CHAPTER SESSION: Creating a Positive Public Presence

In oder to create a chapter that is sustainable beyond one leader's term, volunteer leaders can use the Chapter Sustainability Pyramid. Each level of the pyramid builds upon the one below it. If the chapter follows the whole model, they will be more successful in the long run:

• Understanding your organization's mission and values
• Strategic planning
• Member Communications
• Member Involvement
• Pride and Publicity
• Recruitment and Retention

Publicity is the deliberate attempt to manage the public’s perception of your chapter. Publicity is different from your member communications because it is meant to generate awareness about the chapter and STTI among nonmembers while increasing current members’ pride.

Publicity can also be unintentional. Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools to help showcase your chapter’s events and achievements. Successful chapter initiatives inspire members to share with their friends and colleagues who aren’t members, resulting in those people being more familiar with and excited about your chapter. This increases the likelihood of those individuals seeking out and accepting an invitation to join.

Chapter pride grows as a result of positive publicity because members feel that their membership is recognized and valued in the community. To get the word out, chapters should gather volunteers who are interested in the tools needed to publicize the chapter, such as social media and websites. This will make up the publicity committee.

Your publicity committee will also have a great influence in building the chapter's reputation in the community, where members are working. Creating value in the workplace for your organization will instill greater satisfaction

and pride among members and will open up the group to clinically based partnerships that can increase your chapter’s vitality.

This session will walk through the skill set needed to serve on a publicity committee, as well as the tools and timelines that will allow the committee to be successful in managing the public's perception of the chapter.