The Value of PR in Today's U.S. Army: Hughes "Gets It"

The Value of PR in Today's U.S. Army: Hughes "Gets It"

An assertive bastion with the obligation of keeping the U.S. Army and the American people informed is the role each Army Public Affairs specialist must assume. Public Affairs fulfills the establishment of confidence in America's Army and its readiness to conduct operations in peacetime, conflict, and war.

By Ryan N. DeGiacomo

This is the oath and commitment Mark Hughes takes everyday as he serves the U.S. Army and the American people as the public affairs specialist for the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP). Hughes works as public affairs specialist on the Department of Defense’s largest explosive storage facility. Spanning 45,000 acres in southeastern Oklahoma, MCAAP is a major ammunition storage site for all branches of the Armed Forces.

Education has played a vital role in Hughes professional endeavors. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Education with a specialization in journalism in 1976 from Northeastern State University located in Tahlequah, Okla. Hughes continued his education at the U.S. Marine Corps Command & Staff College in Quantico, Va. He also took courses and earned certifications in public affairs from the University of Oklahoma. Hughes then attended the Senior Public Affairs Officers School and the Defense Information School while stationed at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Ind.

Hughes has been in the PR field as an Army Public Affairs Officer for 34 years. His media experience goes back to his Marine Corps Career from 1976 to 1996. Retiring from the Marines as a lieutenant colonel in 1996, Hughes has dealt with national and international media in these crises and exercises: Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Panama, Honduras, Okinawa, Germany, Somalia.

Since his time at MCAAP, Hughes has been in constant correspondence with national and international media. From February 2002 until March 2003, MCAAP was the recipient of news media around the world such as “Nightline” (ABC-TV), The Associated Press, and the BBC once the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan and Iraq. As the sole public affairs specialist on the installation, Hughes coordinated each media visit and escorted media throughout the plant.

When asked how he perceives the value of public relations in his organization, Hughes had an interesting and thought-provoking response. Hughes says he thinks the value of PR in any organization is vital to the organization’s success.

“The real question, however, is what does the leadership think about the value of public relations in its organization? A PR practitioner can only be as valuable as the leadership will let him or her be. To that end, public relations practitioners have to be able to define value," Hughes said, "which is why it is essential for them to be able to measure the worthiness of what they do and their ability to contribute to the bottom line.”

Hughes says after years of experience in the field, he “gets it” when it comes to the function and value of public relations in the U.S. Army.

In his professional career, Hughes has had many articles published in various government publications. In 1992, Hughes wrote “Words at War: Reflections of a Marine Corps Public Affairs Officer,” which was published in the official U.S. Army magazine, Soldiers. Hughes encourages any PR majors to consider a career with the federal government in public affairs.

Image courtesy of U.S. Army Public Affairs Web site.

Say "Bonjour" to a true People's Person.

March 10, 2010

By Jillian Manon Chopin

What can public relations do for you? Well, it can do several things including open you to an endless world of connections and possibilities and serve as the main avenue for which to reach your career goals. Angenene Gibbs Kendrick, mother of three and native of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, knows this very well.

Angenene, who is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, earned a degree in public relations from the Gaylord College of Journalism with a minor in French. Knowing Angenene personally, I have seen how welcoming she is to every person around her. She speaks French very well, and thus when she graduated I knew she was going to get any job for which she aspired.

Angenene currently serves as the City Reporter for the Sapulpa Daily Herald where she oversees several tasks including, but not limited to: producing the daily paper, generating news leads, writing various pieces, producing and gathering photography to be printed, and collaborating with the managing editor. Angenene also has the daily opportunity to use her greatly developed people skills, as she is also responsible for maintaining contact with the local publics, and keeping track of local government and sunshine laws. Angenene is most definitely fit for this position, seeing as she is quite the public relations pro and loves interacting with people on a daily basis.

On the other hand, having a career that is driven by public relations and journalism is surely a very time-consuming job, and when asked "What do you not so much love about PR?", Angenene responded by saying, "...the time away from my family."

Seeing as I will be graduating from OU in a mere two months, I asked Angenene for her best advice in jumping in to the public relations field. She urged the importance of developed skills such as formal news writing, research methods, and crisis planning; these skills being the most important and useful from which she gained at OU.

Angenene also advised me that when I do land that first job, I need to place emphasis on writing well (in AP style of course), know my media and their schedule, and always make my press releases completely relevant to the publication's public.

I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Angenene and will implement her advice in every way possible as I begin to pursue my career post graduation. I wish my fellow classmates and Angenene the best of luck!

Keeping it in the Family

Lauren Royston is the Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Housing and Food at the University of Oklahoma. Royston started out as an intern and has worked her way up to the director in the past three years. In 2007 she graduated from the Gaylord College with a bachelors degree in public relations. As a student Royston enjoyed non-profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Food and Shelter for Friends, and the Mary Abbot Children’s House. She was a regular volunteer at the Abbot House and loves giving back to the community. Although, she likes being involved in non-profits, she loves her job.

She said, “I was so lucky coming out of college and being offered a job the following summer. It was all about the hard work I put in as an intern and the timing.”

One of her biggest tasks every year is creating a reapplication campaign for current residents living in the residence halls. I was able to watch first hand how this campaign was implemented.

Royston said, “One of the most rewarding parts of my job is working for a company that believes in me and stands behind me in my decisions.”

She loves that Housing and Food has given her the ability to hire a staff of interns to teach because she thinks that internships are a vital part of getting a job. Some of the key things she believes will help public relations professionals entering the work force is great writing skills, being able to multi task, an internship, and connections. The most important thing she looks at when hiring people is their diverse skill set. For example, she would hire someone with the ability to use the adobe suite, has great writing examples in their portfolio, and has experience with photography.

Royston said, “It’s almost like you have to find a few things that set you a part from the crowd.”

I work for Housing and Food as a resident adviser, but having the opportunity to watch Royston work and promote Housing and Food’s campaign was great and really showed me how much I love working with college students. I would love to further my job in Housing and Food just like Royston did, just in the Marketing and Public Relations Department.

"Never make the same mistake twice"

March 9, 2010

"Never make the same mistake twice"

By: Katlin Francis

Jason Bodin is the Sports Information Director for the University of Oklahoma Department of Athletics. Bodin works closely with Men's Tennis as the media contact.

Relatively new to the industry, Bodin spent the last two years, post graduation, working with public relations. Prior to his current public relations employment, Bodin tried marketing. After attaining a Bachelors degree in Public Relations from OU with a minor in Classics, Bodin began working for Oil and Gas Company as a Lease Buyer.

However, Bodin was not fulfilled in his field as a Lease Buyer. He "realized even though it paid well it was not want I wanted to do." Looking for a new career, Bodin interned at OU for two years and is currently working as a graduate assistant. Bodin likes the career trajectory with OU athletics and sees a future of growth in this industry.

Despite Bodin's current successful career, he was not always satisfied with his work. After learning a few lessons the hard way, Bodin advises PR majors to know their strengths. PR majors should not be "afraid to ask questions." When in doubt always follow the associated press stylebook guidelines.

The top knowledge and skills needed for a PR professional are "1. Writing (press releases are key to the industry, if you cannot write PR is not for you) 2. Be able to communicate to a wide variety of people. 3. Networking"

Bodin learns from every situation and lives by the motto, "don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake... learn from it and never make the same mistake twice."

Photo courtesy of Jason Bodin

Love What You Do

March 8, 2010

Love What You Do

By: Shea Cannon

Larry McAlister, Partner of Crosby Volmer International Communications, has worked in the public relations industry for over 20 years. Larry began his career with one intern and a typewriter. He worked as a Sports Information Director for the Oklahoma City University. He was responsible for the publicity and promotion of 13 NCAA Division I sports. He always loved sports and he loved to write. Public relations brought those two passions together for Larry in a single career. When he began his journey in public relations, Oklahoma State did not have a public relations major, so Larry majored in Journalism with an emphasis in Advertising. He knew he wanted to work in the public relations industry from then on. No one really influenced him in his career, but he credits much of his success to a few really talented bosses who helped along the way. “My path was unconventional- certainly had a big learning curve going from a collegiate sports environment, where media was contacting us for coverage to a corporate PR environment, where we pitch media all the time. But I always knew I could write, think on my feet, and enjoyed talking to people. The rest I picked up along the way. Lots of adjustments and transitions over the past 10 to 15 years to be sure,” said Larry. He believes the most important PR professional must-haves include writing and people skills, personality, strategic thinking, and creativity. His advice to future professionals is to do what you love. Follow your passions, and in return you will be the most successful.

Busy All the Time but It's Fun

March 8, 2010

Busy All the Time but It's Fun

By: Matthew Wilson

When I came to the University of Oklahoma I didn’t know what major I wanted to choose. It was suggested to me that I check out Public Relations and when I saw the opportunities, it looked like a good idea.

When I saw that there were different fields to the PR profession and that one of those was sports PR, I got excited because Norman has one of the best sports PR offices in the nation.

Craig Moran is the assistant director contact for are women’s soccer, baseball of the OU Athletics Communications office.

Craig has been in the sports PR field for eight years and graduated for Bowling Green State University with a bachelor’s degree in sports information and a minor in journalism. He started his career as an intern for the University of Detroit-Mercy and with the Toledo Storm hockey team.

Craig started work at OU as the contact for the men’s and women’s gymnastics team and then was hired fulltime as the contact for women’s soccer and baseball.

“I was very excited to land my first full-time position at a large Division I university,” said Moran. “After working a few years at smaller schools and in minor league hockey, I felt like all of the hard work had finally paid off.”

When observing what he does for a brief period of time, it is clear that Craig works very hard with the day-to-day operations of the communications professional. SoonerSports.com is the key tool to get information out to the public for the OU Athletics Communications office.

According to Craig, “A lot of the old school methods continue to get weeded out. Instead of solely providing information for the media, we are becoming our own news source and trying to drive more and more traffic to our web site.”

For any future professional out there, Craig says that a sports PR professional always must be on the search for new ways to reach the public, like OU Athletics on Twitter and Facebook.

“I knew working as an intern at Oklahoma would lead to good things. That is exactly why I took the job in the first place,” added Moran. “But I didn’t see myself staying longer than a year or two, and never would have expected seven years now working in not only one of best communication offices in the nation, but one of the best athletics departments.”

Watching Craig I realized that each day Craig wakes up and gets to work around sports. Growing up in Norman, this is a job that could be a dream come true for me. If you are looking for a job that you could love, this would definitely be it.

The image of OU is courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Athletic Department