Eight days ago, a snowstorm wreaked havoc on a wide swath of the Northeast. It reminded anyone in the Hudson Valley over age 35 of the infamous Snowleaf storm of October 4, 1987. During this recent storm, more than 1.5 million people lost power. More than 140,000 customers (that means billing accounts, so the people affected are more than double that number) in Connecticut still have no electricity. Heavy, wet snow on trees still leaf-laden led to the crack and snap of limbs falling, bringing power lines down with them.
It was because of Snowleaf that I got my job at Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation 24 years ago. But that's not the purpose of this post. Rather, I want to reflect on the changing communication landscape and how it impacts the ability to keep people informed during a time of crisis.
About ten days ago, Clear Channel, the mega-owner of many radio stations across the U.S., laid off its last newsperson in the 14-station cluster it controls in Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley. They also let go other on-air staff, some of whom had been at the stations for up to 20 years. Cumulus, which owns another 11 regional radio stations, had already decimated its news staff. That leaves four stations run by Pamal Broadcasting as having the only newsperson on air. There are a couple of independents, Poughkeepsie's WHVW on AM (which has fewer listeners than some college radio stations) and Woodstock's WDST on FM (whose Web site is down as I write this).
Radio conglomerates have shirked their responsibility to serve their local public. These mega-companies will reduce costs and cut staffs until, in Big Brother fashion, one location will feed programming throughout the country with nothing to differentiate Poughkeepsie from Portland from Paducah. We're pretty much already there, and a toothless FCC that has allowed ownership consolidation has forgotten broadcasters' responsibility to serve in the public's interest.
During one particular devastating storm about 20 years ago, I went on the air on WKIP for hours with Mary Kaye Dolan and Joe Ryan to take calls from customers who had trouble getting through to Central Hudson's overrun phone lines. It was an opportunity to communicate directly with customers to find out when their power may be restored. It's a format used now by the Poughkeepsie Journal, which is fine as long as you have an Internet connection and either electricity or some battery life left in your laptop. It is another sign of how newspapers have become multimedia news outlets, taking over from radio and in some cases TV, which may have local news, but it may be a recorded loop that runs the same broadcast for a few hours-in-a-row.
Many local officials still have not learned that during an emergency, you need to stop using Web sites for campaigning and use them for governing. Part of governing is communicating. No one does that better than Newark Mayor Cory Booker (@CoryBooker). He runs a city of more than 270,000 people, but makes the effort to speak directly to his constituents to learn where trees are down, streets that need to be plowed, or other problems. It's no wonder he has more than 1.1 million Twitter followers.
Compare that with our little city of Poughkeepsie, population 32,000. During the storm and an earlier emergency when the city's southside lost water because of a large main break, there was no real effort to let people know what was going on. No tweets from the city's account, and the latest news update on the city's Web site was a change in the meeting date of the city's zoning board of appeals. One update was finally placed online later in the day on October 30, to announce a warming center being set up at the Salvation Army.
When the water main broke in September, only one city official, Councilman Paul (Pee Wee) Herman, gave a timely update on the cause of the break via his Facebook page. Eventually, the city's Web page began providing substantive information.
As I mentioned in my post about Hurricane Irene, you have to use the social media available -- Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your home page -- to keep people informed and to quash rumors. Cory Booker gets it. Other elected and appointed officials at all levels should follow his lead.
One last thing...for the first time in more than 34 years (with the exception of the two years I lived in Rome), I will not be providing election results and commentary on either radio or TV. The last several years I was a commentator (on a volunteer basis, not for pay) for Clear Channel, at the request of the news director (of a one-person news shop), who was among those laid off ten days ago. I'm such a newsaholic that I can recall election results dating back to the early 1970s, but this year, I'll be home. At least my husband will be happy about that.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Listening to the Stars Will Get You a Job
Last night, two of the best sports communicators in the business gave a down-to-earth lesson in finding a job and enjoying what you do.
My long-time friend Mike Breen was gracious to accept an invitation to come to Marist to inaugurate the college's new Center for Sports Communication. Mike and I both went to Fordham, though I was three years ahead of him and did not meet Mike until he joined WEOK/WPDH as a news reporter after his graduation in 1983. I had gotten out of the radio news business and was the assistant to the chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature, which meant Mike and I had the "hack" and "flack" roles. I truly detest those terms, but use them here to show how false they are.
I saw in Mike a desire to learn, be the best, set goals, achieve them, and be helpful to others. We had incredible fun working together in our separate roles, and we spent a lot of time hanging out together outside of work, becoming very close friends.
What impresses me now about Mike is that he is, without a doubt, the most successful and best known sports broadcaster in America today, yet he remains truly humble, giving of his time and talent to young men and women who want to move into any area of the sports comm world, in front of the camera or in the studio. What was supposed to be a 90-minute seminar on Mike's career and tips for success turned into a Q & A session followed by a meet and greet with 200 Marist students that took us from 7 until 11 p.m.
Mike was introduced and joined by Marist alumnus Ian O'Connor, one of the best sports columnists and authors around. Between the two of them, they provided Marist students insight into leveraging their talents and connections to get them to where they want to be. They reiterated what I tell my class, but it had more meaning coming from two men who are stars (though they would both dislike being called that).
Here are some of their tips:
Be passionate about your work. "You have to love going to work every day; follow where your heart leads you." You can't value your success by salary alone. Discover your passion and pursue it.
Excel as a writer, because there aren't a lot of good ones out there. When Mike was asked by one student what classes he should take since he has some spots to fill in his schedule, Mike quickly responded, "English." Take as many English courses you can and write, write, write. the more often you do it, the better you get at it. The same is true for on-air delivery. The more you find yourself behind the microphone or in front of the camera, the more comfortable you will feel and the more conversational you will be in delivery. Ian added that you need to read great writing to know how to write well, so read, read, read.
Gain as much experience as possible through internships. As Mike said about Marist, "You guys have something really special here." Marist offers incredible internships, particularly in communication. If you don't take advantage of those opportunities, you will be behind the competition when it comes time to look for a job.
Network and take advantage of connections. Mike will give a closer look to a résumé from a graduate of Fordham because it's his alma mater, or Marist because of his close affiliation with the Home of the Red Foxes. He got his start in TV as an analyst alongside the great play-by-play man Dean Darling, broadcasting Marist men's basketball games in the mid-1980s during the Rik Smits era, and he holds a special place for Marist in his heart. Mike got his job at WEOK/WPDH because his then-girlfriend's mother was having lunch with the mother of the station's news director. It's not even six degrees of separation. It could be just one or two.
Be at your best every day on your job. Mike sometimes broadcasts games five nights in a row. He could be on MSG calling a Knicks-Celtics game one night, a Lakers-Heat game the next night on ABC, then be on ESPN for a Timberwolves-Raptors game the following night. He has to be "on" for each one because while it may be three in a row for him, a fan may only be watching one and deserves the best play-by-play and analysis.
Ian and Mike told some great behind-the-scenes stories, which I'll save for those who were in attendance. When you can keep students in their seats for two-hours past the scheduled time of an event, you know you've captured your audience, and judging by the tweets during and after their talks, both men hit it out of the park. (I know, it's a baseball metaphor, not basketball.)
I also appreciated Mike's comment to Ian that "Marist is one of the hottest schools in the country." It's nice to have that third-party affirmation, even if it is from a close friend with perhaps just a little bit of bias.
One last thing...apologies for not posting for more than a month. This has been my busiest semester in almost 17 years at Marist. There are many things I've wanted to "say," but trying to eke out some time when I'm not attending meetings and events on- and off-campus, talking with students, or writing news releases and pitches has been nearly impossible. Last night's seminar was so good and the messages so valid and valuable, I had to break the "cone of silence" and put them here. Congratulations to Dr. Keith Strudler, chair of the communication department at Marist, for putting together a great seminar for our students and for being the driving force behind the development of one of the top sports communications programs at any college or university in the country.
My long-time friend Mike Breen was gracious to accept an invitation to come to Marist to inaugurate the college's new Center for Sports Communication. Mike and I both went to Fordham, though I was three years ahead of him and did not meet Mike until he joined WEOK/WPDH as a news reporter after his graduation in 1983. I had gotten out of the radio news business and was the assistant to the chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature, which meant Mike and I had the "hack" and "flack" roles. I truly detest those terms, but use them here to show how false they are.
I saw in Mike a desire to learn, be the best, set goals, achieve them, and be helpful to others. We had incredible fun working together in our separate roles, and we spent a lot of time hanging out together outside of work, becoming very close friends.
What impresses me now about Mike is that he is, without a doubt, the most successful and best known sports broadcaster in America today, yet he remains truly humble, giving of his time and talent to young men and women who want to move into any area of the sports comm world, in front of the camera or in the studio. What was supposed to be a 90-minute seminar on Mike's career and tips for success turned into a Q & A session followed by a meet and greet with 200 Marist students that took us from 7 until 11 p.m.
Mike was introduced and joined by Marist alumnus Ian O'Connor, one of the best sports columnists and authors around. Between the two of them, they provided Marist students insight into leveraging their talents and connections to get them to where they want to be. They reiterated what I tell my class, but it had more meaning coming from two men who are stars (though they would both dislike being called that).
Here are some of their tips:
Be passionate about your work. "You have to love going to work every day; follow where your heart leads you." You can't value your success by salary alone. Discover your passion and pursue it.
Excel as a writer, because there aren't a lot of good ones out there. When Mike was asked by one student what classes he should take since he has some spots to fill in his schedule, Mike quickly responded, "English." Take as many English courses you can and write, write, write. the more often you do it, the better you get at it. The same is true for on-air delivery. The more you find yourself behind the microphone or in front of the camera, the more comfortable you will feel and the more conversational you will be in delivery. Ian added that you need to read great writing to know how to write well, so read, read, read.
Gain as much experience as possible through internships. As Mike said about Marist, "You guys have something really special here." Marist offers incredible internships, particularly in communication. If you don't take advantage of those opportunities, you will be behind the competition when it comes time to look for a job.
Network and take advantage of connections. Mike will give a closer look to a résumé from a graduate of Fordham because it's his alma mater, or Marist because of his close affiliation with the Home of the Red Foxes. He got his start in TV as an analyst alongside the great play-by-play man Dean Darling, broadcasting Marist men's basketball games in the mid-1980s during the Rik Smits era, and he holds a special place for Marist in his heart. Mike got his job at WEOK/WPDH because his then-girlfriend's mother was having lunch with the mother of the station's news director. It's not even six degrees of separation. It could be just one or two.
Be at your best every day on your job. Mike sometimes broadcasts games five nights in a row. He could be on MSG calling a Knicks-Celtics game one night, a Lakers-Heat game the next night on ABC, then be on ESPN for a Timberwolves-Raptors game the following night. He has to be "on" for each one because while it may be three in a row for him, a fan may only be watching one and deserves the best play-by-play and analysis.
Ian and Mike told some great behind-the-scenes stories, which I'll save for those who were in attendance. When you can keep students in their seats for two-hours past the scheduled time of an event, you know you've captured your audience, and judging by the tweets during and after their talks, both men hit it out of the park. (I know, it's a baseball metaphor, not basketball.)
I also appreciated Mike's comment to Ian that "Marist is one of the hottest schools in the country." It's nice to have that third-party affirmation, even if it is from a close friend with perhaps just a little bit of bias.
One last thing...apologies for not posting for more than a month. This has been my busiest semester in almost 17 years at Marist. There are many things I've wanted to "say," but trying to eke out some time when I'm not attending meetings and events on- and off-campus, talking with students, or writing news releases and pitches has been nearly impossible. Last night's seminar was so good and the messages so valid and valuable, I had to break the "cone of silence" and put them here. Congratulations to Dr. Keith Strudler, chair of the communication department at Marist, for putting together a great seminar for our students and for being the driving force behind the development of one of the top sports communications programs at any college or university in the country.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Communicating Irene's Wrath
Hurricane Irene roared through our beautiful Hudson Valley and Catskills and left a deluge of rain and a trail of destruction among the worst I have seen from any storm during my lifetime. Some news outlets and individuals thought the event was over-hyped by the media. Try telling that to my neighbors who spent hours pumping water out of their garage and basement, or the folks in downtown Poughkeepsie whose streets are still closed due to flooding. My heart also goes out to the people in beautiful little villages like Windham and Margaretville, nice Sunday drives from Poughkeepsie, that have been nearly destroyed by cascading rapids and the washing away of homes and bridges.
Marist College also got hit. We have one of the most scenic campuses in America, right along the eastern shore of the mighty Hudson. Today it is the muddy Hudson due to all the runoff from the Fallkill Creek and storm sewer systems from municipalities along its length. President Dennis Murray issued a wrap-up of the work done over the past couple of days in a memo to the college community today.
Over the past five days, I've posted more than 100 tweets, first about preparation plans for students moving back to Marist, then the storm's impact on our college and region, and finally, on its aftermath. I know I tweet a lot, and probably lose some followers because of it (mostly spammers and bots, I hope), but during a crisis, social media is invaluable in keeping people informed and squelching rumors.
What kind of rumors? Someone, whom I'm not even sure is currently a Marist student, tweeted that there was a partial collapse of Marist's Lowell Thomas Communications Center and put in other alarmist drama to make it sound like the campus was a disaster area. Because I am constantly online, I saw that erroneous tweet, and a retweeting of the false info by someone I know is a Marist student, and took them to task publicly over their misinformation. The student apologized. The person who started the rumor, probably just to get attention for herself, did not respond but knew I was watching and switched to another topic. Her tweets, btw, consist mostly of dropping the f-bomb.
Thanks to my friends and colleagues Melissa Egan and Cody Rotwein in Marist's Web Services department, we were able to place updates on the Marist homepage 10 times. There were more frequent updates on the Marist Facebook page, and of course, on twitter. Some of the updates were within minutes of each other, such as when there were changes in the estimate of when a repair of a Central Hudson Gas & Electric substation off-campus would restore power to Marist and the surrounding neighborhood. An original estimate of two hours was thought to be too soon because of complications with the repair, so I wrote that it could take another three hours. Excuse the pun, but I didn't want to leave students, parents and Marist staff in the dark. Fortunately, about five minutes after that Facebook posting and tweet, lights came back on. I'm still glad I sent out the other information because, as in any type of disaster preparedness, we plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Even I need some sleep and can't be online 24/7/365, though it seems like I am. Fortunately, I have been awake and on various social media sites when I've seen incorrect info posted about Marist. The strategy to address it is simple: confront it, nip it in the bud, correct it.
People want correct information and they want frequent updates. More than 15,000 people visited the Marist Web updates from last Thursday through today. More than 2,000 clicked on the bit.ly links from Facebook and twitter. BTW, half of the referrals came from Facebook, making Facebook, in my experience, still the predominant social medium. Twitter is rightfully credited for the rapid creation of content and serving as a great news aggregator (much better than a site I used years ago -- Newsgator).
One last thing...it's nice to get a pat on the back when you work hard and things go well. Too often, people complain more than they compliment. I am grateful for the comments made by students, faculty and staff at Marist, parents, alumni, people in the community, fellow PR practitioners and the media on Marist's communications efforts before, during and after the storm. Many people not directly related to a public relations function are needed to make a communications strategy successful. I work with incredible colleagues and deeply appreciate their cooperation and support.
Marist College also got hit. We have one of the most scenic campuses in America, right along the eastern shore of the mighty Hudson. Today it is the muddy Hudson due to all the runoff from the Fallkill Creek and storm sewer systems from municipalities along its length. President Dennis Murray issued a wrap-up of the work done over the past couple of days in a memo to the college community today.
Over the past five days, I've posted more than 100 tweets, first about preparation plans for students moving back to Marist, then the storm's impact on our college and region, and finally, on its aftermath. I know I tweet a lot, and probably lose some followers because of it (mostly spammers and bots, I hope), but during a crisis, social media is invaluable in keeping people informed and squelching rumors.
What kind of rumors? Someone, whom I'm not even sure is currently a Marist student, tweeted that there was a partial collapse of Marist's Lowell Thomas Communications Center and put in other alarmist drama to make it sound like the campus was a disaster area. Because I am constantly online, I saw that erroneous tweet, and a retweeting of the false info by someone I know is a Marist student, and took them to task publicly over their misinformation. The student apologized. The person who started the rumor, probably just to get attention for herself, did not respond but knew I was watching and switched to another topic. Her tweets, btw, consist mostly of dropping the f-bomb.
Thanks to my friends and colleagues Melissa Egan and Cody Rotwein in Marist's Web Services department, we were able to place updates on the Marist homepage 10 times. There were more frequent updates on the Marist Facebook page, and of course, on twitter. Some of the updates were within minutes of each other, such as when there were changes in the estimate of when a repair of a Central Hudson Gas & Electric substation off-campus would restore power to Marist and the surrounding neighborhood. An original estimate of two hours was thought to be too soon because of complications with the repair, so I wrote that it could take another three hours. Excuse the pun, but I didn't want to leave students, parents and Marist staff in the dark. Fortunately, about five minutes after that Facebook posting and tweet, lights came back on. I'm still glad I sent out the other information because, as in any type of disaster preparedness, we plan for the worst and hope for the best.
Even I need some sleep and can't be online 24/7/365, though it seems like I am. Fortunately, I have been awake and on various social media sites when I've seen incorrect info posted about Marist. The strategy to address it is simple: confront it, nip it in the bud, correct it.
People want correct information and they want frequent updates. More than 15,000 people visited the Marist Web updates from last Thursday through today. More than 2,000 clicked on the bit.ly links from Facebook and twitter. BTW, half of the referrals came from Facebook, making Facebook, in my experience, still the predominant social medium. Twitter is rightfully credited for the rapid creation of content and serving as a great news aggregator (much better than a site I used years ago -- Newsgator).
One last thing...it's nice to get a pat on the back when you work hard and things go well. Too often, people complain more than they compliment. I am grateful for the comments made by students, faculty and staff at Marist, parents, alumni, people in the community, fellow PR practitioners and the media on Marist's communications efforts before, during and after the storm. Many people not directly related to a public relations function are needed to make a communications strategy successful. I work with incredible colleagues and deeply appreciate their cooperation and support.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Getting Married: A Tale of Two Cities and One Village
At 1:25 p.m. on Sunday, July 24, 2011, my partner of nearly 31 years and I got married. It turned into a major production, not for the ceremony itself, but because of what Pete and I went through to get married on the first day the Marriage Equality law took effect in New York State.
We didn't want a big ceremony, which we thought to be anticlimactic after three decades together. We also wanted to commemorate the day that equality became the law of our state (but, unfortunately, not yet of our nation). To be married that day entailed a trip to Kingston, then back to Poughkeepsie, then back north to Red Hook. Kingston was one of the municipalities in Ulster County (along with Plattekill, Shandaken and Woodstock) that opened its clerk's office on Sunday to issue licenses to same-sex couples, many of whom, like us, have been together for many years. The City of Poughkeepsie, where I was born and raised and in which Pete and I live, chose to remain closed, a political statement for sure. The 32-year old mayor of Poughkeepsie was quoted in our local paper as saying that just because same-sex marriages are now lawful, does not mean he has to officiate at them. BTW, 2011 is a local election year, including mayor.
Arlene Rion and her staff in the Kingston City Clerk's office were warm, welcoming and wonderful. State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Cahill was on hand to issue waivers of the state's 24-hour waiting rule for marriages. Not knowing that would be the case, Pete and I made prior arrangements to go before State Supreme Court Justice Christine Sproat in Poughkeepsie to issue that waiver, hence the drive south to the Dutchess County Courthouse. Chris was also the duty judge for the Supreme Court that weekend and she told us we were the only couple seeking that waiver, which can only be granted by a justice of a "superior court" in New York State. Waiver granted, we headed north to the Village of Red Hook, where Village and Town Justice Jonah Triebwasser had offered to officiate. Jonah is also an adjunct professor at Marist College and an actor most known for playing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a true "local boy who made good") on stage and the History Channel.
We were joined by our two beloved "adopted sons," Luke and Stephen, who were the witnesses for our marriage, both having traveled great distances to be there, which meant the world to Pete and me. Steve timed the ceremony at 27.5 seconds. Pete and I already considered ourselves married, but we needed to go through the "I Dos" to make it legal. Our friend, Al Nowak of On Location Studios, took photos. After brunch at the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck, it was off to Holy Cow, one of the best known ice cream shops in the Hudson Valley. Pete and I joked decades ago that if we ever could get married, our wedding reception would be at Holy Cow. If you've never been, you wouldn't understand. Great soft-serve with prices from a generation ago, they make their profit by volume.
As it turned out, Pete and I were the first same-sex couple to be married in Dutchess County. In some ways, nothing has changed, yet in other ways, the world has changed. Our relationship is now legally recognized. We are offered the protections and accept the responsibilities offered to opposite-sex couples. No one else's marriage was harmed by ours. The world has not come to an end. The support we have received from family and friends, including many of my colleagues and my current and former Marist students, has been overwhelming and deeply appreciated.
Of course, tens of thousands of legally-married gay and lesbian couples will not be truly equal in the eyes of the law until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed. Until then, America will continue to be the land of separate and unequal.
We do have something many married couples don't have -- two anniversaries: October 25, which this year will mark 31 years together for us, and July 24, a day we will celebrate with all New Yorkers.
One last thing...for same-sex couples who do tie the knot, check out the series, "The Cost of Being Gay: A look at the financial realities of same-sex partnerships," by Tara Siegel Bernard (@tarasbernard on twitter). Even the comments section, a part of contemporary newspapers I find extremely crude and distasteful, is good because other experts share their knowledge of the joys and pains of being legally-recognized spouses by your state but not by your federal government.
We didn't want a big ceremony, which we thought to be anticlimactic after three decades together. We also wanted to commemorate the day that equality became the law of our state (but, unfortunately, not yet of our nation). To be married that day entailed a trip to Kingston, then back to Poughkeepsie, then back north to Red Hook. Kingston was one of the municipalities in Ulster County (along with Plattekill, Shandaken and Woodstock) that opened its clerk's office on Sunday to issue licenses to same-sex couples, many of whom, like us, have been together for many years. The City of Poughkeepsie, where I was born and raised and in which Pete and I live, chose to remain closed, a political statement for sure. The 32-year old mayor of Poughkeepsie was quoted in our local paper as saying that just because same-sex marriages are now lawful, does not mean he has to officiate at them. BTW, 2011 is a local election year, including mayor.
Arlene Rion and her staff in the Kingston City Clerk's office were warm, welcoming and wonderful. State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Cahill was on hand to issue waivers of the state's 24-hour waiting rule for marriages. Not knowing that would be the case, Pete and I made prior arrangements to go before State Supreme Court Justice Christine Sproat in Poughkeepsie to issue that waiver, hence the drive south to the Dutchess County Courthouse. Chris was also the duty judge for the Supreme Court that weekend and she told us we were the only couple seeking that waiver, which can only be granted by a justice of a "superior court" in New York State. Waiver granted, we headed north to the Village of Red Hook, where Village and Town Justice Jonah Triebwasser had offered to officiate. Jonah is also an adjunct professor at Marist College and an actor most known for playing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (a true "local boy who made good") on stage and the History Channel.
We were joined by our two beloved "adopted sons," Luke and Stephen, who were the witnesses for our marriage, both having traveled great distances to be there, which meant the world to Pete and me. Steve timed the ceremony at 27.5 seconds. Pete and I already considered ourselves married, but we needed to go through the "I Dos" to make it legal. Our friend, Al Nowak of On Location Studios, took photos. After brunch at the Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck, it was off to Holy Cow, one of the best known ice cream shops in the Hudson Valley. Pete and I joked decades ago that if we ever could get married, our wedding reception would be at Holy Cow. If you've never been, you wouldn't understand. Great soft-serve with prices from a generation ago, they make their profit by volume.
As it turned out, Pete and I were the first same-sex couple to be married in Dutchess County. In some ways, nothing has changed, yet in other ways, the world has changed. Our relationship is now legally recognized. We are offered the protections and accept the responsibilities offered to opposite-sex couples. No one else's marriage was harmed by ours. The world has not come to an end. The support we have received from family and friends, including many of my colleagues and my current and former Marist students, has been overwhelming and deeply appreciated.
Of course, tens of thousands of legally-married gay and lesbian couples will not be truly equal in the eyes of the law until the Defense of Marriage Act is repealed. Until then, America will continue to be the land of separate and unequal.
We do have something many married couples don't have -- two anniversaries: October 25, which this year will mark 31 years together for us, and July 24, a day we will celebrate with all New Yorkers.
One last thing...for same-sex couples who do tie the knot, check out the series, "The Cost of Being Gay: A look at the financial realities of same-sex partnerships," by Tara Siegel Bernard (@tarasbernard on twitter). Even the comments section, a part of contemporary newspapers I find extremely crude and distasteful, is good because other experts share their knowledge of the joys and pains of being legally-recognized spouses by your state but not by your federal government.
Friday, July 22, 2011
We Can "Be the Media"
When I went to my first TweetUp a couple of years ago in Westchester County, the speaker was David Mathison, who wrote Be the Media, which details how each of us has the opportunity to communicate directly with audiences known and unknown, without being filtered by traditional forms of radio, television, newspapers and magazines. I was intrigued by his talk, purchased the book, and have used the phrase "be the media" often in my classes.
When an item is posted on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or other social media, we can directly reach our followers, friends, connections or circles. When a photo of the completed Route 9 pedestrian walkway was posted on Marist's Facebook page, it made 17,555 impressions and generated 155 likes and 37 comments, nearly all of them positive. The vast majority of the nearly 8,000 people who "like" the Marist page are current students, alumni, prospective students and their families, elected officials, and the college's faculty and staff. The page reaches those important constituencies directly to engage conversation, foster reminiscences, inform, and persuade. By now, I hope each person reading this blog understands this is how social media is supposed to function.
Let's see how one individual, a talented, young Marist alumnus, became his own "medium" to successfully raise money for a particular project. In turn, he gave back to his alma mater in a unique way.
Robert Vijay Gupta, graduated from Marist in 2005 at age 16 with a bachelor's degree in biology. He went on to get his master's degree in music from Yale in 2007. That year, he became the youngest violinist (at age 19) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Those in the music industry who do not want to be tied to a particular label fund their own projects through social media. I learned through a tweet from Robert that he was doing this for a CD of recordings, including one of his own compositions, that he will play on a 1716 Stradavarius violin:
guptaviolin87 so many thanks to everyone that's contributed to my @kickstarter album so far - only 5% to go! http://kck.st/jxkF0d
Kickstarter calls itself "the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world."
I promoted this on twitter and Marist's Facebook page. Among those who read the Facebook posting was Marist President Dennis Murray, who later got an email from Robert detailing the project. President Murray sent a contribution. Robert went over his $20,000 goal more than a week before his deadline, raising nearly $22,000 from 216 backers. I am not claiming credit for that and it would be difficult for me to prove any donations came from Marist's social media efforts on Robert's behalf, but I do know that the Facebook posting alone made 6,709 impressions and 11 people "liked" it. As a community, Marist is very proud of Robert's accomplishments and I was happy to publicize his efforts. As a thank you to President Murray and Marist, Robert played a selection from the CD at a Marist Welcome Reception for incoming members of the Class of 2015 on July 20, in Santa Monica, California.
Robert had fun with his fundraising. His incentives to donors ranged from two hi-res mp3s for a $5 donation to this premium for a donation of $10,000 or more: "A live 90-minute recital in Los Angeles or New York, and...I'll cook you dinner! My Mom's recipe for the *best* lamb curry you've ever tasted" (plus all of the items mentioned for lower levels of donations). While Robert did not get a $10,000 backer, he got two people to donate $2,500. He is now providing updates on the strenuous recording process, keeping his supporters engaged throughout the process. Bravissimo, Robert!
THAT is the power of social media.
One last thing...While I would have enjoyed Robert's private concert for incoming Marist freshmen and their families, and alumni who attended the reception in California, I was at another social media event in Boston on July 21. It was the first Marist Boston TweetUp, organized by 2004 Marist alumna Liz Swenton (@lizswenton on twitter), who is one of three Marist alumnae working at March Communications in Boston. Fifteen alumni and a Marist senior, Marissa DeAngelis (@MSDe526), about whom I've written in the past, attended. Three drove up from Rhode Island one drove in from Connecticut. It was a mixer at Back Bay Social Club (@BackBaySocial), with dinner, the exchange of business cards, the renewal of long-standing friendships and the forming of new ones. These were public relations and journalism majors, most of whom were my students. It gave me a chance to talk about developments at Marist and get updates on their careers. One attendee found she was interviewing at the company of another attendee, an opportune contact. Remember my post on networking? It works. We all enjoyed ourselves and I left with a tremendous sense of pride in these Marist grads. I look forward to similar TweetUps in other cities in the weeks and months ahead.
When an item is posted on twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or other social media, we can directly reach our followers, friends, connections or circles. When a photo of the completed Route 9 pedestrian walkway was posted on Marist's Facebook page, it made 17,555 impressions and generated 155 likes and 37 comments, nearly all of them positive. The vast majority of the nearly 8,000 people who "like" the Marist page are current students, alumni, prospective students and their families, elected officials, and the college's faculty and staff. The page reaches those important constituencies directly to engage conversation, foster reminiscences, inform, and persuade. By now, I hope each person reading this blog understands this is how social media is supposed to function.
Let's see how one individual, a talented, young Marist alumnus, became his own "medium" to successfully raise money for a particular project. In turn, he gave back to his alma mater in a unique way.
Robert Vijay Gupta, graduated from Marist in 2005 at age 16 with a bachelor's degree in biology. He went on to get his master's degree in music from Yale in 2007. That year, he became the youngest violinist (at age 19) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Those in the music industry who do not want to be tied to a particular label fund their own projects through social media. I learned through a tweet from Robert that he was doing this for a CD of recordings, including one of his own compositions, that he will play on a 1716 Stradavarius violin:
guptaviolin87 so many thanks to everyone that's contributed to my @kickstarter album so far - only 5% to go! http://kck.st/jxkF0d
Kickstarter calls itself "the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world."
I promoted this on twitter and Marist's Facebook page. Among those who read the Facebook posting was Marist President Dennis Murray, who later got an email from Robert detailing the project. President Murray sent a contribution. Robert went over his $20,000 goal more than a week before his deadline, raising nearly $22,000 from 216 backers. I am not claiming credit for that and it would be difficult for me to prove any donations came from Marist's social media efforts on Robert's behalf, but I do know that the Facebook posting alone made 6,709 impressions and 11 people "liked" it. As a community, Marist is very proud of Robert's accomplishments and I was happy to publicize his efforts. As a thank you to President Murray and Marist, Robert played a selection from the CD at a Marist Welcome Reception for incoming members of the Class of 2015 on July 20, in Santa Monica, California.
Robert had fun with his fundraising. His incentives to donors ranged from two hi-res mp3s for a $5 donation to this premium for a donation of $10,000 or more: "A live 90-minute recital in Los Angeles or New York, and...I'll cook you dinner! My Mom's recipe for the *best* lamb curry you've ever tasted" (plus all of the items mentioned for lower levels of donations). While Robert did not get a $10,000 backer, he got two people to donate $2,500. He is now providing updates on the strenuous recording process, keeping his supporters engaged throughout the process. Bravissimo, Robert!
THAT is the power of social media.
One last thing...While I would have enjoyed Robert's private concert for incoming Marist freshmen and their families, and alumni who attended the reception in California, I was at another social media event in Boston on July 21. It was the first Marist Boston TweetUp, organized by 2004 Marist alumna Liz Swenton (@lizswenton on twitter), who is one of three Marist alumnae working at March Communications in Boston. Fifteen alumni and a Marist senior, Marissa DeAngelis (@MSDe526), about whom I've written in the past, attended. Three drove up from Rhode Island one drove in from Connecticut. It was a mixer at Back Bay Social Club (@BackBaySocial), with dinner, the exchange of business cards, the renewal of long-standing friendships and the forming of new ones. These were public relations and journalism majors, most of whom were my students. It gave me a chance to talk about developments at Marist and get updates on their careers. One attendee found she was interviewing at the company of another attendee, an opportune contact. Remember my post on networking? It works. We all enjoyed ourselves and I left with a tremendous sense of pride in these Marist grads. I look forward to similar TweetUps in other cities in the weeks and months ahead.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tweeting Yourself Toward Employment
I'm grateful to Jenny Zou (@jiejennyzou on twitter) of the Chronicle of Higher Education for her very kind article about my efforts to help my students and other Marist grads find jobs via social media, specifically twitter. I will not rehash what Jenny wrote. You can read Jenny's post in a popular Chronicle blog called WiredCampus.
What I want to discuss here is how this piece came about because it's a lesson in media relations that in itself made news recently because of the issue of "access." First, let me tell you how this article appeared, then I'll mention the controversy surrounding a well-known freelancer for the New York Times and offer a few of my own thoughts. I would appreciate your feedback on this, too, because it is an issue I will discuss with my class next semester.
For 14 of the last 18 years I have attended the College Media Relations Conference, initially started by a gentleman named Art Ciervo, picked up by Keith Moore, and now run by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. I've had the privilege of speaking at this conference on social media, and it is a wonderful opportunity to network, learn from my peers, and meet reporters from a wide variety of media who come to talk about their publications, blogs, and TV and radio shows. My friend Steve Smith (@RedCladLoon), who is the national news editor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, spoke this year on his work in social media and wrote a great blog entry highlighting the various talks at this year's conference.
At one of the sessions, higher ed media reps are given the opportunity to meet with reporters and editors from the Chronicle and InsideHigherEd. As I was heading into the session featuring about a half dozen Chronicle reporters, I bumped into Chronicle Editor Jeffrey Selingo (@jselingo). I have much respect for Jeff and appreciated his comments on my social media work at a PRSA Counselors to Higher Education conference last April. I mentioned to Jeff how one of my students, Alyssa Bronander (@ARBro), had sent me a tweet the day before saying she had not yet been hired. I couldn't understand why because Alyssa is exceedingly bright, knows social media, is an excellent writer, and extremely personable. So, I tweeted my incredulity with the hashtags #HireThisWoman and #HireArbro. In less than five minutes, Alyssa got a tweet from another of my former students, Rob Gedarovich (@rgedarov), whom I mentioned in a previous post, asking for a résumé. Alyssa eventually was hired by Toys R Us and just started this week as te corporation's associate social media manager.
I mentioned this off-the-cuff to Jeff and I honestly did not do it as a pitch. We were just talking. However, Jeff heard a good story, introduced me to Jeff Young (@jryoung), a top tech writer at the Chronicle and for the WiredCampus blog. Jeff assigned the story to Jenny, who spoke with me by phone as I rode Amtrak back to New York. Alyssa and my outstanding student intern this past year, Jim Urso (@JimUrso) also emailed and spoke to Jenny to round out the story. An aside...Jim starts soon in the media relations department at Hofstra University. My thanks to Karla Schuster (@KarlaSchuster) for hiring Jim. I know it's a cliché but it's true -- my loss truly is Karla's gain.
What's so controversial about this process? To me, nothing. However, to the public editor of the New York Times, you would think PR people were like all those corporations that, on their own or via highly-paid lobbyists (many of them former lawmakers) pay for access to politicians in Washington. I have met Times reporters at the College Media Conference every year, and was able to get a piece in a Times blog last year by pitching a reporter who had just completed his presentation.
This process of give-and-take between journalist and public relations professional is common practice and ethical. If you have a good relationship with a reporter -- pitching only those stories that are truly newsworthy, returning phone calls, not limiting yourself to being a "fair weather friend," and maintaining the highest standards of honesty and integrity -- you have a much better chance of getting coverage of your event, product, location, individual, or, in my case, college, than if you do not have a good relationship with that reporter. That's a PR 101 lesson, not "get(ting) too cozy with the P.R. professionals who strive to influence coverage," as the Times' public editor alleges. A journalist and a media relations pro must understand their roles. They are not mutually exclusive. They are similar -- tell a story that is worth people's time, enlightens them, and in some cases, advocates for the common good (though that last point is always open to interpretation).
In the back of my mind I think there must be another reason for the Times to go after David Pogue (@Pogue). Maybe, someday, the Times' PR person will tell us what it is.
Your thoughts?
One last thing...I'll let you in on a little secret. The second commenter at the end of the WiredCampus post, "mahoneypoststar," is Mark Mahoney, who was a student in a broadcast journalism class I taught at Dutchess Community College about 30 years ago. Mark was a gifted student with a great sense of humor and a way with words. He started out at my old radio stations, WEOK/WPDH in Poughkeepsie. Today, he is the editorial page editor of the Post Star in Glens Falls, NY. Two years ago, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. To say I'm proud of him is a dramatic understatement. I offer my thanks to him and to so many of my former students for their words of support and gratitude and retweeting Jenny's WiredCampus post. Their faith, confidence and affection are deeply appreciated. The sense of fulfillment I receive from working with and mentoring them is one of the wonderful aspects of my job, particularly at a college like Marist that truly is a community, or as some say, a family.
What I want to discuss here is how this piece came about because it's a lesson in media relations that in itself made news recently because of the issue of "access." First, let me tell you how this article appeared, then I'll mention the controversy surrounding a well-known freelancer for the New York Times and offer a few of my own thoughts. I would appreciate your feedback on this, too, because it is an issue I will discuss with my class next semester.
For 14 of the last 18 years I have attended the College Media Relations Conference, initially started by a gentleman named Art Ciervo, picked up by Keith Moore, and now run by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. I've had the privilege of speaking at this conference on social media, and it is a wonderful opportunity to network, learn from my peers, and meet reporters from a wide variety of media who come to talk about their publications, blogs, and TV and radio shows. My friend Steve Smith (@RedCladLoon), who is the national news editor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, spoke this year on his work in social media and wrote a great blog entry highlighting the various talks at this year's conference.
At one of the sessions, higher ed media reps are given the opportunity to meet with reporters and editors from the Chronicle and InsideHigherEd. As I was heading into the session featuring about a half dozen Chronicle reporters, I bumped into Chronicle Editor Jeffrey Selingo (@jselingo). I have much respect for Jeff and appreciated his comments on my social media work at a PRSA Counselors to Higher Education conference last April. I mentioned to Jeff how one of my students, Alyssa Bronander (@ARBro), had sent me a tweet the day before saying she had not yet been hired. I couldn't understand why because Alyssa is exceedingly bright, knows social media, is an excellent writer, and extremely personable. So, I tweeted my incredulity with the hashtags #HireThisWoman and #HireArbro. In less than five minutes, Alyssa got a tweet from another of my former students, Rob Gedarovich (@rgedarov), whom I mentioned in a previous post, asking for a résumé. Alyssa eventually was hired by Toys R Us and just started this week as te corporation's associate social media manager.
I mentioned this off-the-cuff to Jeff and I honestly did not do it as a pitch. We were just talking. However, Jeff heard a good story, introduced me to Jeff Young (@jryoung), a top tech writer at the Chronicle and for the WiredCampus blog. Jeff assigned the story to Jenny, who spoke with me by phone as I rode Amtrak back to New York. Alyssa and my outstanding student intern this past year, Jim Urso (@JimUrso) also emailed and spoke to Jenny to round out the story. An aside...Jim starts soon in the media relations department at Hofstra University. My thanks to Karla Schuster (@KarlaSchuster) for hiring Jim. I know it's a cliché but it's true -- my loss truly is Karla's gain.
What's so controversial about this process? To me, nothing. However, to the public editor of the New York Times, you would think PR people were like all those corporations that, on their own or via highly-paid lobbyists (many of them former lawmakers) pay for access to politicians in Washington. I have met Times reporters at the College Media Conference every year, and was able to get a piece in a Times blog last year by pitching a reporter who had just completed his presentation.
This process of give-and-take between journalist and public relations professional is common practice and ethical. If you have a good relationship with a reporter -- pitching only those stories that are truly newsworthy, returning phone calls, not limiting yourself to being a "fair weather friend," and maintaining the highest standards of honesty and integrity -- you have a much better chance of getting coverage of your event, product, location, individual, or, in my case, college, than if you do not have a good relationship with that reporter. That's a PR 101 lesson, not "get(ting) too cozy with the P.R. professionals who strive to influence coverage," as the Times' public editor alleges. A journalist and a media relations pro must understand their roles. They are not mutually exclusive. They are similar -- tell a story that is worth people's time, enlightens them, and in some cases, advocates for the common good (though that last point is always open to interpretation).
In the back of my mind I think there must be another reason for the Times to go after David Pogue (@Pogue). Maybe, someday, the Times' PR person will tell us what it is.
Your thoughts?
One last thing...I'll let you in on a little secret. The second commenter at the end of the WiredCampus post, "mahoneypoststar," is Mark Mahoney, who was a student in a broadcast journalism class I taught at Dutchess Community College about 30 years ago. Mark was a gifted student with a great sense of humor and a way with words. He started out at my old radio stations, WEOK/WPDH in Poughkeepsie. Today, he is the editorial page editor of the Post Star in Glens Falls, NY. Two years ago, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. To say I'm proud of him is a dramatic understatement. I offer my thanks to him and to so many of my former students for their words of support and gratitude and retweeting Jenny's WiredCampus post. Their faith, confidence and affection are deeply appreciated. The sense of fulfillment I receive from working with and mentoring them is one of the wonderful aspects of my job, particularly at a college like Marist that truly is a community, or as some say, a family.
Friday, June 10, 2011
How the Catholic Hierarchy Can Learn from a Lay Community
As I started to write this, I was sailing from Kuşadasi, Turkey to Patmos, Greece with Fr. Richard LaMorte, the chaplain at Marist College, and students in my religious studies course “In the Footsteps of St. Paul.” If you read my previous post, you’re probably wondering, “How can you teach theology when your own religion calls you ‘morally disordered’ and fights against equal rights for you?” A revelation of sorts (ironic, since Patmos is where the evangelist John is believed to have written the Book of Revelation), came from a discussion I had with John Boss, a Marist junior whom I’ve come to know and respect over the past two years, with whom I’ve had many honest conversations.
John asked me about the difference between religion and faith. It is a great question and while John wanted my answer to help enlighten him, it was he who helped me reflect on who I am and where I am going in my life. My response centered on my personal belief that faith is a reason to believe in a particular set of principles, religious or not, in my case, based on the teaching of Jesus Christ. Religion, on the other hand, is humanity’s imperfect attempt to codify those beliefs into a set of rules to live by – the dos and don’ts of a particular religion. Human attempts at interpreting the Divine Will will always be flawed because we are imperfect beings. We try to understand the mind of God, but since we are obviously less than God, we cannot reach the perfection of knowledge embodied by a Divinity. Yet, groups of people try and form bonds based on a particular set of beliefs.
All through history we have seen abuses of power that occur when a particular religion says it possesses the truth and those outside that sect are “morally deficient,” which is what the Catholic Church says about anyone who is not a Catholic and says of Catholics who don’t walk in lockstep with every single tenet of the Church. It is that type of thinking by any religion that leads to wars, whether the Crusades, “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, or terrorism in many forms that threatens our world today.
Faith and religion always played a role in my life. As a matter of fact, I once studied to be a Catholic priest, including two years at the North American College in Vatican City and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, called, respectively, the West Point and the Harvard of the Catholic Church. That time in the seminary system exposed me to both tremendous good and unquestionable evil by people who claim to represent God. I worked with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in a soup kitchen and shelter for homeless men, served as an officer and Chaplain Candidate in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, stationed with the 36th Tactical Fighter Wing in Bitburg, Germany, and made friends from throughout the States and from several countries.
I also experienced first-hand the psychological head games played by priests in charge of a man’s “formation,” a nice way of saying brain-washing. I won’t go into details here, after all, I need to keep some material for my book (which I’ll probably never get to write) – “Looking Through Stained Glass.” Today’s seminarians preparing for ordination need to remember that the faithful in the pews come from a wide variety of backgrounds – age, experience, education, financial status, culture, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. I see such rigidity in today’s Catholic seminarians and priests ordained in the last ten years that leads me to believe they will get what they probably want – a smaller, “purer” Church, but in no more sole possession of “the truth” than any other religion.
I am now flying from Rome to New York, at the end of our two-week study abroad course that took us to Greece, Turkey, Rome and Vatican City. The past two nights, I took the students to Trastevere, my favorite section of Rome, its equivalent of Greenwich Village. My favorite Church is there – Santa Maria in Trastevere, parts of which date to the 4th Century A.D., or the “Common Era.” With its luminous mosaics and Cosmatesque floors, it is a beautiful building, but its true beauty comes from the people who use it as their parish church – the Community of Sant’Egidio.
The Community of Sant’Egidio began in Rome in 1968, in the period following the Second Vatican Council. Today, it is a movement of laypeople and has more than 50,000 members dedicated to evangelization and charity in Rome and in more than 70 countries throughout the world. The Community of Sant’Egidio is a “Church public lay association.” The different communities, spread throughout the world, share the same spirituality and principles which characterize the way of Sant’Egidio: prayer, communicating the Gospel, solidarity with the poor, ecumenism, and dialogue. They quote Blessed Pope John XXIII, who called on the Church to be the “Church for all and particularly for the poor.”
Whenever I question my faith or whether I should stay in the Catholic Church, I get these little signs, sort of like Jesus saying “Hey, don’t give up on me! Yeah, I wish my followers really lived the spirit of my teaching, not the law I came to abolish, but they don’t listen to me. Hang around awhile longer, OK?” Such was the case the last two nights of our stay in Rome, when I attended Sant’Egidio’s Evening Prayer. Their services are lay-led, with beautiful singing (something for which many Catholic parishes are not known), and a sense of community that draws in everyone.
The first night, I attended with Father LaMorte, the second with Father LaMorte and John Boss. While I understood the liturgy and the Italian, John didn’t, but our experience was the same, a true sense of belonging to something bigger than who we are as individuals. At the beginning of the liturgy, a woman gave John the community’s prayer book so we could follow along, and at its conclusion, a man, probably in his late-20s (you don’t see many people under 60 in U.S. Catholic churches today, especially men), looked over at John and me, smiled, and wished us a “buona sera,” or good evening, with a smile that said, “You are welcome here.” The members of the community stayed in the Church and hugged, kissed, and talked for more than half an hour. Contrast that with something that happened in my home parish in Poughkeepsie recently. Four parishioners, all middle-aged and active in the parish, were talking while standing in the vestibule of the church – not in the sanctuary, where the community was communicating at Santa Maria in Trastevere – and were scolded with a “Shush!” by a priest younger than all of us who was ordained about three years ago.
The first night, I attended with Father LaMorte, the second with Father LaMorte and John Boss. While I understood the liturgy and the Italian, John didn’t, but our experience was the same, a true sense of belonging to something bigger than who we are as individuals. At the beginning of the liturgy, a woman gave John the community’s prayer book so we could follow along, and at its conclusion, a man, probably in his late-20s (you don’t see many people under 60 in U.S. Catholic churches today, especially men), looked over at John and me, smiled, and wished us a “buona sera,” or good evening, with a smile that said, “You are welcome here.” The members of the community stayed in the Church and hugged, kissed, and talked for more than half an hour. Contrast that with something that happened in my home parish in Poughkeepsie recently. Four parishioners, all middle-aged and active in the parish, were talking while standing in the vestibule of the church – not in the sanctuary, where the community was communicating at Santa Maria in Trastevere – and were scolded with a “Shush!” by a priest younger than all of us who was ordained about three years ago.
I picked up a prayer card in the back of Santa Maria in Trastevere. It contained a photo that epitomizes the spirit of the Sant’Egidio Community. The pews were removed (they are not permanently affixed in these ancient churches) and tables were set up to serve lunch to Rome’s hungry at Christmas. They came to the church to be fed – physically and spiritually. Isn’t that what religion is supposed to be about? For Christians, isn’t that was Jesus asked us to? Thirty to forty years ago, that’s what the Church did through its social ministry, fighting for equal rights for women, African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, working men and women, and expressing a “preferential option for the poor,” woefully out-of-fashion in the Church and in our country in 2011.
If it weren’t for the pastor of St. Martin dePorres, Msgr. Jim Sullivan, I probably would no longer be a member of any parish (unless I felt like commuting to St. Francis Xavier on 16th Street in Manhattan, like I did for a few years in the 90s). He is what priesthood is all about – honestly prayerful, leading through humility, accepting (not just “tolerating”) others, humorous and capable of delivering a serious message through great homilies or simple actions from which the newly ordained can learn much. We are blessed to have him.
This is a long entry, so I will wrap it up and fill you in later on what our class did during our two weeks abroad.
One last thing…props to Delta Airlines. Their music selection for June includes “Delta Pride,” with this description “Party in the Sky celebrates Pride. Delta is proud to be an official sponsor of Pride celebrations in Atlanta, New York City, and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.” My message to Delta: I’m proud to be a Sliver Medallion frequent flyer on your airline.
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