Page 33 - April 2021 Voices

What the Pandemic Taught Me about Public Relations

I realized that being truly inclusive became an opportunity
required understanding my audience’s to hear many individuals’
circumstances. Other ways this came into play: feedback, pin down our club’s

• We now needed to recognize an values, and create a “vision culture”
international audience. statement.
• Because Toastmasters Clubs around Overall, the pandemic taught me that good PR
the world were all meeting online, considers your entire audience, and that in times of

Toastmasters members started “club crises, it is risky to assume that you know what your
surfing.” Yammertime got visitors from audience is feeling, experiencing or needing. The
Chicago, Florida, Germany, South Africa, pandemic also taught me that though we were sent
Hong Kong, Dubai and the Philippines. home to work, ironically, we became more connected

We quickly learned to express our globally. To be effective, we have to become sensitive
meeting times and time zones according to our expanding audience, using more universal
to international standards. If we forgot, phrases, references (and time zones). PR that works
someone could assume the wrong time, is intentional about inclusivity and putting your

or we might get asked about or scolded members first.
for not mentioning the international time
Charissa is a charter member of the Yammertime
zone equivalent.
Toastmasters Club at Oregon Health & Science University
• Being inclusive is simply best practice. and a co-founder of the PR Masters, a D7-based, prospective

We learned to be more inclusive in our club that seeks to increase cross-club communication and
language. Sometimes that meant dropping collaboration about Toastmasters PR.
colloquialisms or idioms in favor of more Learn More:
straightforward language. I realized it is • Watch speech: Charissa applies lessons learned in

a clearer way to communicate anyway. If “A Pandemic PR Strategy for Toastmasters Clubs” (9
minutes, starting at 10:00, delivered at the 4/2/2021
we want to be welcoming, we should strive
Demo Meeting of the PR Masters Club).
to be the opposite of clique-ish, by using • Learn more about the PR Masters Club, a prospective
simple and direct language and avoiding club that Charissa co-founded to increase cross-club

non-universal terms like local references communication and collaboration about Toastmasters
PR
(such as OHSU.) • Yammertime’s Vision Culture statement can be found
• Crises can create opportunities. at www.yammertime.org
A speech that was received as controversial

VOICES! | APRIL 2021 33