Norman strives for "Light Green"

Curbside recycling has been on the minds of many Norman citizens for many of years. On May 8, 2007, this dream became one step closer to reality as 71 percent of Norman voters approved the curbside recycling proposition. JEWN Communications, our PR Campaign’s group, has been given the opportunity to explore the problems, opportunities and other issues that may arise with Norman curbside recycling. Our goals for this campaign include educating customers, making sure they are satisfied with the program and encouraging people to participate.

The only problems now involve encouraging the involvement and participation of eligible curbside recyclers, educating Norman citizens on curbside and drop-off site recycling options and deciding on a recycling company.
The curbside recycling plan has already been pushed back a full month and is now set to begin on March 1, 2008. Many Norman citizens will have the opportunity to utilize curbside recycling, but those that do not will still be able to generate recyclable materials through Norman’s drop-off recycling site. Those that can recycle by means of curbside service will have a $3 addition to their monthly water bill.

Waste Management/Recycle America is North America’s largest recycler and Norman, Oklahoma’s leading option for a recycling company. Recycle America has proposed to pick up newspapers, magazines, aluminum, steel and tin cans, No.1 and 2 plastics and glass. The only withdraw is that they will not be picking up cardboard. This, however, can be easily taken care of as Norman drop-off sites do accept cardboard. The recyclable products will be picked up at the homeowner’s curbside in an 18 gallon, uncovered, bin.

While some may be worried about the start of this program, Norman’s new city manager, Steve Lewis, brought a list of 31 self-set goals to the City Council’s retreat on Saturday, Sept. 15. Included among his goals is “Ensuring the recently enacted curbside recycling program begins service on March 1.” So before the city of Norman frets of curbside recycling woes, we must remember how much closer we are to becoming environmentally-efficient than we were a year ago today.

"Don't Be Trashy, Keep Norman Classy"

Don’t Be Trashy, Keep Norman Classy
By: Kelsey Martin

Littering is an apparent problem all over the United States as citizens finish that last slip from their big gulp cup and then chunk it out the window littering Mother Earth. It was presented to my group the Women on a Mission to help conquer this problem in the City of Norman. Our goal for this campaign is to raise awareness about litter to Norman homeowners, business owners, and students, and gain support from these publics for an anti-litter movement in the city.

We first met with the Mayor of Norman, Cindy Rosenthal, who was very helpful in narrowing down our goal and publics and providing vital information about current issues being addressed about littering and what has been done in the past. Littering has been an ongoing issue in Norman and no consistent action has been taken, therefore Norman homeowners, business owners, and students have been unaware and unhelpful in combating the problem. We hope to target these three publics in hopes of creating a cleaner Norman.

Two ideas arose to target these publics including a public art project similar to the Spirit of the Buffalo contest that took place in Oklahoma City in 2004, in which business owners would purchase a trashcan and have the opportunity to decorate it and advertise their business and then during a main event these would be unveiled and distributed around the city. This would create more available trashcans in the community with no cost to the City of Norman and encourage business involvement.

Another idea targeted students who are moving off campus into new residences and unaware of the city codes and trash day regulations in the city. This is an on-going problem as student residences in Norman are looking rundown and trashy because they are uneducated about how to keep their own home. Our idea was to create a website on the City of Norman homepage that would give tips and information for these new homeowners. If possible the website would be listed in their monthly bill to spread the new website.

As our campaign progresses, we are acquiring research from past anti-litter campaigns, including the statewide Keep Oklahoma Beautiful whose mission is “to encourage, promote and assist individual and group efforts in the areas of beautification, enhancement and preservation of Oklahoma's environment”. We also distributed surveys to our three publics and received very good results to help us to better understand the perception of Norman’s litter problem which will help us in the further execution of our campaign!

WHAT YOU WANT VERSUS WHAT YOU NEED

At some point in our lives we have wanted things and know that we don’t need them. Whether it is something materialistic or not, we have all done this. For me, I know that I have way too many clothes and a lot of them still have the tags on them, but yet I still go shopping. I know that I have dedicated way too much time worrying over things that don’t matter, but yet I still find myself stressed over drama. So why is it that I always want more, and never less?

After a recent visit to The Center for Children and Families Inc., I realized how important it is to want less, so I can give more. Whether this would mean with time or donations, I can help in a significant way. This morning, we met with the CCFI team of experts who educated us on what CCFI does for the community and the families who attend on a regular basis. Honestly, I thought I would leave feeling the same way I did as I had when I first walked in through the doors. I couldn’t have been more wrong. During the tour, we were brought into the different rooms of the facility. Instead of just boring us with the minuet details, the CCFI staff decided to share with us true stories of some of their current patients. They were such heart wrenching stories that you couldn’t help but step back a moment and wonder what that would be like to have been in their position. I couldn’t even imagine.

I learned today that it is not about what you want, but what you can give.

www.ccfinorman.org

www.unitedway.org

www.okdhs.org

www.archeartok.org

www.voa.org

They're Here, You're Not Watching

"They're Here, You're Not Watching"

By: Lani Eyster

For nearly 3 years students from the Journalism and Mass Communications (JMC) program at the University of Oklahoma (OU) have volunteered their time to bring late-breaking news to people on the OU campus, in Norman, and the surrounding Metro area. Unfortunately, it is possible that the number of people working on the program might out number the people watching it. Despite being aired on Cox Cable channel 4* the program is not receiving the viewer ship it deserves, and that’s not a biased opinion based on the fact that I am part of a team working to promote the program because the program has been recognized nationally for its level of excellence.

Here is where some of the magic, if you will, happens. During our site visit we had a chance to look at the studio and take a look “behind the scenes”. I say that because all of this state-of-the-art equipment can be seen by anyone who walks through Gaylord Hall, the JMC building.

After our group meeting with Dana Rosengard, who is this director and founder of this program, to discuss what he was looking for out of the campaign I was concerned with the idea that we have such an outstanding student-run media outlet and it is not being taking advantage of by even the students. However, this year marks the beginning of a new relationship between “OU Nightly” and Sooner Football. The program is now able to produce a special edition of “OU Nightly” that is aired before kick-off each game over the jumbo-tron in front of about 80,000 people in attendance!

I am looking forward to working for such a unique client, and there certainly are a lot of areas that we can increase the number of people that are aware it exists. Although we will have difficulty measuring our success because there is no rating system for the show, I think that even if we can only get a few more people to turn it on the content and presentation of "OU Nightly" can and will speak for itself.

Keeping Norman Beautiful

Over the years, the litter problem in the City of Norman has become a constant problem. While littering seems to be a problem in most areas of the United States, Oklahoma seems to have a more obvious problem, in my opinion.

The Oklahoma City Metro has established a non-profit organization called OKC Beautiful. This organization aims at improving the image and appearance of the OKC metro through programs such as beautification, education, litter abatement, landscapes, and others.

Most people don’t seem to realize the problem in the OKC metro until they actually take the time to look around. In 2005, Skyline Media Group helped launch LitterBlitz with OKC Beautiful. This campaign worked to reduce the litter problem and enhance community awareness of the problem. Skyline’s Director of Account Services said he didn’t realize how bad the problem was until he went out and picked up a garbage bag full of trash in a mere 30 minutes.

OKC Beautiful has recognized the effects appearance can have on a city. The image of a city can affect the quality of life within the city and the self-image of its residents. Image and appearance can also directly impact a city’s economic viability.

New projects have sprung up all over the metro in attempts to grow economically. There is the construction of the shopping center in north Norman, the new theater in Moore, and the various projects in Oklahoma City, such as the MAPS projects. These attempts to increase the economic standing of cities in the metro must move along with an attempt at beautifying the area, which is what OKC Beautiful is aiming at.

http://blog.skylinemediainc.com/index.php?id=2

http://www.okcbeautiful.com/index.php

http://www.okc.gov/MAPS/index.html

http://www.warrentheatres.com/new.asp

The Best Kept Secret in Norman

The Best Kept Secret in Norman
By: Lesha Boggess


It has been nearly five weeks since my group, Team Heroes, was assigned the task of raising awareness about Center for Children & Families, Inc. (CCFI) regarding their programs and overall mission in our Public Relations Campaign course. Along the way, we have inevitably run into a few challenges but we are excited nonetheless for this experience.

We have just begun to wrap up the research phase in our campaign planning. We learned that CCFI is struggling to gain credible news coverage about all the wonderful programs they offer. Their main focus is to improve the lives of children through partnerships with families and communities, because they feel that every boy and girl deserves to grow up safe, nurtured and loved. They are the only organization of their kind in Norman, however they do have competition. Local organizations such as Boys and Girls Club and YMCA have a similar mission statement but do not offer the unique programs for child abuse and neglect that CCFI does.

They offer five programs that help children and families whoa re in jeopardy in the community: Divorce Visitation Arbitration, Neighborhood Centers, Teenage Parenting, Parents Assistance, and Extended Families. CCFI is a non-profit organization who funding comes mostly from grants and donations; they are sponsored in part by United Way

We were told that CCFI considers their organization the “best kept secret in Norman,” and now we are beginning to understand the full truth of these words, but from a public relations standpoint being a well-kept secret is not necessarily always to your advantage. They are indeed a well-kept secret; they do extraordinary things everyday as they build a foundation for generations to come. CCFI is a flourishing organization that deserves to receive attention for their hard work and dedication, we hope that Norman is ready because the best kept secret in Norman is about to be unleashed.

TUNE IN FOR THE LATEST

TUNE IN FOR THE LATEST
BY: MELIA WRIGHT

A few weeks ago in my final Public Relations class, Public Relations Campaigns, my team of five, PR4OU, was assigned to research and present a successful campaign for the University of Oklahoma student-produced news station, OU Nightly (http://tv4ou.ou.edu/newsfull.html). OU Nightly is televised on TV4OU (http://tv4ou.ou.edu/), the OU television station, twice a day, Monday through Friday. Our goal for this campaign is to raise awareness about the show and to increase viewership.

OU Nightly is an award-winning broadcast yet many people, including students of the university, are not aware of this. Despite the many awards the show holds, OU Nightly lacks not only viewership but credibility as well. Due to the fact that OU Nightly is student-produced, we currently feel as a group that many viewers will not choose OU Nightly as their news source. OU Nightly competes with large Oklahoma news stations such as KOCO, KFOR, and KWTV. It is our mission to change the public’s perception of a student-produced news station and raise the number of viewers.

From researching other successful student-produced news stations, PR4OU found that in order to be successful, OU Nightly must be set apart from all other news casts. We found something special about OU Nightly and what makes OU Nightly different from other news casts is that they found their niche in their daily “Franchise Pieces.” In order to be favored, OU Nightly must be unique and bring its own characteristics to the competitive world of news casts. OU Nightly found its uniqueness in these pieces and is a great opportunity for the show.

PR4OU spoke with Professor Dana Rosengard about what he hopes for us to accomplish during this campaign. From speaking with him we found he has high hopes for the show and hopes to air statewide soon. The Dean of the College of Journalism is working with Cox Cable on this project and Rosengard is confident that by December 2007, OU Nightly will be available statewide.

The Search Continues

The Search Continues

By: Matthew Wall

A couple of weeks ago in my Public Relations Campaigns class my group, JEWN Communications, were assigned the task of developing and conducting a full scale PR campaign for the city of Norman. Our mission: to raise awareness, participation, and communication to the residents of Norman about the newly voted approval of a curbside recycling program.

Along with raising awareness about the new curbside program our group was also concerned about Norman’s older recycling effort: the drive-by recycling centers. For some time now Norman has operated three of these drive-by recycling centers. But since Labor Day only one center remains. That center is located in the Hollywood Shopping Center on McGee Drive and Lindsey Street. The other two centers were located on the eastside of Norman and middle of historic downtown. The eastside center, which was located in a shopping center parking lot on 12th and Lindsey Street, was closed due to new ownership. The third center was located in a parking lot on 24th and Main Street and is the center that closed after Labor Day weekend.

In the wake of these closings and waiting the start of the curbside program on March 1, 2008, Norman residents are left with the inconvenience of traveling across town to drop off their recyclables. However, Norman officials have been searching diligently for a place to relocate the eastside center. On August 31, The Norman Transcript posted their two cents on where the eastside center should go saying, “We’d suggest the bins be relocated to the southeast corner of Griffin Park at 12th Avenue NE and Robinson Street. Those large parking lots sit idle for most of the week, especially now that baseball and softball seasons are over. Or, the city ought to find money to pay for some space. If the eastside recycling site brought in 617 tons of recycled material and saved that much landfill space, it seems reasonable to us that the city ought to find some of those savings and pay for the sites. When curbside recycling starts next spring, the city is asking citizens to pay to be green. Shouldn't we expect the same level of commitment from the city?”

Norman Director of Utilities Ken Kominske was interviewed by The Oklahoma Daily on September 21, 2007 and assured OU Students and residents of Norman that the city was busy looking for new locations and negotiating with some. In regards to the westside center Kominske said, “One possible [new] location is the Sooner Mall,” he also stated, “They want to promote a ‘go green’ attitude.” However, there was no mention on where the relocation of the eastside center would be.