Tell us a little about yourself? Hometown? Family?

Volunteer Chapter PRSA President-Elect Chelsey Riemann, APR, (L) presents a PRSA Award of Excellence in April 2012 to Amy Schwinge (R)

I am a hometown girl; I was born and raised in Knoxville.  With the exception of living in Atlanta for about nine years, I have lived in Knoxville all of my life.  I am married to Guy, and we have two young children:  our daughter, Jade, and our son, Levi.  They are my world!

What was your first job?

My very first job was working for one of my favorite uncles in a concession stand at the UT football stadium.  It was a lot of fun; we all would take turns watching the game too. Nepotism was not an issue as most everyone who worked there was a member of the family—mostly cousins and my brother too.

My first PR job was an unpaid internship for the East Tennessee Special Technology Access Center; this experience helped me obtain three other internships during my undergrad college years, including overseeing the newsletter for the Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at UT, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Did your collegiate life prepare you for your current job?

Yes!  In addition to the great curriculum, the required internships definitely prepared me for my career, including my current job. When I was at UT in PR, a minimum of two internships were required to graduate.  My internships proved invaluable to me.  I know they put me a step ahead and helped me land a communications position at Boeing in Oak Ridge right after I received my undergrad degree. This was my first “real” job after I graduated.

How long have you been with MBWC?

I started performing some project work for MBWC in late fall of 2006 after I left the General Motors Southeast Regional Communications office in the Atlanta area.  I served as MBWC’s satellite office in Atlanta for almost two years.

Why did you join MBWC?

After GM moved the Southeast Regional office 26 miles north of Atlanta, it took me an hour and a half EACH WAY to get to and from work.  I just couldn’t take the drive and missing that time with my family and young daughter at the time.  That is when I started doing project work for MBWC while I was still in the Atlanta area.  Then, after my husband was offered a job in Knoxville, Mary Beth offered me a position at her office in Maryville.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

I just don’t care for fake people; just be yourself.  The truth will come out sooner or later anyway…

What was your favorite tradition during your childhood?

I loved to picnic with family and friends in the Cades Cove area of the mountains.  We also would ride horses and drive around the loop.  Wonderful memories!

What is your favorite quote?

Today is a gift; that is why it is called the present.

What do you like most about working at MBWC?

I enjoy the people—both at MBWC and the clients we work with.  I also love the flexible work schedule, which helps me achieve better work/life balance.  There is never a dull moment.  I like performing work for a variety of diverse clients.  No two days are the same!

Who has had the greatest impact on your professional career?

My parents who instilled in me that I could do anything that I wanted to if I just tried hard enough.

If you could give any professional advice to someone who is graduating this month, what would it be?

Never give up or burn any bridges with friends, professors or co-workers! It is amazing how you will cross paths with various people throughout your career. Always, continue to learn as much as you can!  Embrace lifelong learning; consider an advanced degree, technical training, accreditation or training/seminars offered through work.  Keep up with trends and new technology as it becomes available. Most of all, enjoy every minute of it; it goes by fast!

In my early career, I worked in corporate communications for a highly successful company that managed private-sector prisons, jails and detention facilities for local, state and federal government agencies across the U.S. – and even some facilities internationally.

The experience provided my first front-line experience with seeing just how complicated controversies and crises could be.  

I remember one occasion in Florida where the company was seeking to site a county jail facility in a fairly rural area.  The local Chamber of Commerce decided to host a community forum for the public to discuss the issue with elected officials. 

Off I was sent to Florida to help represent the company, where I fully expected to hear diverse points of view.  In my naiveté at the time, I had no idea the level of raw emotion I would see thrown in the company’s face – or mine – from picket signs and near-tearful opposition testimonies to venom-eyed stare-downs by people I’d never met before.   I left the event that night with local law enforcement escorting me to my car and my hoping that no one followed my co-workers and me back to our hotel.

That was in the mid- to late-1990s.  Our company didn’t even use external e-mail at the time.  To that point, I certainly didn’t know what I didn’t know back then . . . that in terms of complicated, I’d seen nothing yet. 

Interestingly, though, in the area of staging protests, many of the same tactics of yesteryear remain firmly entrenched in the toolbox of people who wish to organize around a common cause and state their case in as big a way as possible.

When a company or organization is confronted with a protest movement of any sort, there are several rules of thumb:

• Take it seriously, even if it’s small or seemingly disorganized.  Controversies can morph into crises quickly, and you never know how it might evolve and gain steam quickly. 
• Get at the heart of the matter.  Establish a point of contact within the group’s leadership.  What is the protest about, and does it have legitimacy?  Identify all of the protestor messages that involve your organization, its performance, its policies, etc. . . . whatever the situation involves. 
• Engage legal counsel.  While PR and legal experts sometimes disagree about certain aspects of responding to protest movements – particularly how communications should be handled to avoid liability issues – it’s still important to have all voices at the table for the full management team to make informed decisions. 
• Determine if there are indeed issues that need to be addressed publicly.  If the protest organization is small, contained and/or seems to be operating with a logical mindset (which sometimes isn’t the case), it could be prudent to work with the group on a one-to-one basis to address their issues, which in rare instances can nip the whole issue in the bud without a public spectacle.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, however, “fringe” groups can pose risks completely apart from the apparent issue at hand.  Be aware if security or law enforcement needs to be contacted.
• If the protest movement has little to no legitimacy with regard to the validity of its claims or otherwise includes protestors who behave unreasonably or erratically, be careful about interactions or communications that inadvertently lend credence to the protestors where none is deserved.
• At the same time, maintain a consistent undertone of respect, restraint and control – particularly with media communications. 
• Keep your message simple, direct and above all, honest.
• Avoid public “forums” for discussing the issues at hand – harkening back to my Florida experience.  Generally, the only winners of those things are the protestors.  In areas of government, it’s often difficult or impossible to avoid these situations resulting from sunshine laws and governance requirements – in which case, the critical factors are detailed preparation, clear messaging and as much control over the venue as possible.

Above all – you need to remain proactive enough that you’re staying in control of your own organization’s actions and communications and not being manipulated by others.  By being responsive from the onset, these issues potentially can be contained and, hopefully, successfully concluded.

Last week, Mary Beth West outlined in the first installment of “Crisis or Controversy? Understand the Difference in PR” a series of actions every public relations practitioner needs to take when confronted with a potential company crisis.

Those key points are worth repeating here: 

• “Think through a Top 10 list of things that have happened or could happen to your company, along with their likelihood of happening in the future.  Don’t forget to look at competitors’ past crisis situations and resulting media coverage as well.
• Evaluate each scenario by the laws of cause-and-effect.  If X happens, then who is impacted?  What are the stakeholder numbers, and how large are their spheres of influence? 
• Which scenarios have the greatest possibility to damage reputation and brand – not just operations and infrastructure?  Good insurance can cover a factory fire in a matter of months; brand damage can last decades.”

A key element of executing the above actions is in making sure you have the facts. Often, this aspect is the greatest challenge of all in your analysis.

Whenever I was thrust into a company crisis situation, I recalled the words of a former journalism instructor: “The facts and nothing but the facts.” This same instructor was a stickler for preaching about making sure you had a second – and sometimes, even a third – corroborating source.

Gathering this information in the face of a burgeoning crisis adds to the stressfulness of the situation, but it is critical to guide you through the three steps Mary Beth recommends.

Without the proper information, a potential controversy could actually explode into a crisis.

Good media relations coverage doesn’t just happen – it’s planned.

All right, all right . . . is this the case every time? No, but it certainly makes things a whole lot easier for PR professionals and journalists when the message is a good fit for both that specific media outlet and the PR firm’s clients.

Simply put: media relations is a two-way street.

It’s one of many public relations strategies used to communicate client messages. Sure, it’s simple enough to throw together a quick media campaign, but without the proper research, thorough dialogue with the client and goal-setting initiatives to reach specific outcomes and target audiences, what’s the point?

Media relations messaging should be purposeful and beneficial for every client, every time. Why?

At Mary Beth West Consulting, we will advise a client if we have reservations about pitching a certain story angle. The last thing our media relations team wants to do is send a potentially weak pitch or a “not-so-newsworthy” release to local journalists with whom we’ve developed a trustworthy relationship to simply “get the client’s name out there.” 

Media contacts do not like their time wasted, and weak content put forth by a client (or their PR firm) does exactly that. 

It is, however, absolutely necessary to dig deep and find the best hook possible to tell each client’s story, which in the end is a win-win for everyone involved.

On some issues of heavy consequence in the public relations profession, it sometimes helps to take a step back and watch the dialogue unfold before formulating an opinion.  I had been doing just that on the Susan G. Komen / Planned Parenthood controversy – until today.  Now, it all seems crystal-clear.

Like everyone else, I saw the maelstrom unfold last week throughout the media.  The manner in which the story broke and how the Komen organization reacted with a policy about-face – followed by tough criticism (“they caved!”) – provides a public relations case study that will live in textbooks throughout the next decade. 

An interesting part about it to me, though, is that different public relations professionals are drawing diverse conclusions about who’s right, who’s wrong, and what the real lessons are relative to brand, reputation and effective organizational decision-making. 

One of my PRSA colleagues, Michael Cherenson, APR, Fellow PRSA, posted an entry on the Public Relations Society of America‘s national blog, “Who Really Owns the Komen Brand?”  In it, Mike makes some spot-on observations about the nature of brand advocacy.  He also poses a critical question in his title.  

I disagree, however, with the direction of his conclusion, in which he seems to indicate that Komen simply made a bad decision to no longer support Planned Parenthood, leaving a majority of former Komen supporters feeling betrayed and turning on the brand.  

To me, the answer of who owns the Komen brand – or at least who seized ownership of it last week – is quite simple:  Planned Parenthood.  

It’s Planned Parenthood’s own brand advocates, in my view, who mounted nothing short of a hostile takeover of the Komen brand in order to railroad their message – and their way – with absolute political genius . . . the notion of tying the breast cancer prevention issue intrinsically with women’s reproductive rights vis-à-vis Komen’s prior financial support of Planned Parenthood, with a deep inference that the two cannot be separated.  

In the face of Komen rescinding its funding, Planned Parenthood made an exceptionally swift, underlying case that Komen was turning its back on women.   And the media ate it up with a spoon, as Planned Parenthood well-knew they would.  The Komen folks didn’t know what hit them, with almost total deer-in-the-headlights confusion as to the messaging subterfuge overtaking their reputation. 

I have to ask the question, was it really Komen donors who were posting all those “Never will I give again!” messages on Facebook, or was it the Planned Parenthood Army?  We’ll see what the coming days of analysis into the Internet record bears out. 

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal posted an editorial late last night that gives a far better reality-based assessment of Komen’s rationale for its original decision:

“Planned Parenthood has been and is under congressional and criminal investigation (by attorneys general, local prosecutors and various regulatory agencies in Arizona, Indiana, Alabama, Kansas and Texas) for allegations including failure to report criminal child sex abuse, misuse of health-care and family-planning funds, and failure to comply with parental-involvement laws regarding abortions. . . . It is easy to see why Komen might not wish to be associated with Planned Parenthood. Fighting breast cancer is something all Americans can and do agree on; promoting and performing abortions is something that divides us bitterly.” 

In short, there are two sides to this issue, and Komen’s side got completely hijacked. 

Another colleague of mine posted an essay yesterday that, to me, spoke with a great deal of clarity about the real issue at hand for Komen: lack of conviction. 

With characteristic aplomb, Susan Hart, APR, wrote, “Last week’s nightmare of ‘they fund us, they fund us not’ isn’t about funding at all. It’s about who the Susan G. Komen Foundation is. It’s about the organization’s values, priorities and purpose. It’s the up close and personal part of branding that decidedly determines who you are and what you stand for regardless of public sentiment.  And therein lies the multi-level problem for this pink-until-you-puke group.”

Love it. 

And she’s absolutely right. 

It’s not without a bit of odd coincidence that our company’s scheduled blog posts for the month of February are set to take on the theme “Demonstrating Value: Transparency and Accountability in Client Services”. . . when one of the biggest executive compensation flaps in recent Knoxville history is unfolding right now. 

At almost this very time two years ago (January 2010), I wrote a blog post, “The Reputational Fallout of Compensation Run Amok,” prompted at the time by a Barron’s article on the topic of out-of-control executive compensation on Wall Street and Washington’s reaction to it.

Whether an organization is public or private-sector, for-profit or non-profit, executive compensation disclosures can take a real toll on relationships with stakeholders, if compensation levels as well as policies aren’t within some reasonable range of public expectations, particularly given the scale of the organization and the context of its work performance.

Of course, you can’t please everyone on this topic.  Some folks misguidedly think anyone working in the non-profit sector shouldn’t make more than $50K a year.  Non-profits that seek to operate with the performance-driven approach of highly competitive companies generally have to pay quite well to attract commensurate talent in keeping with expectations.

As with practically everything else that can impact public attitudes and opinions, balance is the name of the game. 

Board decisions should be made with an underlying expectation that all information is subject to public disclosure and scrutiny and should let that knowledge serve as some form of guidance on executive compensation parameters.

Well, it’s been a sad day.

After hoping against hope that the inevitable would not materialize, it did today when one of my former companies, Eastman Kodak, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As other retirees, I am wondering about the fate of my benefits, but using the planning skills I learned at the company, I think I am prepared for this day.

Plan development was just one of the learning experiences I had at “The Yellow Box.”

Much of my brand management background came from working with colleagues who had spent time at P&G, SC Johnson, Lever and Gillette. I was fortunate to work for a future and now former Kodak CEO – Dan Carp. Another of my senior managers – Bob Keegan – went on to to be the successful president, CEO and chairman of Goodyear. Two of my other bosses became CMOs – one at Coca Cola and another at Levi Strauss. I also got the chance to work with some of the most talented advertising agencies in the industry – J. Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy.

Unbelievably, they paid me to go to the office every day to get a business and marketing education that I use all the time here at Mary Beth West Consulting to help our clients improve their business performance.

I literally saw the world, thanks to Kodak. My company work assignments took me to Japan, Europe and Latin America. I used to boast that “I had worked on four continents for the fourth most-recognized brand in the world.” The fourth most-recognized brand boast is kind of an empty one now, but the experience of living and working aboard changed my perspective on how to effectively manage and interact with people. It also enhanced my appreciation for our country and the benefits of being an American.

The six years my wife, two sons and I lived in London while I was director of marketing communications for Kodak’s Europe, Africa and Middle East Region has left a lifelong impression on all of us. Like all multi-national companies, Kodak paid for the educations of dependent children. Both of my sons received educations at that American School in London that ensured their entry into top-tier colleges and universities. Their London legacy has followed them into their career fields, helping them secure jobs and assignments based on their personal international experiences.

I recognize I have been very fortunate in many ways, and not all ex-Kodakers have fared well in transitioning to “life after Kodak.” But many have parlayed the opportunities the company afforded to forge new businesses and totally different careers.

In this day and age, no company can promise you employment forever, but it should provide you the chance to improve your skill set and your employability.

Kodak did that for me. Thank you, Kodak.

RSCI is an Oak Ridge business-education partnership working with middle school teachers in nine East Tennessee school systems to improve students’ STEM skills, based on the new statewide math and science curriculum.

“We welcome teachers, parents and business leaders to discover more about RCSI through the new website and to support this innovative program to achieve real gains in STEM learning for East Tennessee students,” said Gary Goff, president of Roane State Community College and a RCSI co-founder with Barry Stephenson of Oak Ridge-based Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, Inc.

The nine East Tennessee school systems included in the RCSI project are the Anderson, Campbell, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Scott County school systems and the separate school systems of Lenoir City, Oneida and Clinton.  RCSI is also supported by the East Tennessee Economic Council (ETEC).

“The just-launched RCSI website aims to provide a one-stop shop for promoting math and science curricula within these nine rural school systems, and even beyond,” said Goff.

RCSI’s website – written and designed with full in-kind support by Nashville-based Locomotion Creative and Maryville, Tennessee-based Mary Beth West Consulting, LLC – links to the organization’s Facebook page and also provides a blog, media room, partnership opportunities, donor appreciation and teacher testimonials.  

Companies and individuals can participate in an Adopt-a-Classroom program to deliver “Lab-in-a-Box” kits to specific classrooms.  Tax-deductible corporate and individual donations to help fund RCSI can be made through the Roane State Foundation by calling (865) 882-4507. For more information, visit www.ruralstem.org.

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With education reform being the hot-button topic in many political, educational, professional and parental circles lately, I can only imagine what the fruits of those discussions might actually bear. My hope is that it’s not the topic-du-jour, but rather a permanent dialogue that remains top-of-mind for years to come.

If you happen to follow Bill Frist, former Tenn. Senator and founder of SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education), on Twitter (@bfrist), you might have read his startling tweet from Aug. 1:

“#Education & #globalhealth vitally linked: 7 million #AIDS cases could be prevented in decade if every child received an education.”

That statistic floored me – seven million AIDS cases could be prevented in a decade if every child received an education?

I then thought to myself: when possible, we as public relations professionals should throw philanthropic support behind worthwhile local and national movements, and do so in a respectful, meaningful and bipartisan manner.

In 2008, our agency (MBWC) began working with the Blount Education Initiative to promote education as the number one priority in Blount County. Recently, MBWC partnered with the Rural Communities STEM Initiative (RCSI) to promote the July 28 pilot training for RCSI’s “Lab-in-a-Box” program designed to provide innovative teaching tools to math and science teachers from nine rural communities in East Tennessee.

For me, one of the most professionally gratifying experiences occurred during my time as the media relations and project director of the Metropolitan Drug Commission (MDC), a non-profit substance abuse prevention agency in Knoxville, Tenn.

One of the goals I outlined during the RFP process for a grant from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth was to institute an anti-drug after-school club at Fulton High School (FHS) – an inner-city school in the heart of Knoxville that has seen its fair share of crime, drugs and truancy. I met with the principal, secured a club sponsor and campaigned in the lunch room for students to join the club (formerly known as PRIDE, but now called Youth Above the Influence).

That was 2006, when their graduation rate wasn’t even at 50 percent – fast-forward to 2011 and the club is still going strong.

So, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw a recent news clip on FHS regarding their improved No Child Left Behind (NCLB) status. For several years, FHS had been receiving poor marks on their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Reports, but in May managed to graduate 82 percent of its students.  The inner-city school also met federal progress standards in math and English, too. 

I’d like to think that maybe in some small way I, along with the MDC, are at least a small part of the reason students are striving for betterment in their lives, thus doing well in their studies which then reflects well upon their school.

I’m also proud of the work Mary Beth West Consulting has a hand in locally – Maryville City Schools Foundation, Emory Valley Center and the East Tennessee Economic Council to name a few.

What kind of philanthropic hats do you like to wear? Does your company support area non-profits or national movements?

By Joe Bogardus

Last month, Mary Beth West Consulting (MBWC) was recognized by the local Public Relations Society of America with 12 awards of excellence for work conducted in 2010.

Three of those honors went for the work our team did for our client, Rainscapes, an Irrigation Association-certified contractor in Greater Knoxville.

In late spring of 2010, the president of Rainscapes approached MBWC about helping him organize his marketing efforts for his company alongside Duck Irrigation, a company he had acquired that year.

• After a discovery process with the client, we drafted a comprehensive marketing communications plan that started with defining his brand, focusing on a strategy and implementing a series of actionable tactics. The plan was integrated, compact and on-budget, ensuring a range of activities for the company during its peak business season.
• In addition to recommending that the client consolidate his company under the Rainscapes brand, we worked in partnership with T2 Design to devise a new logo and website for Rainscapes. The site activity increased dramatically, thanks to improved SEO features and logical content presentation. By the end of 2010, Rainscapes’ website visitations had jumped tenfold.
• With an overarching campaign underway that included media relations, social media and a community recognition program, MBWC planned a direct mail program to attract new customers to the brand. A series of mailers was created, first, to announce the new merged companies and then to promote certain Rainscapes seasonal services.

Each of the above elements received PRSA honors for the quality and substance in approach, methodology, content and results.  All these elements were critical to reinventing the Rainscapes brand.

Finally, we all know awards are nice, but how did all this activity track in the marketplace? In 2010, Rainscapes’ revenue was up 110 percent, and profitability increased to 190 percent.

That’s reinvention!