
• Each is integral for ANY communications campaign

4
Research

• Provides the facts and talking points for any
  communications campaign
• Research done well, takes some time.
• What can we do to arm ourselves with the facts
  (when there is no time to do original research)?
• - OPR (Other Peoples Research)- Newspaper/TV
  Opinion Polls, Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup Annual
  Surveys, Focus Groups

5
Planning

• You need to determine
• - Precise and Measurable Goals
• - Who are your Audiences?
• Parents, Staff, Seniors, Elected officials,
  Twenty-Somethings, Unaffiliated Voters,
  Non-School Age Households, Organized Labor,
  Homeowners Associations, Businesses and Allied
  Groups.
• How can They be Reached?
• Who is an Effective Speaker?
• What is the Timeline/Calendar of Events?

6
Planning

• Make a list of all upcoming events in which you
  can have a presence.
• Create opportunities if none exist (Open Houses,
  Town Hall Meetings)
• Put together information packets for your
  schools to distribute on Open House nights. Use
  all types of media including print, audio and
  visual.
• Provide training for key elected officials,
  district staff and community leaders who are
  willing to debate the issues at public forums.
  Community leaders serve as excellent impartial
  third parties!

7
Planning

• Prepare Op-Ed essays and distribute them to
  EVERY group that has a newsletter, web site, or
  communication channel of some sort. Dont ignore
  new technologies such as viral marketing. This
  will be the year when Gen Xers come out to vote.
• Customize messages for the audience
• Engage enlightened businesses and get them to
  advocate this position to their employees and
  customers.
• Consider purchasing media through PACs.

8
Implementation

• Plan the Work Work the Plan
• Schedule Activities to Build Momentum

9
Evaluation

• The most effective method of evaluating success
  is Election Day Results.
• If this is an ongoing campaign, mechanisms need
  to be developed to monitor progress towards
  building public confidence.
• Conduct occasional polling, perhaps in
  conjunction with other community groups.
• Engage higher education in research efforts
• Be careful to understand the difference between
  feedback and scientific data.

10
Remember

• No matter how you spin it, we are only as good
  as our lowest achieving student.
• The challenge remains to maintain public trust as
  we serve all our children.
• We must make 100 believers out of our public.
  Otherwise, the same challenges to our governance
  will come back again in the form of a different
  question.

11
Talking Points for Amendment 5

• The Florida Constitution requires each and every
  proposed amendment to state the financial impact
  of the proposed item. This proposed amendment
  would create a tax loop hole of 9 billion
  without a clear plan as to how the shortfall
  would be made up.
• The title of the proposed amendment does not
  inform voters of its chief purpose, and suggests
  that it is just about school property taxes.
• The Plan forces the largest tax increase on the
  state in exchange for a property tax cut that
  most wont see.

12
Talking Points for Amendment 5

• The proposed amendment will create uncertainty
  within the small business community. No one knows
  how much the sales tax rate will increase or what
  services will be taxed.
• There is across the board opposition to this
  proposed amendment from agriculture, education,
  business and health-care, indicating that broad
  concerns with the initiative.
• There is a lack of transparency, the true impact
  is not known

13
Talking Points for Amendment 7

• The title of the proposed amendment Religious
  Freedom, is misleading. It suggests that it
  creates a safeguard for religious freedom when,
  in fact, that safeguard already exists in the
  state constitution.
• Unlike public schools, Amendment 7 does not
  require that private and religious schools be
  held accountable for the use of the tax money.
  That would be left to the Legislature which, thus
  far, has been reluctant to impose accountability
  measures on private institutions receiving public
  tax dollars.
• Many believe the passage of Amendment 7 would
  violate one of the basic tenets of the American
  Democratic system which is the separation of
  church and state.

14
Talking Points for Amendment 9

• These proposed amendments will limit public
  schools ability to provide the foundation that
  supports the classroom teacher.
• The 65 proposal is an attempt to draw attention
  away from the fact that Floridas public schools
  are woefully under funded. By pretending to do
  something to help by mandating 65 of funding go
  to instructional needs, backers hope nobody will
  notice that Florida remains one of the lowest
  states in per pupil funding.
• 65 of inadequate is still INADEQUATE!

15
Talking Points for Amendment 9

• No one knows how the legislature will define in
  the classroom funding. The last time they did
  this the discussion excluded such essential
  personal and services such as school nurses,
  counselors, librarians, transportation, food
  service, teacher training and curriculum,
  administration, and plant operation and
  maintenance.  If the "65 proposal" were enacted,
  all of these areas would be seriously damaged by
  budget cuts.
• The 65 proposal sounds to good to be true,
  because it is. This proposal lays the groundwork
  for the argument that schools wouldnt need more
  money if they just use existing funding more
  efficiently.

16
Talking Points for Amendment 9

• While education experts agree that teachers
  deserve to be paid more and that we need better
  funded classrooms if schools have to shift money
  around, they will be trading one set of problems
  for another.
• Local school boards strongly oppose the 65 rule
  because its a rigid one-size fits all mandate
  that creates red tape for schools and takes local
  control away from communities. School board
  members are elected by their communities because
  they are in the best position to decide what
  local schools need.

17
Talking Points for Amendment 9

• It is unknown how this proposed amendment will
  affect charter schools. However, the proposal
  does raise some interesting questions about how
  charter schools would comply especially if the
  Florida School of Excellence Commission, rather
  than the local school board, approved the charter
  application.
• 65 means that some school districts will have to
  privatize school services and turn them over to
  for-profit companies. This means that school bus
  drivers, security guards, secretaries and others
  will become minimum wage jobs with high turnover
  and these folks wont get to know our kids.

18
For More Information and Brainstorming, please
contact

• Merrie Meyers-Kershaw,APR, Fellow PRSA
• Director, Parents, Business and Community
  Partnerships
• Broward County Public Schools
• [phone]
• merrie.meyers-kershaw_at_browardschools.com