Delegate Assembly votes to invest in public relations campaign, assess members $35/year for certified, $17.50 for ESPs

The most far sighted action the delegates took at this past Delegate Assembly was to invest in a stepped up public relations/image advertising campaign. The three-year campaign will be funded by a special member assessment of $35/year for certificated staff, $17.50/year for education support professionals. The assessment will sunset on August 31, 2011.

“For almost a decade now NEA-Alaska has committed its modest advertising budget to running funding ads. More recently, we produced an ad about the TRS/PERS retirement crisis,” said NEA-Alaska President Bill Bjork. “This has left us with no budget for the image advertising that organizations of our size and importance need these days. The time-limited member assessment is an approach that many other states have taken.”

At the 2007 Delegate Assembly, a number of members had expressed dissatisfaction that NEA-Alaska has not been able to afford an image advertising campaign. “Year after year, we’ve been the ‘heavy’ in advocating for funding,” said NEA Delegate and MSEA member Glen Ramos. “And our rights and bargaining activities can often compromise our positive reputation with the public.

“Despite our ongoing public relations and community outreach activities, we need to do more. We live in a media-saturated world. We need to be on the air constantly, reminding Alaskans of the great things that go on in our schools every day.”

The resulting New Business Item (NBI 07-24) from that year reads: “NEA-Alaska will employ a professional image consultant or public relations company to work with NEA-Alaska to develop a three-year, research-based public relations plan to help improve the public view and attitude toward public education.” The 2007 DA voted to invest $30,000 to have a research-based PR plan created and budgeted – the results to be brought back to DA 2008 for review and possible action.

In response to the NBI, NEA-Alaska pulled together an Ad Hoc Committee on Public Relations Planning:

• Chip Hagedorn, LKNEA

• Chrya Sanderson, ESSA

• George Stuart, MSEA

• Glen Ramos, MSEA

• Lisa Johnson, AEA

• Margie Warner, KPESA

• Melodie Bear, AEA

• Phyllis Clough, KIESA

• Rob Taylor, AEA

• Tim Parker, FEA

(A committee member from JEA chose to withdraw from the committee
because of a possible conflict of interest.)

The Ad Hoc Committee oversaw production of a Request for Proposals. The bottom line deciding factor: “Ability to craft a plan that is truly statewide; appropriate in both urban and rural areas and reflective of the ethnic and cultural diversity of our members and the state.”

A full day meeting in Anchorage for face-to-face interviews with the finalists resulted in the committee’s selection of the LottsfeldtSmith Advertising Agency. This is the firm well known for producing award-winning TV ads for the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and the Teamsters.

LottsfeldtSmith contracted with a national pollster to conduct a statewide public opinion survey – to serve as a baseline and to inform the messages for the image campaign. Key components of the resulting PR plan are to revamp and expand the AKtivist newsletter and our web site, and produce TV, radio and print image ads.

“We’ll be working closely with our local leaders to reconfirm exactly which media work in each of our many communities,” said Bjork. “We’ll also be holding our contractor’s feet to the fire to make sure our ads provide equity for ESPs and our non-urban areas. That’s a central value of NEA-Alaska’s, and we’re going to make it happen.”