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General Policy. It is the
policy of the Office of Society Seneschal and Vice President of
Operations that specific guidelines pertaining to interactions
with modern media organizations and staff will be set forth in
this document and subject to regular review in accordance with
the needs of the Society and our ever changing modern environment.
This policy crosses into both the ‘game’ side
of the Society, and into modern era operations. The General Policy
is to have a unified, professional approach to informing the
Media of our purpose, activities, and when necessary, a position
on relevant topics and events. To this end, the Society Seneschal
and Vice President of Operations will appoint via formal warrant
a deputy Society Seneschal and Assistant Vice President for Medial
Relations. Duties of this deputy include, but are not limited
to:
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Maintaining and monitoring the Media Relations Policy to
ensure it is within the confines of customary modern era public
relations Best Practices.
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Monitoring Media Relations Activities—as
defined below—to ensure that the best possible image and ‘face’ is
shown to modern era, organized news media.
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Assisting the Society Seneschal in ensuring
that qualified persons fill a similar role within each Kingdom
level branch.
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Assisting the Society Seneschal in ensuring
that each Kingdom level branch has sufficient policy in place
to ensure that each is in compliance with Corporate media guidelines.
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Assisting the Society Seneschal in developing
for the President and the Board of Directors official statements
that best meet the current and long-term needs of the Society.
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Developing Publicity Materials and
Basic Press Kits—as
defined below—for use by local, Regional, and Corporate
officials when interacting with media, site owners, educational
facilities, and governmental entities.
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Execution of Policy. The conduct of Media Relations
at Corporate, Society, Kingdom, and local branch levels will
be performed in accordance with the Media Relations Plan, at
Appendix 1 of this handbook.
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| Appendix 1 - Society Media Relations Plan |
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Definitions: |
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Deputy Society Seneschal and Assistant Vice President
for Media Relations. An official
representative of the SCA, Inc., warranted by the Society Seneschal
and the Board of Directors for the purpose of accomplishing
the duties outlined in Section One of this policy document.
This official reports directly to the Society Seneschal, with
matrix responsibilities to the President and the Board of Directors.
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Organized News Media. This includes but is
not limited to major television news networks and local network
affiliates, published newspapers, periodicals, print and online
media outlets and syndicated publications, radio stations and
their networks, and local free press and/or
college outlets.
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Media Relations activities. Activities involving
information gathering and distribution through organized news
media, whether the SCA, Inc., is approached by a media representative
or the media participation is sought out by our organization
via an individual, branch, or other Society representative.
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Reportable media event. Any event or happenstance
in which one or more of the following occurs:
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i. |
Media representative contacts the SCA for the purpose of doing
a news story, column, or media presentation.
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ii. |
SCA Branch or representative wishes to publicize an event or
activity in modern media venues.
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iii. |
Unfortunate occurrences that might result in media coverage,
such as
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Severe Injury or fatality |
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Incident resulting in official law enforcement being summoned
to an SCA activity.
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Negative news resulting in the organization
being displayed in an unfortunate light—e.g. destruction
of property, prominent member retained on criminal charges, etc.
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Image to the outside World. The image we wish
to portray to the outside world should reflect our goals, purpose
for existence and the finer aspects of achievement. To this end,
people asked to speak to the media should show the best of:
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Clean-cut
image |
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Professional
style |
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Knowledge of the rules, purpose, and policies of the Society
For Creative Anachronism.
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Skill at avoiding unfortunate topics. |
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Skill as a public speaker |
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Use vocabulary that is both meaningful and palatable to the public. |
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Avoid the word “Mundane.” Never use it with the
media—its patronizing and insulting. A better term is “Modern-era.”
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Never discuss the following topics with the media |
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1. |
Religion |
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Lewd behavior that can be perceived as a form of sexual harassment.
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Alcohol making, preparation, studies, distribution, sale, etc. |
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Households. |
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Media relations at the local branch level. |
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Materials to be used. Basic press kits will
be created, maintained, and distributed to Kingdoms and the Corporate
office by the Deputy Society Seneschal for Media Relations and
be made available for download online. It is always acceptable
to obtain and distribute these to the media and any interested
body.
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Additional, Event/Occurrence based materials.
Additional materials may always be requested to better meet the
specific needs of an Event, occurrence, or particular media interaction.
At a minimum these must be approved by the Kingdom-level media
representative. If the interaction is with major mainstream Media
venue, such as CNN, History Channel, etc., then the Deputy Society
Seneschal for Media Relations is the approving authority for
content and format.
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Reporting. Local individuals, branches, or
other entities should report within 7 days a media interaction
to their Kingdom representative and the seneschallate whenever
one or more of the following is true.
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i. |
Outside Media Venue requests material for a story. |
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Outside Media Venue arrives unannounced at an SCA event or activity.
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Outside Media Venue contacts the SCA regarding an ongoing news item.
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iv. |
A story—positive or negative—regarding
the SCA appears in an outside media publication.
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Media Relations at the Kingdom level. |
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Kingdom level Media Relations representative. Each
kingdom will have a designated representative responsible for
compliance to this policy. This person may or may not be an already-existing
officer—that
is left to the Kingdom to decide and manage. This person should
meet the criteria contained in Image to outside world.
When appointing this official, the Kingdom Seneschal should route
the candidate information to the Society Seneschal and Deputy
Society Seneschal for Media Relations. In the event a Kingdom
has no appointed representative, the responsibility for compliance
lies within the office of Kingdom Seneschal.
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The Kingdom level Media Relations representative will be responsible
for distributing press-kit materials to local
groups and individuals.
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The Kingdom level Media Relations representative will ensure
all reportable events are communicated to the Seneschallate as
well as the Deputy Society Seneschal for Media Relations.
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Kingdoms will ensure that events projecting either attendance
in excess of 2000 participants, or known attendance by major
media organizations, are covered by the Kingdom level Media Relations
representative.
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Reporting. The Media Relations deputy will
report through appropriate supervisory channels as follows:
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Quarterly
report of all media relations activity |
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Incident reports whenever there is an occurrence of an incident
involving items in or similar to the list under Reportable
Media Event of this Policy.
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Copies of stories, articles, newscasts, and/or televised features
should be forwarded through channels to the Deputy Society Seneschal
for Media Relations for retention in the Knowledge Base. As appropriate,
these materials will be added to the press materials available
to all branches via hard copy or the Society Seneschal Website.
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