Basics

I'm currently reading a book about public relations to help me in getting this club going. I was worried that I wasn't updating the facebook page enough to keep members interested and properly informed, so I checked out a book called Public Relations by James S. Norris, written in 1984. Why 1984? Because I wanted a book that came before the internet. I wanted a book that talked about the basics of public relations without complicating it with new technology.

In the theatre lighting world, there are a great number of moving-light programmers who think they are hot stuff. They think that because they can program movers in their sleep, they are awesome designers. This is not the case. Most of them are poor designers because they don't know the basics–what came before the technology. The moral is this: start simple. The best lighting designers can design beautifully using lights made of 100 watt bulbs stuck in old coffee cans–they don't need $6,000 lighting instruments. They may not be up to speed on technology, but the design is solid.

The same with other areas like PR. The internet and facebook are technologies, I need to design. I need to have a solid foundation, one step at a time, starting from the basics. Teach me how to manage PR with paper and ink, and I'll bring it up to speed myself.