Week 12/2 - 12/4

Crisis Preparation

Diagnosing Crisis Vulnerabilities
- Every org will have specific crisis vulnerabilities -- org's industry, size, location, operations, personnel, and risk factors
- Assessed using a combination of likelihood of occurrence and severity of damage dimensions
- Rate each crisis from 1 to 10
- Likelihood = odds that the crisis may happen
- Impact = amount of damage a crisis can inflict an organization
- Likelihood x Impact = vulnerability score
- The higher the score, the greater the potential

Crisis Types
- accidents, activist actions, boycotts, earthquakes, explosions, chemical leaks, rumors, deaths, fire, lawsuits, sexual harassment, product recalls, strikes, terrorism, etc
- different crises require different actions plans
- Typologies: natural disasters, malevolence, technical breakdowns, human breakdowns, challenges, mega-damage, organizational misdeeds, workplace violence, rumors
- cannot create plan for each potential crisis but can create plan for each crisis TYPE

Crisis Management Teams (CMT)
- cross-functional group of people in the organization who have been designated to handle any crises
1) responsible for creating the CMP, enacting the CMP, and dealing with any problems not covered in the CMP
2) enact the CMP during the simulated or real crises -- CMPs must be tested to see if they work
3) must deal with factors not covered in the CMP

Task Analysis
- group decision making, functioning as a team, enacting the CMP, and listening
- need these skills in addition to media relations, organization, ability to act quickly, area specific skills,  etc

Application for Training
- must do an individual-level assessment for knowledge, skills, and traits to find out strengths and weaknesses as well as progress in acquiring skills and knowledge

Spokesperson
- voice of the organization during the crisis
- primary responsibility is to manage the accuracy and consistency of the messages coming from the organization
- should have a few selected
- must be able to work with the media and media training
- answer questions effectively, be pleasant on camera, stay calm, never say "no comment", never argue with reporters, present crisis information clearly
- recognizing difficult questions is easy but answering them can be hard
- ways to answer them: 1) choose which part of the question to respond to, 2) address all parts of the question
- number each part and answer each part

Crisis Management Plan (CMP)
1. Cover page
2. Introduction - typically written by the CEO
3. Acknowledgments
4. Rehearsal dates
5. CMT
6. CMT contact sheet
7. Crisis risk assessment
8. Incident report
9. Proprietary information
10. CMT strategy worksheet
11. Secondary contact sheet
12. Stakeholder contact worksheet
13. Business resumption plan
14. Crisis control center
15. Postcrisis evaluation
- Must adapt CMP to match precise crises
- CMP is a living document that can be changed and updated regularly

Media Coverage Report 12/2

Food safety lessons after workers get food poisoning 
Pamela Escobar - CBS News
November 13, 2014
Several workers of the US Postal Service are in the hospital being treated for food poisoning after a work party potluck in Charlotte, NC. Terra Baltosiewich, a certified professional in food safety, believes this was due to poor refrigeration and lack of care/knowledge in how long food can be left out.
Since our campaign deals heavily with food, we must make sure that we follow all regulations and take extra care with the food we feed to community citizens. This article went into detail about how to properly handle food in potluck situations and how to handle different types of food. We as an organization need to be knowledgeable on food handling and be prepared to respond quickly when problems with our food occur.

Nonprofit food truck on a mission to feed hungry kids

Beau Minnick - WRAL News

June 12, 2013

The Inner-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, N.C. began a new Mobile Meals program using a new food truck last summer. Their mission is to provide free meals to children who cannot get free lunch from school over summer break. They serve more than 600 children each week in different neighborhoods. 

This food truck idea is very similar to our idea with the food truck, where we would provide meals for underprivileged families and children for free, with food stamps, or at most a very small fee. Just as the children in Raleigh get excited about the Inner-Faith food truck, the 4 By 4 food truck could become the same trend to help feed underprivileged children, all while also exposing and introducing them to new foods from foreign cultures.

Food Trucks Draw Hungry Kids for Free Summer Meals

Ted Burnham - NPR: The Salt

May 30, 2012

Many eligible children are unaware that they can receive free and reduced lunches over the summer, and the USDA Summer Food Service Program has come up with a way to bring the food to children in neighborhood who cannot come out to their schools for summer camps and activities. The New Haven Public Schools served more than 700 meals the first week with sandwiches, fruits, and vegetables, and hopes to expand to make walk-in food trucks with salad bars for children. 

This article, very similar to the first one about the summer reduced meal food truck idea, allows us to understand that this method of meal delivery to underprivileged children have been going on for a few years now. These already established and expanding programs are a great way for 4Culture to learn bout the failures and successes of similar programs so 4 By 4 can continue expanding and find strategic ways to deliver appealing yet foreign food items to children in similar underprivileged neighborhoods. 

Another great thing about these programs is how they don't discriminate against privileged children either - so any children under the age of 16 can come and grab a free meal. This is a good way to create community that's diverse and understanding of each other's backgrounds and not discriminating on what one children can eat vs what another cannot due to their family's income. 

Changing the school food environment - one healthy meal at a time

California School-Based Health Alliance - 2014

The Urban Promise Academy in California created an entire "crew" of nutritionists to lead children in education for healthier eating and also implemented relaxed breakfast time at school. They work closely with the cafeteria manager along with parents and children to get input on what everyone wants to see for the meals. They also partner with the Alameda County Food Bank to deliver food to their district's families to create healthier meals both in school and at home. 

This program is yet another great example for programs we are trying to implement with 4 By 4. We want children and parents to be in on the healthy, diverse eating trend together and we want to start that conversation from the classroom out so transcends back into the family's lifestyles as well. The partnership this school district has created with the food bank is what we would like to do as well, so we can provide families with information and resources to help find success in our program. 

Week of 11/26-11/28

Lee Ch 6: Crisis PR for Government Communicators
- Three phases of crisis: 1) pre-crisis, 2) response, 3) recovery
- Five common characteristics of all crises help gov't communication accomplish goal to manage:

1. crises involve the destruction of property, injury, loss of life, and/or reputation damage
2. crises adversely affect a large number of people
3. crises have identifiable beginnings and endings
4. crises are relatively sudden
5. crises receive extensive media coverage and public attention

- An issue becomes a crisis when "an event that creates an issue, keeps it alive, or gives it strength"
- Key way to determine if it is a crisis is determined by how the citizens, media, and gov't partners react --> must engage in constant issue monitoring and crisis preparation
- ideal goal is to prevent crises from occurring while recognizing that crises will occur (objectives listed below)

• identify and mitigate any risks and/or issues that could become crises
• increase citizens' resilience by helping them prepare for crises
• establish a clear chain of command by assigning responsibilities for crises planning, response, and recovery before crises occur
• identify information dissemination strategies and processes before crises occur 
• build relationships with key partners before crises occur
• develop clear benchmarks for evaluating crisis responses to ensure organizational learning

Preparing for Crisis
- Environmental scanning and issues management
- Relationship management
- Crisis management team
- Crisis communication plan
- Crisis management plan

• Risk assessment/inventory
• List of crisis management team members and contact
• List of key stakeholders and their contact info - employee, other gov't agencies, resident groups
• designated emergency operations center/crisis command center (and back-up locations)
• comm plan including spokespeople authorized to speak with media, redrafted templates, dark sites (predrafted sites to communicate crises either internally or externally that can go live if and when the crisis occurs)
• authority/authorization structure outlining streamlined decision-making
• business resumption plan
• training dates and location
• orientation/seminar
• tabletop exercise
• drill/rehearsal
• simulation
• trigger dates to review and refresh plan and components

- Crisis response strategies (pg 116):

• Deny: attack the accuser, denial, scapegoating, ignoring
• Diminish: excusing, justification, separation
• Used for accidental crises when there is no crisis history and no unfavorable prior reputation
• Also for victim crises when there is a crisis history and/or unfavorable prior reputation 
• Rebuild: compensation, apology, corrective action, transcendence
• Reinforce: reminding, ingratiation, victimize (themselves), endorsement

- Follow-up information and action / evaluation and renewal can be keys to successfully dealing with a crisis

Fitch Ch 12: Crisis Communication in Public Affairs

- Prepare for a crisis by: establishing an internal crisis communication system; considering who should talk to the media; and creating a crisis communication plan
- Know the signs of a crisis and adapt your organization to the changing environment. Use all means available including outside advisors to get the boss on the same page about the crisis
- Two categories of crisis:

• Extraneous: know your role, speak to your role, protect the public
• Intrinsic
• Systemic Crisis: Dealing with operations of the organization - an accident, layoff of employees, or problem or defect in the product or service
• How to handle: by communicating freely, focusing on the victims; being available at all times; coordinating all messages behind the same message; and using all means available to disseminate information
• Adversarial Crisis: Contents, initiated by an opponent, usually attacking a view, position, or policy held by the organization
• How to handle: by putting your best argument forward and not padding it; and by defining your motive and that of your opponents
• Image Crisis: A questioning of the ethics of an organization's leader or leaders, such as allegations of illegal activity, unethical conduct, or questionable judgement
• How to handle: by fully disclosing all information, possibly in a marathon news conference; advancing facts to friendly reporters; and engaging in an end-run around adversaries by releasing negative information before they do
• When in an image crisis, admit all errors quickly and forthrightly; use third-party defenders when in the right
• Maximize the use of online communication and social media in any communication crisis; create special sections for the public and reporters

- The eight mistakes to avoid in a crisis:

1. Ignoring the problem and not changing priorities
2. Not changing the decision making apparatus and team
3. Letting lawyers direct the public relations policy
4. Allowing systemic crises to become image crises
5. Withholding information
6. Not correcting errors immediately
7. Using the wrong spokesperson
8. Not being honest

 - Motive is transparent: if a public figure or org is not motivated by public interest, this will be discovered. If a public figure or organization does not clearly define their motive, they will have just established a negative one that will be promoted and distributed by the media or opponents in the vacuum they have created

Media Coverage Report 11/18

Can Cooking With Kids Help Them Eat Healthier?
Kristie Collado - The Daily Meal
November 17, 2014
This article discusses a study conducted at University of Alberta which showed statistics that children who helped cook with their parents in the kitchen were 10% more likely to eat healthier even on their own. It's important to familiarize children with food and let them ask questions or go through the motions of preparing a meal so they are aware of the variety of food out there.
This article is relevant to our project because one of our goals is to introduce a few new meal ideas and recipes into a household's weekly menu. This comes from a cooperation of the children and parents and a huge part of it is to first introduce and familiarize children with food items that may not necessarily be on their radar. This will allow children to pick food more wisely and to eat with more conscious minds.

Week of 11/18 - 11/20

Lee Ch 10: Doing Right and Avoiding Wrong with the Law and Politicians
- the efficacy of a gov't PR practitioner is greatly dependent upon his audience's and colleagues' trust
- how a proposed action would appear when placed within the five macrocontexts in which he, as a government PR practitioner, operates:
1. his occupation
2. his agency
3. his country's laws
4. his country's constitution
5. his nation's sense of sacred
**"How does action X look in the context of (above)"**

The Five Institutional Macrocontexts

1. Occupation
- civil servants: hired by agencies based upon their knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience; expected to serve the public good --> deliver messages that are more substantive and less political and promotional
- political appointees: chosen by a president or agency head and the political appointee serves as an advocate for an an executor of the president's agenda --> freer to sell a president and his programs

2. Agency
- What does my agency do, why, and for whom? Does it provide services to other government agencies or the general public?
- consider what sort of communicative activities flow from the nature of his agency

3. Legal
- Gov't agencies are born from laws, and laws both create and curb the agency's authority for action
- not only is it the right thing to do, but it can give the practitioner a real sense of what is permissible and what is not, and keep him from putting his agency in legal jeopardy
- Cannot directly or indirectly pay for personal things or endorsements for a policy, etc
- What is considered illegal:
*involve large-scale publicity campaigns to generate citizen contacts with Congress on behalf of agency's position on pending legislation
* involve "self-aggrandizement" of the agency, its personnel, or activities
*"purely partisan in nature" that is, is "designed to aid political party or candidate"
*"covert propaganda" that is, the communication does not reveal that government spent money to craft or spread the message

4. Constitutional 
- A constitution holds explicit and implicit ideas about the relationship between the governors and the governed, and the general goals of the nation-state
- political power flows from people, and elected officials and their bureaucratic servants are obliged to use this power in accordance with the public's sense of right
- the public will not tolerate either elected officials or gov't employees deceiving it
- must acknowledge and think how their efforts fit or collide with the ideas of his country's constitutional ideas --> both curbs and opportunities
- messages that are constant with a nation's constitutional ideas likely will have greater resonance with the public

5. Sacred 
- "myth": a sociological process by which a people construct a narrative that defines their society and its ordering institutions
- enable citizens to assume a national identity by bridging the gap between the particular (me) and the abstract whole (America) to recognize certain rights, duties, and perspectives as a member of that nation
- the power of a narrative that taps into the nation's story

Conclude
- a practitioner should think institutionally
- Make sure what you do is NOT:
1. an abuse of your position
2. inconsistent with your agency's duties
3. illegal
4. offensive to your country's constitution
5. an outrage upon the sacred

Week of 11/11 - 11/13

Information, Communication & Society

The Internet and new modes of political participation: online versus offline participation
- Traditional political participation repertoires are replaced by new forms such as 'lifestyle' politics, political consumerism, Internet activism, etc
- Some argue that internet activism is exaggerated, superficial, unimportant, and potentially dangerous
- Steps to determine online engagement:
1. measure and distinguish different types of political participation
2. understand how online and offline participation compare with and relate to each other -- do they draw in new people? or the same people? same sources as offline?
3. address the concern of declining participation in electoral politics and traditional offline activism

Online Political Participation
- Some argue that online participation might or should simply model political acts in the offline world
- There have been past marches and rallies created in the virtual world that have been successful
- Can connect with political figures online and also raise funds for figures online as well
- Some that do not exist offline: use of humor in political postings; the visible support for social/political organizations, candidates, and specific social/political goals; wide-reaching mobilization campaigns; or politically motivated hacking 
- politically active people (online) tend to be more active in general on sites such as Facebook
- Concern is that people aren't really changing the world with a click of a button
- internet drastically lowers information cost through hyperlinks and the ability of audience members to customize to their likes - give equality of opportunity for political participation

Data
- Taken from an English-speaking university in Canada
- Response rate at low of 8% 
- 61% women and 38% men 
- 15 min survey asked about their offline and online political activism
- Facebook is very popular >50% 
- Collecting signtures or signing e-petitions and donating money were the most popular (48% and 35%)
- Still, offline protesting is more popular - people find online marches etc to be less satisfying and "real" and doesn't attract as much attention as they would offline

Results
- Facebook participants are not very different from non-participants, but are more likely to use the Internet for news consumption about current affairs and politics 
- FB users are prone to spend in general less time online compared to non-active students 
- These students tend to be more interested in politics but don't have higher knowledge necessarily than non-participants 
- in short, there are no large significant differences but could become less valuable online

 
 

Media Coverage Report 11/6

Transforming food culture in schools
Education Business online
This article informs the audience about the Food for Life program implemented in many schools in the UK. Through this program, children got to visit farms learn how to cook, and grow their own food. Studies after the program implementation showed an improvement of children's health as well as a leap forward in closing the gap both in health and academic for disadvantaged children and their peers.
I enjoyed learning about a similar program to our campaign that launched in the UK, especially because this article showed the positive outcomes for children after the implementation. Aside from our goal being to inform and teach children about different cultures through food, it is also to bridge the gap between the experiences of disadvantaged low-income kids and their peers, and this case has given 4By4 a good insight on possible positive outcomes of our own program to reach that goal.

4Culture "Poetry on Buses" launch party
Tamar Benzikry-Stern - King County 4Culture
October 1, 2014
4Culture is hosting a launch party for their new year-long celebration of local voices in the King County through the art of poetry. There will be poetry readings on the theme of "home" from all over the world, as well as local musical performances.
This event is relevant to our campaign because it is an event hosted by our client's organization, and displays the importance of diverse cultures through an art form: poetry. We believe that our campaign celebrate the same values of cultural diversity in our county through another art form of food. I am actually going to this event on Monday evening, and am interested in seeing how the poets represent their cultures, and be inspired for how 4By4's events can be run as well.

Modernist Cuisine Co-Author Hosts Art for Food
Chelsea Lin - SeattleMet
January 9, 2014
This articles highlights the entrepreneurial chef behind the concept of Imagine Food, which I have highlighted before. The article discusses how chef Maxime Bilet wants Imagine Food (orig. called Art for Food) to create "an interactive experience that explores food as a method of communication by studying its relationship to technology, sustainability, art, history, social politics, etc. 10 percent of the profits also go to NW Food Education Fund.
I've thought Imagine Food is a good inspiration for 4By4 in the past, and reading the article about the creator definitely strengthened my thoughts on that. Though we focus on the cultural ties of food, that also encompasses aspects such as history, art, and politics just as Bilet has done with his program. Their dinner events are also good inspiration for us.