NASIG Newsletter

PUBLICIST

Steve Savage, Past President and Publicist 

The Publicist role was initially created in order to centralize, organize, and make consistent all publicity distributed by NASIG. It was originally a volunteer position appointed by the Vice-President as part of the annual committee appointments process. It was later added to the Past President’s responsibilities. Nevertheless, the amount of publicity NASIG distributes is very small each year.  

I. NEW DEVELOPMENTS THIS YEAR 

A.   Publicist’s Manual
The Publicist’s instructions passed on to me comprised less than half a page of instructions. Consequently, I created a comprehensive manual which was recently added to the Board webspace. 

B.   Writing announcements
Prior to this year, the Publicist required that all NASIG groups write their own announcements before submitting them for final review and distribution. This year, I accepted all cases of groups sending the Publicist details, only, about their event and then I wrote the announcement itself. Announcing this to the committee chairs several times throughout each year may help to generate more PR. Continuing this approach, or not, however, should be a policy decision so that it does not become left to the whim of each year’s Publicist. Creation of the Publications/PR Committee (PPRC) may support make this a permanent feature.  

C.   E-mail delivery problems
I discovered that some messages bouncing back from addresses within Publicist’s group mail addresses are not temporary delivery problems. Most are these returned messages are from addresses within the SLIS list. Most of the addresses within this group address are for individuals, probably employees within the respective schools. To resolve the ones that were consistently bouncing back, I compared the individual addresses within the SLIS group mail address with A&R’s similar list of addresses. There were about a dozen discrepancies. To date, all but 3 have been replaced with new addresses for other people. 

D.   CPC’s regional publicity
I suggested transferring the work of conference publicity sent to regional lists from CPC to Publicist and the Publications/PR Committee. CPC will help with identifying regional lists that will be included in a separate group mail address within the Publicist’s bee.net account. With the conference in a different location each year, the contents of this group mail address with change annually. As is done with publication to national lists, CPC will submit drafts, or simply information, to the Publicist. The Publicist will finalize the message and distribute it to the regional lists. 

E.   RSS feed for CPC
At CPC’s suggestion, Anna Creech and I created a procedure for an RSS feed for conference publicity, and began using it in March. This RSS feed should be used for most, if not all, of the Publicist’s future PR messages. Most such messages would require only slight revision to make them appropriate for the RSS feed. 

F.   Insert for the brochure
I created an insert with this text and added a copy of it to each copy of the brochure that was distributed: 

BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2006, NASIG’S MEMBERSHIP DUES ARE:
USA: Regular members, $75.00 (USD)                            
        Student & retiree members, $25.00 (USD)     
CANADA:  Regular members, $75.00 (CAD) or $60 (USD)
               Student & retiree members, $30.00 (CAD) or $25.00 (USD)     
MEXICO: Regular, student, & retiree members $18.00 (USD)
OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA:  Regular, student, & retiree embers, $75.00

JOIN NASIG online at: www.nasig.org/forms/membership/, or return the form in the membership brochure with your check (be sure to use the new dues relevant to you!) to the NASIG Treasurer at the address in the brochure.

NASIG’S NEXT CONFERENCE will take place May 4-7, 2006 at the Denver Marriott City Center in Denver, Colorado. For the conference program, online registration (including lower rates for NASIG  members),  and information for making hotel reservations at the special conference rate, see the conference website at: www.nasig.org/conference/2006/

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NASIG, see our website at: www.nasig.org, or write to: info@nasig.org     

A revised version will be needed until the Membership brochure is updated. The paragraph about the next conference will have to be revised or eliminated, of course. 

II. PR ANNOUNCEMENTS AND BROCHURES DISTRIBUTED 

A.   Announcement of election results. 

B.   Slightly revised ALCTS announcement about co-sponsored ALA pre-conference. 

C.   For PPC: 
      
- 2 Calls for Proposals    
- 2 Calls for Poster Session Proposals    
- 1 Call for Informal Discussion Groups Topics     
- 1 Call for Users Groups      
- 2 announcements geared toward Liblicense-l about preconferences, etc., on licensing and related topics 

D.   For CEC:

2 Calls for Ideas  

E.   For CPC

- 4 announcements about conference registration geared toward non-members
- 3 announcements to ECC for the RSS feed 

F.   For A&R

- 2 calls for applications for the 2006 grants/awards cycle
- 1 announcement of the 2006 grants/awards recipients  

G.   Membership brochures:

- 20 English, 5 Spanish, 5 French copies to Stephen Headley for a conference in Ohio
- 20 English, 5 Spanish, 5 French copies to Keiko Okuhara SCCTP workshop at the University of Hawaii, Manoa (for CEC)
- 35 English, 10 French, 150 Spanish copies to Teresa Malinowski for meeting designed for library school students in California (for MDC) for: “A Conversation with Library Leaders,” Sunday, April 30, 2006 (sponsored by the Orange Counting Chapter of REFORMA, SJSU SLIS, SJSU LISSTEN, the California Librarians Black Caucus and LACASIS & SLA; includes “Visit Informational Tables of Professional Organizations”
- 120 English, 20 French, 20 Spanish copies set out at the registration desk during the 2006 NASIG onference.
- I experimented with asking volunteers to always set out copies of the French and Spanish brochures whenever putting out copies of the English version. This proved worthwhile: some of them were taken during at least 2 of the 3 events; I also learned to routinely send 10-20 more of the English copies than volunteers usually request.NOTE: We only about 150 copies of the English version of the current brochure left.  These will not be sufficient for next year if membership development activities increase, as we expect will happen. 

III.  RECOMMENDATIONS 

A. Policies and procedures should be developed to support the publicizing of all NASIG events and developments that are appropriate for extra-NASIG venues. (CEC events, in particular, are not being publicized.) 

B. The Board should make writing of PR announcements for any NASIG business a requirement of the Publicist position and/or the PPRC. (This would be only for cases when a draft statement is not submitted by the relevant NASIG group.) 

C. The Publicist should pay particular attention to the evolving nature of its role. This evolution will likely intensify during the next year or two as a result of the implementation of the new Publications/PR Committee. Specifically, the Publicist should consider new options such as:

- Delegating the management of the Publicist’s bee.net e-mail account, including the group lists and            clearing out the Inbox, to one or more committee members.
- Asking committee members to write first drafts of announcements for which NASIG groups submit information, only.

NOTE: It is imperative that the Publicist retain the authority for final revision of all PR. 

D. The 3 remaining problem addresses within the SLIS group mail address should be resolved, and all messages bounced back as undeliverable should be checked to determine if they are similar, on-going problems or just temporary delivery problems. (A&R may be able to help further with the 3 problem addresses.) 

E. The Publicist should expand use of the new RSS fee, making it a routine method for NASIG publicity. 

F. As soon as possible, the Membership Development Committee should update the English brochure and have the Translators Resource Team produce French and Spanish versions of it.  

G. Copies of the French and Spanish versions of the brochures should always be set out for pick up when copies of the English version are used. 

H. Of the English version of the brochure, the Publicist should send 5-10 copies more than those requested. 

I.A public page for the new PPRC should be added to NASIGWeb; as usual, the page should including the charge. 

J. A public page about the NASIG Publicist should be added to NASIGWeb (linked from the Board roster page?), and a charge for the Publicist’s role.
- If a charge exists for the position, it should be tracked down, updated as necessary, and added.
- If a charge does not exist, one should be created. 

K.      A private, password controlled webspace within NASIGWeb should be created for use by the Publicist and PPRC.