PUBLIC RELATIONS - 2008-2009
Committee members: Jack Petrie (Chair),
Tricia Timmermans - Gary Nazar - Ron Beyer

Last couple of years were good ones for PR in Rotary. The Rotary Club of Oak Bay joined the Greater Victoria Rotary Clubs Public Relations Committee - a group committed to building a unified and solid PR campaign that blankets all of the Greater Victoria Clubs. Newspaper campaigns appeared in various media and on buses. Each month a specific club was highlighted. The idea is to make the public more aware of the good work that Rotary does locally and internationally, create more local interest, and thus gain more members. Tricia Timmermans has worked so hard on behalf of our club and Rotary in these endeavours. I am pleased that she has volunteered to serve on our Public Relations Committee again, joining Gary Nazar and our newest member, Ron Beyer.

So, this year...Tricia, Ron, Gary and I have met to brainstorm a few ideas. In the new year we intend to make contact with business owners in our community, those in their shops and offices, as well as those working from home. How? By dropping in to see them, e-mailing them, phoning them...to tell them about our club and asking for their e-mail addresses so we can continue to keep them informed about speakers, fundraisers, special events. We want them to be Friends of Rotary. Perhaps several of them will see the benefits of joining our club. That's our intention.

The GVRCPR committee (mentioned above) will be a big help in this regard. Check out the ad samples they've designed, to run in the Black Press, the CanPages phone book, and to be distributed to our Friends of Rotary. Our own Ted Harrison will be our initial member profile. We'll be featuring another member or two later in the year.

We need a good sign in the main entry of the Rec Centre that tells the world we meet there. It's to be done!

In November, the Oak Bay News ran a great article on our Interact-organized evening with Memory and Christie. Terrific coverage with a delightful photo of Memory and her son. That didn't just happen. Tricia was the driving force behind that. I went along for the ride after meeting beforehand with the writer. It's interesting to note that the editor and writer are only keen on 'interesting to the readers' stories from Rotary. They are reticent to be a 'bulletin board' for our club news. I guess that means we'll have to be involved in bigger ideas if we want the community to pay attention to us. One of those ideas was the Malawi Girls School evening. Let's look forward to more events like this, and to the coverage we 'earn' from the local media.

So there you have it: a couple of 'campaigns', a nice sign, and more 'Friends of Rotary'. Stay tuned.

Thank you. Jack Petrie, Chair, Public Relations