Category:Public Relations

Good fraternity public relations don't just happen. They result from the maintenance of a worthwhile program about which others are informed. Professional fraternities have a particular problem in making their unique identity known in contrast to social fraternities or greek letter honor societies. Theta Tau’s balanced program of Service, Professional Development, and Brotherhood is adept at conveying the unique nature and mission of our organization. Be sure to share the good news of your events and activities in all three of these areas with your communities (students, faculty, administrators, neighbors, alumni, and friends). And, be sure that these events and activities reflect favorably on Theta Tau.

Each new engineering administrator or faculty member should be visited personally by a student member to a chapter event or activity and informed of significant chapter activities. In some tasteful way it should be determined if the new faculty member belongs to Theta Tau. Because the individual chapter represents the entire fraternity, the chapter's public relations are of utmost importance. Any fraternity is viewed by several segments of the public. The most important are those found in the city where the chapter is located: university-wide and engineering administrators, faculty members, students, other campus organizations, and local alumni.

The best way favorably to impress administrators and faculty members is to follow regulations, collectively and personally, and to provide the proper chapter atmosphere in which the value of academic achievement is recognized by members and pledges. Beyond this, each member and pledge should have an opportunity to get to know each administrator and faculty member personally while in school. Therefore, the chapter should invite these persons (and perhaps their families) to be the guests of the chapter at well-organized events. When appropriate, of course, they may be asked to speak, but it is also nice to have them sometimes simply as guests. Especially when the chapter maintains a house, it is desirable to invite representatives of neighboring or competitive fraternities to dinner occasionally. Of course, having guests includes the responsibility of being a good host, and making the guest feel that you are genuinely interested in them before, during, and after dinner.

No amount of diversified effort on getting adequate publicity will take the place of a commendable balanced program of service, professional development, and brotherhood events – all of which make membership meaningful and which promotes group and individual participation and involvement. When some worthwhile group activity is undertaken, or when something involving the chapter is moderately newsworthy, officers should see that articles and photographs about it appear in the student newspaper, the student engineering magazine, the local city newspapers, the hometown newspapers of those members particularly involved, and (when appropriate) in the school's alumni magazine. Often, the school has a public relations office which will be of great help in getting articles cited. It is axiomatic that an editor cannot publish that which he doesn't know. One attribute of the engineer which is extolled in our Ritual is perseverance; this is often required in order to achieve the publicity deserved. The result of that perseverance is worth the effort.

Newspaper stories should be submitted in typed form, of course, and free of errors. Each should carry a headline. A short, balanced, two-line headline is used as a column head by most newspapers. In order to gain the greatest benefit from such an article, the headline should begin: "Theta Tau...and the article should begin: "Theta Tau, professional engineering fraternity,..." It should be written in journalistic style with the most important facts first, and include who, what, when, where, why, and how. Announcements, etc., should be attributed to someone by name and position. The news release should carry a release date at the top of page 1, along with the name, address, and telephone number of an individual who may be contacted for more information. Copy should be double spaced on one side of an 8.5 x 11 page. Multiple page articles should have the pages numbered, with the word "more" at the end of all but the last page which carries some "end mark," traditionally "###." Such an article must be timely to merit publication.

It will be no surprise to today’s students that favorable publicity can be generated by the chapter and its members utilizing online resources such as facebook, twitter, and more. A quick post with a photo, including as many of the questions noted in the paragraph above (who, what, where, when, why), tweeted, tagged, retweeted, etc., by individual members can generate its own momentum. In the same way, though, unfavorable publicity can just as easily spread so be deliberate and conscious of the image and message you convey via the internet. For significant Fraternity events such as special anniversary celebrations, Regional Conferences, Conventions, etc., the host chapter should make every effort to obtain publicity in campus and local city newspapers prior to, during, and following the event in order to maximize the coverage. An important event is sometimes good material for radio or television coverage, also. A local Rube Goldberg Machine Contest is a great way to attract local media attention to your chapter and your university with the possibility of nation-wide attention if your machine wins the national contest.