Text of our Chemluminary nomination for best PR from a local Section

The Public Relations committee of the Chicago Section started the transition to the new “Chemistry for life” branding and has begun to promote its use through our websites and other communications. We are working with the ACS CPRC to accomplish this transition.

The committee analyzed the effectiveness of reporting meetings to the Chicago area media and determined that it is not effective to send these press releases. The committee recommends that ongoing interaction with the media be accomplished by using the following approach

Target a few specific outlets and make a strong drive to contact a few individual reporters rather than a blanket email approach. Bring a reference tool to the media contacts rather than just sending press releases announcing meetings.

Developed a strategic direction that includes more dependence on the Chicago Section website for communicating with the media and the public. For example, the Science Elements widget has been placed on the website to promote chemistry to the public. The site is available to anyone with an internet connection.

We have established the Ad Hoc New Technology Enhancement Team to accomplish the above goal. The first accomplishment of this team was to facilitate conversion of the Chemical Bulletin into an all-electronic format. This will enable much broader content and also wider distribution of our Local Section publication. We are working on defining specific web portals that could be used by segments such as teachers, parents, media, etc. We anticipate that this will increase public relations impact and facilitate outreach.

The effectiveness of the web site in reaching the public can be illustrated by the following. The Boy Scout merit badge program information was only sent to four councils but scouts from seven councils, including two in neighboring states, attended the program. The program was highlighted on our web site. A frequently visited page on the site is ChemShorts, safe experiments for children that can be done in schools or at home. Our web site serves as the host for the Illinois State Fair project, a collaboration of nine sections. Attendance at the tent reached 14,600 this year, the highest it has ever been. Further outreach at the fair was the distribution of CDs containing ChemShorts and other information to teachers in attendance.

Much information has been posted on our web site, either directly or in the Chemical Bulletin, involving government affairs including upcoming legislation and the election.

Bulk email messages to Section and Regional members are another application of technology for PR use. We send reminders out prior to dinner meetings and are using this format to keep region members informed about the upcoming Great Lakes Regional Meeting. An example of a bulk e-mail message is in the attached file. It is personalized, offers an opt-out of further messages option and the opportunity to send a comment. After each mailing we have received a number of comments.

We are also reaching out to other organizations and collaborating with them in publicizing events of interest to members of both and the general public. An example of this is the partnering with Science Chicago for our National Chemistry Week celebration. They publicized this as one of their Science Saturdays. We held joint meetings with the Chicago chapter of AIChE, the Joliet and Milwaukee sections as well as several universities allowing for publicity to be distributed by both organizations involved in each meeting.

The Public relations committee plans to continue expanding its use of technology as a means of communication to the general public and to our members.