Page 32 - April 2021 Voices

FIELD NOTES

What the Pandemic Taught Me about Public Relations

Charissa Yang, IP3

I certainly did not enjoy all the lessons of 2020, but there were some gems that will forever shape my
messaging and the way I connect and lead. While it may be obvious that the pandemic did not affect us all

the same way, it was a process for me to realize how to integrate this knowledge into successfully revised
PR messaging.

Here are some of the lessons learned: Racism and COVID are both intense but not comparable issues
Later during the pandemic, the same club
We started working from home and some were pleased published an editorial in which it was suggested

My home club, Yammertime, is a campus- that combating “racial injustice [seems] more
based Toastmasters Club, hosted at Oregon important. . . than finding a COVID vaccine.”
Health & Science University. In mid-March A friend was very upset by this. She explained

2020, all who had the ability to do so were sent that some of her healthcare worker clients
to work from home indefinitely. One of our were experiencing extreme distress because
members was very pleased about aspects of this of the devastation caused by COVID. It was
then-novel arrangement saying, “We can use not appropriate or helpful to compare it to

this to our advantage and say in our advertising a completely different (even if clearly also
that Zoom makes it so much easier to attend the profound) problem.
club meetings!”
Zoom meetings weren’t welcomed by everyone
The pandemic affected us each differently and we needed to be Indeed, some members were not well

sensitive to that equipped for this shift, lacking reliable WiFi or a
Another experience warned me that we had video-capable laptop to make a stable connection.
to be careful about assuming any single person’s Others were newly coping with orienting both

perspective was universal or welcome. The their children and themselves to online school
president of another club to which I belonged from home - while at the same time getting
(not a Toastmasters Club) suggested that since used to working from home themselves! This
everyone “had so much free time” he thought chaotic and stressful situation resulted in less

we should undertake some extreme challenges available time rather than more for these busy
(such as running 100 miles a week). Fortunately parents. We learned to be tolerant (or even enjoy)
this suggestion was quashed by a committee surprise appearances by pets and children on
before it was publicized. videoconferences.

32 ONE COMMUNITY