Guidelines for Media Advisory, Press Release, Speaker Prep, and Security Planning.
Any action requires tremendous trust from the community, from partners. Building that trust requires clear planning, resolving concerns and anxieties, and creating a dependable foundation for the collective vision of all stakeholders takes shape.
Each item below has a brief description of what it's for, due date, and then how to write it.
There will be completed examples in the examples folder and ready-to-enter templates in the templates folder.
Alerts the press of an upcoming event so that they can plan to attend as it happens and allocate resources to cover it.
Keep it well under a page. Journalists skim these advisories at best. Save speeches for a blog, press release, or the action itself. Keep it short.
A week prior to the event or as soon as details finalize if an emergency.
-
Logo or Organization Name
-
For Release or For Immediate Release
- Date of Release
-
For More Information Contact
- [Lead Person or Organization Name] [Email] [Phone]
-
EVENT FORMAT AND GOAL, ACTIVE VERBS, UP TO TWO LINES
- 'City, State - ' where event occurs followed by not more than 150 words. Keep it brief and reiterate the event's goal, format (march/rally/etc.), key stakeholders, and context in narrative form.
-
Restate What/Who/When/Where.
- What Format (march/rally/etc.) and Goal
- Who Key Stakeholders or Speakers
- When Weekday, Month Date, Year from Time AM/PM to End Time AM/PM
- Where Physical Address of starting location 'plus' directions to nearby transit and parking.
-
'###' on the final line.
Long form description to the press, community organizations, and politicians of an event that takes place soon or already took place.
Should be draft by day prior and distributed not more than two days prior and up to the day of the event.
-
Logo or Organization Name
-
For Release or For Immediate Release
- Date of Release
-
For More Information Contact
- [Lead Person or Organization Name] [Email] [Phone]
-
EVENT FORMAT AND GOAL, ACTIVE VERBS, UP TO TWO LINES
- One sentence summary of below paragraph(s).
- 'City, State - ' where event occurs followed by not more than four paraggraphs or 500 words. Keep it brief and reiterate the event's goal, format (march/rally/etc.), key stakeholders, and context in narrative form.
-
'###' on the final line.
Use a unionized printing shop and ask that they include their union affliation (sometimes referred to as "the bug" due to small size).
Most printers require a week or two of lead time. Under a week is possible but may incur additional expenses. Make sure to finalize designs and get approval from stakeholders and community partners.
Do not use a community organization's logo if they haven't endorsed through internal decision process (union vote, executive committee, etc.). Doing so may decrease confidence in our organization as a trusted partner for future actions.
Prepare both organizers of the events, speakers, and coalition partners.
- Identify points of unity with coalition partners at least a week before. Encourage and support natural leaders in coalition partnerships. Points of unity help refine shared talking points and where we can speak broadly. If there's a point of disagreement, be sure to preface remarks that it only paplies to your organization's view.
- Make sure mutual points of unity are identified. Just because community helps organize an action doesn't mean every point is agreed on. If you're speaking on behalf of DSA, be sure to mention this to the press and have support from the membership and local council.
- Security planning is important to ensure people feel safe and confident stepping forward in an action. Lack of confidence in a security plan may lead to cancellations over their safety.
Helps coordinate event security, parade marshalls, observers, key stakeholders. This document helps to ease fears and tensions around events.
'Work in Progress'
'Work in Progress'