Many thanks to Greg Kamp for an intriguing look into big time PR. Crisis communications, or readiness planning and action, is something school communicators need to do on a fairly regular basis - whether it's a bomb threat or MRSA virus or student death. Our BOCES group is working on something we're calling a "Go Kit" that has everything we could possibly need in a crisis situation, but might not have access to if the school was off limits. Of course, schools have readiness plans in place, but they are lacking when it comes to dealing with the media during such events. I liked Greg's advice on giving your organization 90 days to write the plan, working from the crisis backwards, having everyone involved - and most important, practicing it.
I also like what Greg said about having different messages for different audiences delivered in different ways, but with the same foundation. I can see why he is so successful at PR and has had so many great career opportunities. I think it takes a very confident and knowledgeable person to be able to tell people how they should act in a certain situation, and have them actually do what you say! BTW, the book he was referring to by Michael Deaver is entitled A Different Drummer: My 30 Years with Ronald Reagan.
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Back to Greg’s presentation…I will go out on a limb here and say that the entire class seemed to be rather impressed with his presentation. Just yesterday I summarized the notes that I took on crisis management during Greg's presentation and presented them to our main PR guy. Without getting into details, I believe that we, as a corporation, could do a better job with crisis management, and listening to Greg speak (coupled with a recent event) reinforced that fact. I think we are on our way to a better “readiness planning and readiness action plan” and would love to believe that I, due to my recent education, was able to have a positive impact on this plan. We shall see!
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