The mission of your coalition is best accomplished by branding yourself and your organization as the subject matter expert on your topic for your state.

Where branding is about crafting an identity, marketing is about spreading a message. The primary message of an awareness month is raising awareness of your issue. It gives your organization a natural reason to contact the media and promote your coalition. You can visit http://www.healthfinder.gov/nho/nho.asp to see the awareness months for health and social topics.

The NSVRC provides great materials for Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). You can find information about child abuse prevention awareness month at http://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/res_guide_2010/.

Stacie LeBlanc, Executive Director of the New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Center, uses a multi-prong approach during April’s Child Abuse Awareness Month. The CAC plants trees in honor of the children who die as a result of abuse and neglect in the Trees For Life program. The CAC also has pinwheel plantings, display tables and handouts at Children’s Hospital, and prevention training for the public, professionals, and hospital staff.

If your national association does not provide awareness month materials, develop materials in-house or retain a consultant to develop relevant materials. While fall prevention is an issue of national importance, with a generally agreed upon awareness day (the first day of autumn), there are no nationally produced materials. So, the State of Louisiana contracted with me to develop materials (http://drthea.com/pages/downloads/louisiana-fall-prevention-coalition/) and provide grassroots coalition training to leaders from across the state.

Use the materials in spreading the awareness message. While marketing, look for ways to share your brand.

• Always include your logo on all of the materials: advertisements, PowerPoint slides, brochures, fact sheets, etc.
• When sponsoring presentations, have large signs with your logo placed on both sides of the presenter.

Look for ways to include information about your brand in every aspect of your communication.

• Craft a signature line for your e-mail relevant to the awareness month and include your logo.
• If you have a facebook page, post information about the awareness month. During the awareness month, have updates at least once a week.
• Develop sample facebook status updates and twitter updates for fans to share during the awareness month that include a shortened URL link to your website.

Your brand should be consistent both internally and externally. You want to share the same message with your member centers as well as the community. Look for ways to assist the local centers for the awareness month.

To share the awareness month message, schedule regional presentations across the state. When I’ve been retained to do this, we call them road shows.

• In each region have 3 presentations targeted to different groups: community members, social service professionals (for CEU credit), and your member organizations’ employees. Regionalization increases participation and allows for the local centers to develop their branding also.

Host a preparation workshop in a month or two before to prepare the centers for a coordinated effort for the awareness month activities. Grassroots coalitions are most effective when there is high-quality effort on the local level.

• Share information on effective presentation skills and how to work with their local media.
• Coach the center directors to always mention the state coalition in their interviews.
• Recommend that the centers have a copy of your logo (with an active link) on their websites.

By planning in advance and coordinating efforts statewide, you will be able to successfully raise awareness and position your coalition as the experts for your state.

To Think About:

What steps can I take before the end of 2010 to assure success of my awareness month in 2011?

How To Use An Awareness Month As A Branding Opportunity For Your State Coalition is a post from: dr. thea lobell: communication skills speaker, trainer, and retreat leader

Related posts:

1. 10 Tips for Using Presentations To Build Your Business
2. A Double Life Analogy For Child Abuse Victims

Before the call:

1.  Send an invitation via your e-mail software 2 weeks before the call.

2.  Request a copy of the conference call company’s instructions, i.e. how to mute calls, how to record the call, etc.

3.  Send an agenda for feedback 1 week before the call.

4.  Send a final agenda with a reminder 1 day before the call.

5.  Call-in to the conference call 10 minutes before the scheduled start time and wait for others to join. This 10 minute window will give you some  time to work out any glitches that may arise for joining the conference call.

During the call:

6.  Adhere to the schedule. Start and end on time. Let people know at the beginning of the call that you value their time. Since you value their time, you will stick to the agenda and end the call at or before the scheduled time.

7.  Record the call. Many conference call companies have this capability. Let the participants know that you are recording the meeting to assist with recordkeeping.

8.  Ask participants to please take the call off of speakerphone.  Also, to place the call on mute if they have children, animals, or office noise in the background.

9.  When others get off topic, guide the discussion back to the agenda item. Mention how you value their time and that “we only have a limited amount of time today. I want to make sure your time is well spent on this call.”

After the call:

10.  Block off the hour following the call to tie up loose ends, review the conference call recording, and send follow-up e-mails about the call.

Following these steps demonstrates how much importance you place on the participants’ time and effort. By valuing others’ time and effort, you are creating and nurturing meaningful relationships with clients and colleagues.

10 Tips for Leading Successful Conference Calls is a post from: dr. thea lobell: communication skills speaker, trainer, and retreat leader

Related posts:

1. 10 Tips To Get The Most Out of a Conference Before You Even Leave Home
2. the conference is over: 4 follow-through activities and 1 activity to avoid
3. never order room service and 5 other ways to make the most out of a conference

One area that can greatly increase the productivity of the meeting is the food selection. Snacks filled with fat and carbohydrates cause an insulin spike and subsequent crash for participants. While participants may be excited receiving hot cookies during the afternoon break, no matter the topic or speaker, they will be nodding off 45 minutes later.  Here’s an example of a snack/meals makeover I have used with clients for my 1 Day Retreat and other speaking engagements:

Your Snacks Are Sabotaging Your Retreats and Conferences is a post from: dr. thea lobell: communication skills speaker, trainer, and retreat leader

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