PUBLIC RELATIONS: STRATEGIES

We have been making every effort to create a Public Relations' Program with an objective to educate people outside of our organization on what our AMVET and Ladies Auxiliary Members do best, "Veterans Serving Veterans". This is key to promote membership and gain more overall support for the AMVETS organization. Since January, we, the AMVETS Organization, have had a number of Posts and Auxiliaries who have sent in information on their respective events that we were able to get public relation information on and inevitably media coverage. Please choose to support this effort of this program by showing your participation.

Please fill out the PR form including all of the event's necessary information and return it back to AMVETS State Headquarters at 2200 South Sixth Street, Springfield, Illinois 62703. Please include any photos, newspaper articles, or any other forms of event coverage that may be of use in the overall reporting effort of our AMVETS organization. With our public relations program, it is recommended that your respective posts and/or auxiliaries submit your public relations reporting form within a 30-day period prior to the date of the event. This particular time frame is needed to insure that our public relations department has an adequate period of time to accurately gather the facts on the given event and line up the proper media and/or newspaper coverage of the particular event in a timely manner. In addition, this time frame will allow for the proper procedures to be executed in order to have successful coverage of the event throughout each of the media avenues. If your respective post and/or auxiliary cannot provide State Headquarters with the necessary information in this given period of time, the program can still be reported on within a newspaper article after the event; however, media coverage at the event cannot be guaranteed.

In order for our organization to thrive in our Public Relations' Program, we need to have participation from all Posts and Auxiliaries to see outstanding success. Overall participation is a vital component with this program. As a result, we ask that each of your respective Posts and Auxiliaries begin to participate in this program. Your cooperation with this effort would be greatly appreciated. If you have any further questions regarding the public relations' program, please feel free to call State Headquarters at (217) 528-4713 or email State Headquarters.

• Recognize potential story ideas for media events. The media is always interested in veterans' affairs. Many things you do, while seeming insignificant to you, may be of interest to journalists.
• Either contact local media directly and tell them about your event, or send an announcement to the state headquarters. We will release a press release and notify media.
• You must be persistent in your commitment to public relations. Do not pester media outlets, but let them know your organization is there and doing good things. No one will show up to your event if no one knows about it.

• Not only is it nice to see yourself in print or on TV, but it helps raise community awareness about AMVETS.
• By letting the public know what our organization does, they will take a greater interest in us. This will help increase fundraising for our programs.
• Media coverage also lets current and former military members know about our existence. This will help us increase membership. If these men and women see our organization doing positive things to help veterans and the community, they will be more likely to want to join us.