Grex Publicity Conference

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Grex Publicity Item 29: Press Releases to Newspapers - Discussion Item.
Entered by rcurl on Sat Jan 14 23:29:54 UTC 1995:

A suggestion to send a press release to newspapers was made in agora. Here
is the item, followed by some questions. What do you think?

#120 of 136: by Rane Curl (rcurl) on Fri, Jan 13, 1995 (14:16):
                Grex Computer Rehabilitation Committee

        Grex has just completed the transfer of a second computer system
 as a charitable gift. In October 1994 we were asked by a person with the
 North Oakland Child & Adolescent Clinic whether we might be able to find a
 computer system to help in the education of an 11-year old, who had been
 diagnosed as learning-disabled. That's the sort of thing this committee
 was created to do. In fact, we had just obtained an IBM XT from UM
 Property Disposition. We asked for the donation of a printer, by an
 announcement in the Agora conference, and a grexer generously donated one.
 It took a while to get the equipment, the Clinic and the child's family
 all coordinated for the delivery of the system, but it has now been
 accomplished. TS Taylor checked out the hardware, and arranged the
 delivery. Here are some of his comments on how it went:

  "Finally, the family from Pontiac and I were able to coordinate
  in realtime and realspace - the machine is delivered!

  "Mom is thrilled - Young Son is thrilled! We sat around and played
  with "stuff" for about 4 hours of "familiarization."

  "He watched me and also did things  - including make mistakes and
  recover from them. (DOS is like that ......) <heh-heh>.

  "He disassembled the hardware and learned (and fed-back) how and
  why certain wires go here or there, or the other place.

  "I learned a lot from this also - who's next?"

        Who's next, indeed? This Grex program needs both the donation of
 equipment (or the money to buy equipment), and needy recipients. We have
 been donating through other charitable non-profit organizations, and have
 been asking for an agreement that, if the equipment breaks down or is no
 longer needed, it will be returned to Grex. Otherwise, the donation is
 unlimited.

        If you know of a situation where even an "obsolete" computer can
 make a difference in helping people, or if you wish to donate equipment
 (or money), please write to rehab@cyberspace.org

#135 of 136: by Patricia Snyder-Rayl (pegasus) on Sat, Jan 14, 1995 (18:02):
 Rane,

 You should send that announcement about the 2nd system out to newspapers
 as a press release.

        Pattie

#136 of 136: by Rane Curl (rcurl) on Sat, Jan 14, 1995 (18:14):
 Now, there's an idea. Has Grex done that before? Might edit it a little
 for a non-Grex audience. Maybe, to the Ann Arbor Observer?? Anyone have
 any contacts, or know to whom one sends something like this? Also, does
 anyone have any comments on doing this? I am going to bring this over to
 the publicity cf (starting with the announcement, and #135), for any
 extensive further dicussion.

6 responses total.

#1 of 6 by mta on Sun Jan 15 07:27:56 1995:

No, GREX hasn't done press releases before, but it's an excellent idea!
The item would indeed need to be fleshed out a bit
for non-GREXians, but it sounds very do-able and very worthwhile.

#2 of 6 by pegasus on Tue Jan 17 16:19:59 1995:

My suggestion would be to send the press release to both the news and the 
features editor of any newspaper you send to. You can find addresses,
usually, by looking in the phone book, or call them to get the contact
info. Pretty basic.

        Pattie

#3 of 6 by rcurl on Mon Jan 23 06:09:15 1995:

After some thought on the matter, I believe that this one computer
rehabilitation, while it is something about which Grex should be proud,
doesn't constitute a big enough public event to interest newspapers, etc.
If we could keep up the "momentum", with a steady stream of reabilitated
computer donations, I think there would be something to attract more
public interest. 

What has occurred to date is that just internal word-of-mouth (port?) has
reached persons having a need for the two rehab computers we have donated.
More rehab activity, and internal publicity (and through the newsletter
that is planned) could lead to a level of activity that would be more
"noticeable". We'll keep working on it.

#4 of 6 by mta on Thu Feb 2 01:54:09 1995:

If we slant the PR correctly, the beginning of such a program is newsworthy.

#5 of 6 by rcurl on Thu Feb 2 06:57:16 1995:

Would you like to give slanting it a try?

#6 of 6 by mta on Fri Feb 3 22:49:47 1995:

Depends on the timeline, Rane.  ;)  I'd love to, but I'm moving next weekend --
 if one can said to be "doing" a project of that magnitude in one weekend.  I'm
also on the convention planning committee for a Science fiction convention this
June.  (Yeah, I was on one for a con this January -- I just don't learn.)

Anyway, I'll try my hand, but if anyone gets around to it sooner, that's "A
Good Thing".

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