Sarasota, Fla -- Twenty-four Civil Air Patrol (CAP) members representing units from across the state of Florida gathered in Sarasota on Saturday, October 31 for a one-day Public Affairs workshop. The workshop was hosted by the Group 5 Headquarters public affairs team and featured five topic presentations by public relation experts. The schedule of presentations focused on public affairs officer (PAO) skill development and examined new trends in public relations. The workshop is just one of several efforts by Group 5 to develop greater capacity and capability of the public affairs program at a squadron level.
Major Grant Meadows, Florida Wing Director of Marketing and Public Relations, facilitated learning about the recent changes to the CAP regulation which governs the public affairs program and now requires an annual public affairs plan to be developed for each unit. Major Meadows reviewed the current Florida Wing plan and outlined future plan changes. In addition, Major Steven Solomon, Southeast Region Director of Public Affairs, guided participants through a session on writing effective news releases. Other topics included a presentation on “Working with the Media” facilitated by Major Doug Jessmer, FLWG – Group 3 PAO, “Making Better Photos” facilitated by 2ndLt. David Bellis, Editor of the Florida Wing Newsletter “Wingspan”, and a session on “Social Networking” presented by 2ndLt. Kevin McNulty.
Captain Jeff Carlson, Event Director and Group 5 PAO, welcomed the participants and briefly address the group about the need to coordinate existing public affairs resources and to further expand the number of members involved with creating and delivering the message, especially cadets. He emphasized that the need for effective internal communication with members was vital to maintain morale and a high-level of readiness. He also spoke about the important role that communication plays in developing strategic-partnerships and strengthening the relationship with all of the organization’s stakeholders.
Each of the workshop participants received a completion certificate and credit toward the annual professional development training requirement for the Public Affairs Officer specialty track. The workshop sessions were video recorded by cadets from the SRQ Composite Squadron and will be released on the Channel 5 multi-media webpage accessed through the Group 5 News website at http://fl370.flwg.sercap.us/. The workshop is the first event of more public affairs training planned for the future. At the workshop, announcements were made for Public Information Officer (PIO) training to be scheduled this winter and another PAO workshop scheduled for Group 5 later in 2010. For more information about future training, contact Group Five Public Affairs.
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