Public Relations Committee

[Donald Dale Milne]

    Now that we have our Treasurer and banking situation settled down, I find we have some organizational issues to deal with.  One of these is our Public Relations Committee and its subcommittee, the Convention Committee (https://docs.comics.org/wiki/Committees#Public_Relations_Committee ).  This committee was created in March 2020 to consolidate the functions of our PR Coordinators, Conventions Committee, various ad hoc efforts at social media, and public-facing e-mail response.

    As I noted at the time we adopted this, there are a number of organizational questions that need to be resolved by the Board, that were not addressed in the motion.

1. First, this combination is of a current coordinators group, the PR Coordinators, with a current committee, the Convention Circuit Committee.  We need to decide whether this new combination will operate under committee or coordinators rules.  Committees currently operate without much in the way of rules, whereas coordinators operate under this framework: https://docs.comics.org/wiki/Coordinators#General_Coordinator_Framework .
2. Second, we need to define the duties of the new committee.  Currently, the PR Coordinators are responsible for the public relations of the GCD. These duties include:

   
   

   • monitoring the contact list (It should be noted that of the people proposed for this committee, only Ray is currently monitoring the contact list: that is most frequently performed by myself and Jochen, who are not on the committee.)
   • maintaining the front page(s)
   • maintaining a presence on social networking sites (Facebook, etc)
   • maintaining and updating dog & pony shows that could be used by members at conventions (e.g. PowerPoint demos or the like, of varying focuses and lengths)
   • maintaining a selection of print advertisements of various sizes to be used where opportunity presents.
   • acting as press agents as needed (e.g. notifying comics news sites and/or bloggers when there's noteworthy GCD news)
   • solicit help from other members as needed in order to accomplish these responsibilities
   • One of their current projects is to maintain a calendar of important dates in comics' and comic creators' lives.

   The current Convention Circuit Committee has no set procedure for appointing a chair.  The motion under consideration does specify a current chair but makes no provision for changes if that person later resigns.  The current Convention Circuit Committee has the following rules:
   

   • Handle all convention related activities for the GCD, including identifying conventions to participate in, recruiting volunteers, creating programs for our convention activities, developing budgets, defining success metrics, managing and advertising convention appearances.

3. Third, each group currently has its own e-mail group list.  We should decide whether to consolidate those also, or leave them separate.  If separate, we need to decide how the group will communicate with the whole.
4. Fourth, if we retain the new committee as is, we need to delete the current PR Coordinators from our structure, as the motion did not eliminate that group.
   

    If anyone has ideas on how to better define the roles, rules, etc. for this new combined committee, I would like to hear them.  Otherwise, I will propose something to clarify them so this committee can move forward.  Since forming over 2 years ago, this committee has accomplished almost nothing, as can be seen by the fact that there is seldom any information from the committee in the quarterly reports I submit to the Board.  I suspect part of that problem is that the Board did not adequately define their role.

- Don Milne

[Donald Dale Milne]

    This has been sitting on our back burner for quite some time.  As no one has proposed any ideas for this committee, I am proposing we re-align the committee structure along the lines of our other committees.  Ideas to include in a possible motion follow.

Organization: currently a Committee, though it incorporates some tasks from our PR Coordinators group.  I propose we redefine this Committee as the PR Coordinators and delete the Public Relations Committee, so it can operate under the General Coordinator Framework.

Objective: not currently defined.  I again propose we redefine this Committee as the PR Coordinators, which has duties, and delete the Public Relations Committee.

Members: currently identifies specific persons and is our only committee to do so.  I propose we set a number of people and set up appointment by Board Motions, as our other Coordinators use.  The General Coordinator Framework currently states, "Each position shall be held by three individuals."  I propose we set this group at "up to nine individuals" to allow the current staffing to continue if they so desire.

Chair:  currently identifies specific persons and is our only committee to do so.  I propose we allow the committee to elect a Chair (termed "lead" in the General Coordinator Framework) from among their members, as our other Coordinators use.

Special Provisions: this is our only committee that allows its Chair to appoint additional members, instead of reserving that to the Board.  I propose we remove that ability.

    Therefore, if anyone is interested in re-aligning this Committee to be a Coordinators group and setting its organization to operate under the same framework as our other Coordinators, I propose the following motion.

"That the Public Relations Committee is hereby redefined as the PR Coordinators and shall hereafter operate under the General Coordinator Framework, with the exception that provision "Each position shall be held by three individuals." shall be changed to "PR Coordinators shall be held by up to nine individuals." for this group.  Additionally, the 'Responsibilities' of the PR Coordinators shall be changed to include the duties of the Convention Committee, "Handle all convention related activities for the GCD, including identifying conventions to participate in, recruiting volunteers, creating programs for our convention activities, developing budgets, defining success metrics, managing and advertising convention appearances."

    Additionally, during my recent call for volunteers, Scott Novick has volunteered to be on this committee.  I am proposing that we appoint him.  As we receive no ongoing communication from this committee, I believe it needs some new blood in addition to the proposed organizational changes.

- Don Milne

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[sangorshop]

This seems reasonable to me.

Steven Rowe

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[Ron S]

Donald,

I will support anything you like to do to make this committee be more functional.   Since this will become a Coordinators position and I am already serving as an Ad Coordinator, I think that this will exclude me from serving on this committee but am always willing to help those who get selected.

My apologies for not being able to achieve our goals over the last few years.

-Ron Sadowski

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From: gcd-...@googlegroups.com <gcd-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Donald Dale Milne <dond...@att.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2023 9:25 AM
To: gcd-...@googlegroups.com <gcd-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [gcd-board] Public Relations Committee

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gcd-board/54eea5af-b951-9651-7761-48b1f5219ac9%40att.net.

[Donald Dale Milne]

    Thanks, Ron, and thanks for your work on this committee.  I am also sorry that less was accomplished than hoped for.  I don't know of any restrictions on serving on more than one Coordinator group, so we can see about staffing after reorganization.  If we reorganize this.

- Don Milne

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gcd-board/DM4PR12MB61348D946C1E7C25E169DF86D35DA%40DM4PR12MB6134.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.