Rotaract in
Great Britain & Ireland
Publicity Officers
Training Pack
July 2006
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Publicity Officers Training Pack
Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2
The role of the Publicity Officer ..................................................................................... 2
The Beginning of the Rotaract Year.............................................................................. 2
Promotion of your Club to the General Public ............................................................... 3
4.1. Press Releases .................................................................................................. 3
4.2. Newspaper Articles ............................................................................................ 3
4.3. Local Radio ........................................................................................................ 3
4.4. Posters and Leaflets .......................................................................................... 3
4.5. PowerPoint Presentation.................................................................................... 4
4.6. The Internet........................................................................................................ 4
4.7. Library Displays ................................................................................................. 4
4.8. Club Banner and Publicity Boards ..................................................................... 4
4.9. Freshers Fairs .................................................................................................... 5
4.10. Interest Nights .................................................................................................... 5
4.11. Involve Rotary .................................................................................................... 5
Publicising Club Events and Information to Club Members & District (Internal PR) ...... 5
Final Thoughts .............................................................................................................. 5
1. Introduction
This guide has been produced by Rotaract in Great Britain & Ireland (RGBI) to provide advice on being a
Rotaract Club Publicity Officer.
This pack is not a definitive guide to being a Club Publicity Officer and you should always work closely with
your predecessor.
If at any point during your year as Publicity Officer you have problems, speak to your Club President and
they will be able to advise you who is best to speak to.
2. The role of the Publicity Officer
The Publicity Officer is responsible for advertising the Club to the public in order to attract new members and
raise the profile of the Rotaract organisation. This can be done through a display in the local library, posters
in the local shops/sports centres, and submitting articles to the local press about recent Club events.
3. The Beginning of the Rotaract Year
Contact your local newspapers to introduce yourself and your Rotaract Club. Explain to the paper what your
Club represents and ask them who you should send press releases to. Be persistent, if they don’t reply to
your letter or phone call.
A novel approach is to invite the local press to come and give a talk about their publication at one of your
meetings or ask for a tour of the local newspaper or radio offices.
Ask them if they are running any special features on groups in the area which you could be included.
Raising money or “hands on” community work for a local charity is often of interest to the local press.
Think about other places in your local area where Rotaract could be publicised such as the library, sports
centres, local shops, and Rotarian’s businesses and follow these up during the course of the Rotaract year.
Do your Club members have Rotaract T-shirts or sweatshirts which could be worn when doing
community/sports/social or fundraising events to raise awareness of Rotaract? If not, choose a design and
colour in consultation with your Club members. Keep the design simple to reduce costs and choose
something that wont be “past its sell by date” in a years time. Encourage all members to purchase a T-shirt
and wear it when doing Rotaract projects.
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4. Promotion of your Club to the General Public
Below are just some ideas, there are many more and if your Club has a really successful campaign don’t
forget to tell your District Chairman or RGBI, we can then promote the idea to other Clubs.
The Kickstart your Rotaract Club Guide contains lots of other ideas on promoting Rotaract and gaining new
members, so you may want to read it as well as the information in this training pack.
4.1. Press Releases
Send a press release to the local newspapers about all your events. Consider what makes an event
newsworthy, unique or interesting and emphasise these points in your article.
Press releases should be typed, double-spaced and on one side of the paper only! Use Rotaract
headed paper and always include a contact name, address and phone number if they need more
information. At the top write “PRESS RELEASE” and date it. Supply an interesting, catchy title to get
people reading it.
WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW? Include all these factors as near to the beginning of
your press release as possible. Your opening sentence should include the word Rotaract.
A good basic rule is to write your press release in such a way that would enable the reporter to use only
the first paragraph if they are struggling for space, and to use the whole article if they have enough room.
A contact reference should always be included in any report plus details of your meeting dates, website
address and a brief description of what Rotaract is.
If the newspaper cannot supply a photographer to cover a particular event ask if they would print one of
your photos and what size and format photograph they prefer.
Don’t be afraid to ask your local paper to run a special feature on your Club – if you don’t ask you don’t
get and they can only say no!
You can get full advice on how to write press releases and other publicity ideas in the Kickstart your Club
Guide on the RGBI website (www.rotaract.org.uk).
4.2. Newspaper Adverts
Place an advert in the paper for a specific event such as a New Members Night or Interest Night. The
cost will depend on the size of your advert, but you could ask your sponsoring Rotary Club to help with
this expense.
Think carefully about the right words to use because you only have one chance to get it right!
Remember keep the advert simple and informative.
4.3. Local Radio
A lot of local radio stations have a “what’s on” section each week, contact them with the details of your
event and they are normally very good at mentioning it. You can get a list of local radio stations by
visiting http://www.ciao.co.uk/Local_Radio_stations_8490_3 and generally searching on the internet e.g.
using www.yell.co.uk.
4.4. Posters and Leaflets
RGBI has stocks of printed posters and leaflets about Rotaract that can be sent to any Rotaract club
wishing to publicise their Club.
Having recently been re-designed, the cost of purchasing these items are £4 for 100 leaflets and £3 for
100 posters (plus postage approx. £8 for 100 leaflets and 100 posters). Please e-mail requests for
publicity materials to the RGBI Publicity Officer (publicity@rotaract.org.uk) saying what you'd like and
how you intend to use them.
Leaflet drops are not that successful, as past Clubs have experienced. However you could hand them
out in town to people in the age range, but remember you would need to get permission from the Local
Council to do this.
Posters can be displayed in many locations, but if you’re stuck for ideas, here’s just a few:
Libraries
Community Centres
Building Societies
Schools
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Hospitals
Launderettes
Job Centres
Volunteer Centres
Bus Stops
Doctors/Dentists waiting rooms
Government or local authority offices
Vets
Premises of Rotarians
Takeaways
Garages/Petrol Stations
Banks
Shop windows
Youth Clubs
Citizens Advice Bureau
Estate Agents
Railway Stations
Video Shops
Pubs
Sports Centres
Hairdressers
Employment Agencies
Staff Notice boards
Travel agents
Newsagents
Inside buses
4.5. PowerPoint Presentation
RGBI has created a free-standing PowerPoint Presentation that plays to music and demonstrates what
Rotaract Clubs get up to. You can use this at new members’ nights, or on continual loop in shop
windows, café’s, student bars etc. To get a copy of this contact the RGBI Publicity Officer, details are on
the RGBI website.
4.6. The Internet
Having a Club website is extremely important these days; it is a great way to get information about
Rotaract into the wider world and for interested people to find out more about your Club specifically.
Make sure it is kept up to date with accurate contact details for your Club and events coming up. You
can request a copy of the RGBI Website Best Practices Guide which contains more information to help
you attract people to your site. You can also get a generic website address from RGBI along the lines of
www.rotaract.org.uk/anytown.
4.7. Library Displays
Arrange to put a display in your local libraries (remember there is often more than one in a large town)
for a couple of weeks and include “take away” cards with contact details for your club and the website
address for interested people to take home. There is relatively little cost involved, if any, and usually a
good response from such displays.
You can use the website www.vistaprint.co.uk to have some free, all you pay is postage, business cards
or “take away” cards produced, like the design below:
Or use the standard card from the RGBI website (www.rotaract.org.uk) to match the posters and leaflets
available from RGBI.
4.8. Club Banner and Publicity Boards
It may be worthwhile investing in a banner for use at outside events, similar to the design below:
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This can be true of publicity boards too, as both can be used at various events to show what your club
does.
4.9. Freshers Fairs
This is a great event to publicise your Club to Colleges and Universities and usually takes place during
the months of late September early October between 10.00am and 4.00pm. It is clearly important that
those manning the stand should make the most of this opportunity. It will be important to show that you
are well prepared and organised, as many university societies are not.
As well as explaining the purpose and opportunities of Rotaract, every attempt should be made to secure
the names and contact details of all those who show interest.
Advice on how to run a freshers fair are available from the RGBI website and you can hire a pack of
photos etc to have a good impact on your stand.
4.10. Interest Nights
Consider holding a ‘big bang’ event to recruit a mass of new members in one go. This can be a social
event such as ten-pin bowling, or an evening in a local pub which includes a short presentation on
Rotaract.
List some ideas and carry out a pro and con analysis to decide what best suits your club and the area
you live in. Choose the event’s venue with care: look at suitability, accessibility and its image amongst
young people. Remember the HogsHead chain of pubs will provide free food if you can guarantee a
minimum number of people!
To counter the ‘Oh but I can’t make this coming Tuesday’ reaction, you could hold an event on every
evening of a week and both days at the weekend. Obviously this requires a considerable time
investment by all members, but the results can make it worthwhile, and everyone’s had a great time
doing it!
4.11. Involve Rotary
Encourage members of your sponsoring Rotary Clubs to advertise Rotaract through their business
contacts, places of work and to invite their children/grandchildren to join Rotaract. Also speak to them
about getting contact details for past Youth Activity programmes that Rotary has run over the last year.
5. Publicising Club Events and Information to Club Members & District (Internal PR)
Communication is the key to a successful Rotaract Club, therefore to pass on information to your own Club
member’s use:
Report at your Club Meetings
Event posters to hand out to members and send to other clubs
Phone people if they are not at meetings or you don’t know if they have the information
Email the details, not only to your club, but if relevant to your district. You may want to set up an email
group using yahoo groups!
Add details to your Club and District websites
Create a Club Magazine to advertise events, report on past events etc
Use District meetings to publicise events/get information out to other Clubs
Sometimes it is still the best exercise to send letters and posters the old fashioned way via Royal Mail!
6. Final Thoughts
Remember that PUBLICITY is the key to maintaining and growing a healthy Rotaract Club. Quite simply, the
more positive publicity a Club gets the better. Liaise with fellow committee members to ensure timely issue
of press releases, emails and updates to your website for maximum impact.
It is important to track the progress of any publicity campaigns to find out what works and what doesn’t; this
will help you in the future if you do it again. PR should be constantly reviewed.
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