NAP Connections
Promoting Parliamentary Law Month By Debra A Henry, PRP
Parliamentary law month provides an excellent opportunity for your unit or association to enthusiastically inform your community on the applications of parliamentary procedure. In the month of April, NAP members should be actively engaged in developing awareness of proper meeting management. The members of your local group should be excited about this prospect. Your question maybe, “How do I share my excitement about this subject with others?” A solid public relations strategy will help you promote your event clearly and consistently. There are many types of activities that you could produce to implement our organization’s tagline, “Educating the World on Parliamentary Procedure.” This year, many units may choose to host an educational workshop via a webinar. A cyberspace event is low in cost; ideally, it should be offered to attendees at no cost. Your approach to promoting the event should be multifaceted. Here are some suggestions for implementing a public relations strategy for your online workshop: Identify your audience • Ask yourself, “Who are my people?” You should recognize that the people who are most like you would be your constituency. They would be individuals who enjoy working collaboratively and efficiently, and 34
National Parliamentarian • Winter 2021
belong to boards, legislative bodies, organizations, and/or clubs. • Suggest that every member of the unit or association commit to issuing no less than 10 invitations per member, utilizing his or her social or professional network. • Make use of the membership lists provided on the websites of local or regional chambers of commerce to invite their members. • Perform outreach to boards of church, civic, social, and fraternal organizations. Brand the event • Give the event a name that is memorable and connected with the objective of your parliamentary law month event. • Portray the “look and feel” of the event in your design portfolio with graphic elements to give the target audience a preview of what is to come. The design elements should be uniform and recurring in all communication—stationery, flyers, forms, websites. • Use fonts that are easy to read and commonly used so that the fonts can be replicated and consistent across print and online media. • Create a logo for the event or utilize your unit’s or association’s logo and integrate it into the design portfolio for the event.
