Serving the Boaters of America PROLOG P/R/C Greg Scotten, SN

Volume 2, Issue 2 May 2012

Marketing and Public Relations, The Art and Science of Creating LINKS (Click on selected Link) a Call to Action and Causing a Change.

The United States Power Squadrons PR Contest Forms

Boating Safety Centennial Anniversary Articles Cabinet Serving the Boaters of America PROLOG P/R/C Greg Scotten, SN

The United States Power Squadrons is Inside this issue: celebrating 100 years of community Jacksonville Sail & Power service on 1 February 2014. Your Squadron to conduct a celebratory USPS Centennial 1 squadron needs to be part of that boat parade on the St. John’s important Centennial event which is a River. national milestone. To celebrate this Bright Ideas 2 national milestone, several projects are The Power Squadrons Flag and underway and a national anniversary Etiquette Committee has designed Importance of 3 a unique boat Ensign, which Squadron Editors web page will post exciting activities and information. The Power Squadrons’ emphasizes the event, and is to be MPR Committee 3 Ship Store will be featuring items with flown on members’ vessels in 2013 Mission the 100th Anniversary Logo. An and 2014. A special new Power anniversary postal commemorative is Squadrons logo has been under discussion. All levels of the distributed and is available on line. organization are planning local 2012 Governing 4 A year long ceremonial activity is community activities. Board planned. At the 2013 Annual The precise anniversary day is Sunday, Meeting Governing Board, full sized anniversary Ensigns will be Hands-on Training 6 2 February 2014. But because the Governing Board at the Annual Meeting presented to each of the thirty- two districts. Then, in anticipation of Committee 7 is held on Saturday, the climactic Contacts celebration will be conducted a day the 2014 Annual Meeting, each early. The Hyatt Regency of squadron will create unique ribbon Jacksonville, Florida is preparing a streamers of specified dimensions major party for members. The city is to affix to their district’s Ensign. planning to post signs throughout the town and is working with the (Continued on Page 2, USPS Centennial)

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FLY THE ENSIGN: A SOURCE OF NATIONAL RECOGNITION Bright Ideas

Stf/C Glen Sherman, P

Are you using the USPS national identity and logo as your primary identity?

Often squadrons use their squadron name first, or as their only identity and ignore the USPS national name and logo. We all love our local squadrons, but this makes neighboring squadrons look like small local organizations that are in competition with each other. We are stronger and more respected when we present ourselves as one large national organization that has many local chapters. (The United States Power Squadrons boating course will be presented in Anytown by MyLocalSquadron.)

USPS Centennial, (Continued from page 1)

Finally, on 1 February 2014 the districts will parade their Ensigns with accompanying streamers in a flag presentation to celebrate this significant anniversary. All members are encouraged plan on a year of celebration programsCan youfor their find communities. your squadron Local web site on different search engines? municipal proclamations, appearances at the meetings of civic and marine organizations, and presentations Google, through AOL, Yahoo,boating Bing safety and equipment others won't automatically find your site, you must sub- mitdemonstration it. You can simplifydays are thisitems by at submitting the top of theto www.dmoz.org list. It and once accepted it will show up onis veryall of important the others to automatically involve the community in about 8 weeks. which What search words can you use (other than thethe site squadron or squadron serves name) during to this find wonderful your site? year. Search engines use keywords (meta tags), URL (web address), page title, site description, page text, links and other information for their search crite- ria, but each assigns a different order of importance to these pieces of information in their search. Be sure you have the correct information in each location on your site so you can be found using the desired search terms from any search engine. Page 3 KEEPING UP

FLY THE ENSIGN:The AImportance SOURCE OF of Squadron Editors P/R/CNATIONAL Greg Scotten, RECOGNITION SN The Marketing/PR Committee publishes articles of interest to boaters that are written by its members and published in regional media outlets. The committee’s mission is to serve the squadrons with the boating skills message so it maintains these articles for squadron access. Because squadron editors are often looking for ideas for their publications, the Committee has contacted every listed squadron editor and attached five recent articles and informed them that the media release archives are open to them. In this file there are over fifty articles covering a wide variety of boating information. These can be copied from the committee’s page at USPS.org under "Marketing/PR" listed in the "Site Index". On the page the "Media Releases" link is in a left hand column. They can also go directly to the archive page by copying the following address to the address space that is usually at the top of their internet access page. http://www.usps.org/national/pr/media3.html All are invited to take these articles and, if useful, revise them for the local area. You may also revise the final paragraph to identify local contacts. The only requirement is that you give credit to the article's originator and to the publication in which it appeared, if listed. Already the response to this program is very supportive. The following comments were received from six squadron editors “This is great, thanks for sharing these articles.” “Thank you for the media releases. Much appreciated.” “This is a Godsend. Thank you very much. I have missed many deadlines for publication date because of lack of material. This is HUGE!” “Thank you! These look like some great articles.” “This is a great idea and a terrific help. Thanks for doing it.” Can you find your squadron web site on different search engines? “I appreciate all the help I can get. Please put me on your communications list.”

Please contact Google, us AOL, for any Yahoo, information. Bing and others won't automatically find your site, you must sub- mit it. You can simplify this by submitting to www.dmoz.org and once accepted it will show up on all of the others automatically in about 8 weeks. What search words can you use (other than Thethe site MPR or squadron Committee name) to find Mission: your site? Search engines use keywords (meta tags), URL (web

address), page title, site description, page text, links and other information for their search crite- 1) to assist squadrons ria, but each assigns a different order of importance to these pieces of information in their search. 2)Be to sure promote you have the correct programs information of the in each National location onEducation your site so Department;you can be found and, using the desired search terms from any search engine. 3) to present the name of the United States Power Squadrons as THE national authority on boating education. Page 4 KEEPING UP

TheFLY following THE is ENSIGN:a reprint of pages A SOURCE from the OF 2012 Governing Board Newsletter. Learn more about this important event by visiting the web page NATIONAL RECOGNITION at: http://www.usps.org/php/reservations/meetings.php

Can you find your squadron web site on different search engines?

Google, AOL, Yahoo, Bing and others won't automatically find your site, you must sub- mit it. You can simplify this by submitting to www.dmoz.org and once accepted it will show up on all of the others automatically in about 8 weeks. What search words can you use (other than the site or squadron name) to find your site? Search engines use keywords (meta tags), URL (web address), page title, site description, page text, links and other information for their search crite- ria, but each assigns a different order of importance to these pieces of information in their search. Be sure you have the correct information in each location on your site so you can be found using the desired search terms from any search engine. Page 5 KEEPING UP

FLY THE ENSIGN: A SOURCE OF NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Can you find your squadron web site on different search engines?

Boats and cars share something in common; Scott McDonald an officer of the Houston Sail & Power Squadron told the dozen or so folks gathered in a room at the squadron’s building on a recent Saturday morning. "They both have a steering wheel;" said McDonald,. "But when you're talking about how they operate - their handling characteristics and what it takes to safely operate them - that's just about where the similarities end." “Operating a boat requires its own set of skills, Instructor Bill Carr, left, offers boat handling techniques to stu- knowledge and mental agility, all of which are dents Cindy Meeh, Linda Witig and Art Perez during a hands-on truly learned and developed only by experience boat handling course offered by the nonprofit United States Pow- at the helm of a boat. You can learn only so er Squadrons. Photo: Shannon Tompkins / HC much in a classroom. Until you're on the water and get a chance to actually operate a boat, it's hard to understand what a boat does and why," This philosophy was the reason why the The need for practical, hands-on boating squadron established “Practical On-the-Water training is considerable, especially for novice Training,” a new, nationwide program aimed at boaters or those looking to get into the integrating classroom training in boat handling recreation. Unlike state requirements that and safety with hands-on boat operation under motor-vehicle drivers, must both pass a the tutelage of trained instructors. written test and an “on the road” driving test to qualify for a driver’s license, many states still do not have a written testing requirement for boat operators and none require the demonstration of “on the water” operating skills before getting behind a boats helm. U.S. Coast Guard statistics on 2010 boating indicate that "Operator Inexperience" was the third most common factor in boating accidents. Of the 4,144 boating accidents involving injuries or fatalities in which the experience of the boat operator was known, almost 550 involved those with little or no previous experience. Few of those boat Art Perez handles a docking spring line as instructor Bill Carr oversees operators even had classroom training. Cindy Meeh's docking practice while Linda Wittig observes. The Houston Sail and Power Squadron plans to offer these one-day hands-on training (Continued on Page 5) sessions at least once a month. Photo: Shannon Tompkins / HC Page 7 KEEPINGBusiness Tagline or Motto UP

Ahead of a one-day program, participants sign up for a course and receive a package of boating education materials - booklet and videos - covering all aspects of boat handling and safety. Certified volunteer instructors, take participants through lessons in basic boating, including equipment, Committee operation, basic maneuvers, Contacts: docking, low and high-speed operation, and safety. With this background, those who complete the V/C Robert Baldridge, SN classroom activities put those Executive Department, Chair lessons to practical use on the water. [email protected] The Practical On-the-Water R/C Ken Voight, AP Training program's integration of MPRCom Chair actual on-the-water experience with [email protected] classroom instruction is a much- Stf/C Glen Sherman, P needed step forward in boating MPRCom Ass’t Chair [email protected] education, McDonald said. "What they learn on the water gives them Instructor Bill Carr expalins boat handling charac- Stf/C Ken Henry, SN the basic tools, talent and teristics to Linda Wittig and Cindy Meeh as they MPRCom Ass’t Chair confidence you can't get just hearing get hands-on experience in the way boats handle [email protected] and how wind, current and other factors influence someone talk about it." that handling. Photo: Shannon Tompkins / HC Stf/C Flo Smith, SN To learn more about competent MPRCom Ass’t Chair [email protected] boating, contact the boating experts of the United States Power P/R/C Bob Green, N MPRCom PROLOG Squadrons. Look for their local rgreen9934@aol.com notices or go to the national website at www.USPS.org. There is no P/R/C Greg Scotten, SN MPRCom Publications greater boating confidence builder [email protected] than earning the Boat Operator’s Certificate. P/Stf/C Bob Stein, AP MPRCom Newsletter Editor [email protected] As its members tell us: ““Boating is fun…We’ll show you how.” P/C Terry Green, JN MPRCom Asst Editor Revised from an original article that [email protected] appeared in The Houston Chronicle