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Promotion is the key to success

I've never been all that great at remembering faces.

And while I'm overall pretty poor at remembering faces, a name almost never slips my mind.

That's why I was rather surprised to see that there are about 200 CGA organizations at the university, according to the CGA's web site. Now, take away residence hall councils and some altruistic charitable organizations, as well as a good number that are defunct, and you're probably looking at 125-150 bona fide CGA organizations. To be quite honest, I haven't heard of at least 100 of them.

Now I know your first argument is going to be something to the effect of, "but just because you don't know any of these organizations doesn't mean they don't exist or aren't important." Agreed, but I certainly have not been completely oblivious to the campus in my last three years here.

Let's start with the organization who "owns" all the student organizations: the CGA. The Community Government Association is the most powerful organization on campus. They operate the University Store, the Kehr Union and the Student Recreation Center, according to their web site. Beyond that, they fund clubs, athletics and many other campus organizations. Chances are, if you are involved in a campus organization, then your club is funded or impacted by the CGA.

With all this power, one would think that nearly every student on campus would know who every member of the executive board is, and more importantly, who their representative is so that they can get their voice heard. But, I have yet to meet anyone who can tell me who the president and vice-president of the CGA are, and who to talk to on the CGA if they are having a problem.

It may interest you to know that the CGA held elections last week for the executive board, the true decision-makers on campus. What's worse is that neither The Voice nor WBUQ, the two dominant campus media organizations, knew about this election. And I would assume that many of you didn't know about it either.

But, you may be saying, they may not have had enough people to properly promote it. Well, you'd be wrong if you thought that. According to the CGA's web site, through all the different representatives in the different areas of CGA (executive board, residence halls, commuters, off campus, etc.), the CGA has about 50 members in all. And these aren't just normal, ordinary students. These are students elected by other students for their integrity, drive and leadership skills. Unfortunately, as far as promotion in the CGA goes, they haven't been following a good lead.

The CGA has an executive board position specifically designed so that everyone on campus will know about elections: it's called the Press Secretary. Not only must this press secretary let the various campus media know of such an important happening in their organization, but they must also keep the student body as a whole informed. And, this quite literally has not happened. After a dismal turnout for an election in which nearly everyone on campus should have voted, it has become quite apparent publicity is not at the top of the CGA's priority list.

With such a dismal publicity model as the CGA to follow, it's a wonder The Voice hears from any campus organization. Luckily though, a couple campus organizations have stepped up to take the lead and get the word out when they have done something newsworthy.

If one just stops to take a look at some past issues of The Voice, one might think that there are less than 10 organizations. The BU Players, DAWN, IMAGE, START, CGA, WBUQ and some Greek organizations make up a majority of the news. And largely it's because The Voice isn't aware an event is occurring. Instead, we receive angry letters asking why we didn't cover events. The answer, I would think, would be staring them right in the face: we didn't know about it.

Many negative letters about my column have accused me of being a know-it-all. However, since the rest of The Voice doesn't seem to possess my magical powers to see everything days, weeks and years ahead of time, student organizations need to step up and let us know about it.

Basically, there are three reasons that The Voice wouldn't cover an event. One, we don't have enough reporters. Two, the event isn't newsworthy. Three, there isn't enough space in the newspaper.

If either of the first two are your problem, you have the ability to change how you do things. First, if there aren't enough reporters to cover your event, write a press release and send it in. Research has shown that over half of all the news in a newspaper comes from a press release. Logically speaking, the percentages are in your favor if you submit a press release. And even if it doesn't get printed, your organization is then in the mind of the editor that will help when you have the next event. If your event isn't considered newsworthy, then you have just been presented with a challenge.

If an editor doesn't find it to be newsworthy enough, convince them. Editors are generally impressed with leaders who are excited about where they work and are interested in letting others know about what they've done. Finally, if there simply is not enough space, refer to the answer to number two.

Don't get me wrong. Just because The Voice doesn't cover events in your organizations doesn't mean that you have a poor organization or even that you do a poor job in promotion. Some organizations are rather self-sufficient and can hold membership without any sort of promotion.

But, honestly, everyone likes to see their name in the paper, especially when they've done something well. Keeping the media and the campus as a whole notified of your events is mutually beneficial. Your organization is better recognized, and, at the same time, the campus is better informed and may become more involved.

Besides, if you're at all like me, you may forget a face. But you'll never forget a name.