Member Groups should publicise their events and generally raise awareness about BCS. BCS Swindon have a PR team that can help with guidance for local campaigns, please refer to the PR guidance document http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/pr-guidelines.pdf
However, Member Groups should always confine their publicity output to news-related content (eg events, local awards, collaborations, etc), and be careful to avoid statements that include (or might reasonably be interpreted as implying) any policy or position-taking announcement by BCS - without first consulting the HQ PR Team.
Comments
PR & advertising
Submitted by John Mitchell on
The examples at the bottom of http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/pr-guidelines.pdf may benefit from updating.
PR and advertising change of policy.
Submitted by Geoffrey McMullen on
I think the initial "However" is redundant. THe setnence stands well without it.
There should be some indication at the end of how the PR team might react and how their formal approval will be given.
PR and advertising change of policy
Submitted by Peter Buchanan on
Thanks Geoffrey,
I agree that the word However is redundant. It will be removed.
It's a bit hard to guess in advance how the HQ PR team may respond, it is very dependant on what a Member Group would like to say. It would make sense to include a group email address so that Member Groups would know how to make contact with the HQ PR team.
Peter Buchanan (as Chair of the membership Board POlicy Committee)
PR & Advertising
Submitted by Stuart Anderson on
The success of a Charity, is in leveraging the Volunteer force. In an International setting, HQ can not hope to control the Social Media messaging. A strategy that supports the education and empowerment of the BCS Groups would be more effective and powerful in engaging the Global Volunteer membership. Think about changing the use of Rules to something that embodies 'Integration', 'Working Together', 'Empowerment' etc.
PR & advertising
Submitted by Bob Hughes on
This is reasonable if member groups can meet this requirement by having a standard declaration that the content does not imply any policy or position-taking by BCS. Part of the role of BCS specialist groups should be to evaluate IT techniques, practices and policies as responsible professionals. As such there should be room for open debate and perhaps even heated argument. If the PR & Marketing function is to take on a censorship role, then the value of BCS as a serious professional body will be be undermined.
PR & advertising
Submitted by Irene Glendinning on
It is not clear why this change is needed and what it adds to the existing guidelines. Have there been cases where this kind of thing has happened? If so, had this new rule been in place, would it have been avoided?
There is an apparent perception that some member group committee members cannot be trusted to follow their own judgement when publicising events and that policing is needed. The next stage would be asking for all publicity to be pre-approved before release, which in my view certainly would be a step too far.
PR & Advertising
Submitted by Len Keighley on
I Agree. It is difficult to understand, should the member group be covering a specialist subject, why their view would not be that of the BCS? This seems to be suggesting that the BCS PR & Advertising functions know more about a topic than the members that specialise in that topic?