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Communications plans provide blueprint for success

By Anna Marie Kukec

Bar association communications plans range from an overall plan to promote the bar to a targeted plan that focuses on a specific initiative. While consultants say communications plans are vital to the implementation of a bar’s goals, many associations still do not have any.

About 20 state and 32 local bar associations have some type of formal public relations/communications plan, according to the 1998 Bar Activities Inventory, compiled by the American Bar Association Division for Bar Services. Bar leaders who have these blueprints in hand feel they are closer to achieving the goals of the bar.

The Florida Bar has created three different communications plans: one for the bar as a whole; another for specific initiatives; and an ongoing plan for crisis management, according to Park Trammell of Tallahassee, director of the Communications Division.

The five-year Master Plan, an overall strategy for the bar, was approved by the Board of Governor’s Communications Committee two years ago. (Since 1989, the bar has had a Master Plan that had been revised on occasion.)

Another involves special projects or initiatives. For example, this year’s presidential theme was incorporated into a yearlong project called Restoring Public Confidence Initiative.

The third type is the bar’s Crisis Management/Disaster Response Plan, which originated in 1988 and is updated each July when new officers take office. This is a blueprint for the bar’s legal assistance outreach to victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and plane crashes.

"We need a major framework, which is our Master Plan, to prioritize our intentions and bridge the one-year presidential terms," Trammell says.

When the Master Plan was being developed, the upcoming officers who would become president during this five-year time span agreed to support it. This agreement provided much-needed continuity to the Communications Division and to the overall goals of the bar, notes Trammell.

The Master Plan includes a new bar logo and theme, which was developed with the assistance of focus groups in early 1999. The theme--Protecting Rights, Pursuing Justice, Promoting Professionalism--was printed on all bar stationary, printed products, press releases, publications, the Web site and elsewhere beginning last summer.

Tailoring the Master Plan for use in the specific initiative plan involves several key components, including advertising, media relations, working with local bars, and distributing materials related to the project.

The Restoring Public Confidence Initiative included three, 30-second public service announcements on cable television systems throughout the state. The bar paid $50,000 to the Cable Telecommunications Association under its Public Announcement Partnership Program for nonprofits and was guaranteed $200,000 worth of cablecast time. The announcements ran from October through December.

In January, the bar switched the spots to regular television under a similar program with the Florida Association of Broadcasters. The bar paid $100,000 for $300,000 worth of airtime.

The announcements highlight work that a lawyer does everyday to help improve the lives of Florida residents, including the areas of adoption and family law; workplace and employment rights; and discrimination and constitutional rights.

The initiative also calls for developing media teams (from four to eight bar members) in specific markets that will work with local media to help them understand issues, provide legal information and offer guidance on the judicial system.

In addition, Background Information Papers dealing with relevant topics and issues upon which the bar has taken a position will continue to be used since they started in 1989. They are now featured on the Web site.

"These papers have proven to be very beneficial in making such information available to the media and the public audiences on a timely basis and in making sure bar leaders speak with one voice," says Trammell.

While Florida has had plans in effect for more than a decade, the Ohio State Bar Association approved its first communications plan in six years. The communication staff started last March to develop the plan as part of the bar’s overall operational plan. After various bar groups approved the plan, it was presented to the Board of Governors in October for final approval. Unlike the former plan, the new plan proposes specific community outreach efforts.

"A major focus area of development, aside from the image activities, includes community outreach to small businesses, community organization partnerships, an enhanced Law Day initiative and member opportunities," says Jeri Grier of Columbus, the bar’s public relations director.

The state bar will partner with local bars and organizations; offer public relations support and guidance; and help promote projects and people to local media. One example is a state bar member profile that will be distributed to neighborhood newspapers. The profile will focus on an active lawyer who works on behalf of people in the area, Grier explains.

Also, feature stories will be submitted to local media to provide more exposure for the bar and serve as a way to help improve the image of lawyers. "Our idea is that this activity will be further developed in some way and become an ongoing initiative," says Grier.

In November, the state bar and the Columbus Bar Association worked together on a poll that examined citizens’ views of the legal profession. The polling results will be used as an internal guideline for the state and metropolitan bars to help achieve their goals.

The state bar plans to use its Web site to provide project kits, such as for Law Day or for Speaker’s Bureaus, to help local bars. "We want to work with local bars to help develop material for these project kits so they don’t have to all reinvent the wheel," says Grier.

In 1998, the Cleveland Bar Association created a communications plan with the launch of the Justice For All initiative. This program partnered all of the bar’s pro bono community service programs under a single umbrella, allowing members to easily identify programs in which they would like to participate, according to then-Communications Director Shelley Fulton.

"The goal was to celebrate the hard work and dedication of the many lawyers who give unselfishly of their time and talents, while recruiting lawyer volunteers and further strengthening the association’s outreach efforts," she says.

Another goal was to demonstrate to the community that lawyers do not deserve a negative stereotype. "To be successful, the program had to be effectively communicated–repeatedly and on various levels–to the association’s members and eventually to the public," Fulton adds.

The plan was launched at the bar’s annual meeting in June when the new president outlined goals and projects that were encompassed by the plan. The president’s speech was then reprinted in the Cleveland Bar Journal. Afterward, the bar published a Justice For All Volunteer Opportunities Guide, which was distributed to members at bar events throughout the year.

Committee and section chairs, board members and other program chairs also carried the message to the membership on a more personal level. Also, the Journal featured monthly articles on various pro bono programs and included a sign-up card for bar members to volunteer for pro bono work. A Volunteer of the Month Award was also crated.

"The program succeeded on many fronts. By the end of the bar year, the committee tallied more than 400 volunteers who participated in Justice For All programs. At least seven law firms sponsored schools and other programs. The committee reported that the program had received coverage in Crain’s Cleveland Business, Northern Ohio Live, The Sun Press, Ohio Lawyers Weekly and on WCPN, helping to convey to the public that Cleveland’s lawyers are making a commitment to positive change," Fulton says.

The author is the reporter for Bar Leader