Ya know, although at times, trying to figure out what to blog about was a big pain in the butt, it wasn't all that bad. A lot of interaction for an online class, so that was very nice. And it made me actually pay attention to news and current events again. Also, getting deep into any story, linking everything you possibly could, therefore you're on 10 different sites or better before the end of the blog.
Onto the task at hand. . . as for what is going on with my crisis communication paper is that I have gathered up extra information, which I am sure is in the book or in the lectures. . . But the general manager at my job (Dakota Plains) gave me a little booklet on crisis communication. I had brought up the requirement for a crisis communication paper two weeks ago. He also gave me an outline of the company's crisis communication plan. Which had to be put into effect in 2006 when a tender truck driver rolled his truck when he tried to correct going slightly into the ditch. It was fatal roll over and he did not survive, therefore the crisis communication plan took action. Unfortunately, I cannot find any articles on it that I don't have to pay to get into.
As for Valley City's current crisis on hand, the flood and the clean up. I had talked to the mayor last week while she was waiting to pay for her gas, and I asked her how things were going and what nots and she told me that during the whole flood situation, she was working with people with whom she trusted. The day following the afternoon we were chatting, she said she had to meet with FEMA, so no more trust there, basically put on a game face situation.
But good news for Valley City, no more porta potties! And water restrictions have been, for the most part, lifted. Only problem is, is that the sanitary sewer system is partially above ground (on 2nd St NW and in the middle of the intersection of central and main). Short showers, still the whole "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down" motto, one wash (load of clothes) a day and basically try to run too much water into the drains. It is just a big pain in the butt still, because you still got to watch your Ps and Qs.
But it does seem like Valley City is going to pull out of this whole thing with flying colors. Like I mentioned in my prior blog post, it'll just be a while until the city is back to complete normalness (roads, houses, water system).
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
VC's Battle
For our paper, I have decided that since I live in Valley City, I'd might as well do a paper on the flood in Valley City. Especially since I have a lot of first hand information. Not only with helping a few times up at sandbag central, but also by working and being part of a essential business when times were stressful and flood items were in high demand. And to see how many people weren't losing their minds, but staying calm and just trying to deal with things before they got worse.
At first the town battled snow storm after snow storm, leading them to shut down interstate a few times, and basically the whole time another time or two. Then with all of that snow, it was a sure sign that the spring was not going to be good. And it seemed almost as soon as it start the melting and the levels started going up, the city was on it, trying to prevent what could have been the most devastating flood in Valley City. And then as the need for sandbaggers grew, Dr. Shirley and staff called off classes many days to encourage and allow students to go up to the Winter Show barns and help fight the flood. Which I personally thought was way cool of him and the staff at VCSU, helping out the community that much. The high school also let students out. The effort from this community was crazy! (in a good way)
And after all of this, I've realized how strong this community really is. How willing so many people are to give up their time to help others and help the city win the battle. And for a whole city to cooperate with a NO WATER DRAINING ban is also amazing to see. Everyone was doing everything they could to save the city. Unfortunately, it'll now be years til its a pretty city again. . . Roads (such as Winter Show, 9th and Main), levees, people's yards and all the other things damaged by the water.
I feel that since I was here, and I can talk to a lot of people that live here, I should be able to get some very useful information dealing with the Flood of '09.
At first the town battled snow storm after snow storm, leading them to shut down interstate a few times, and basically the whole time another time or two. Then with all of that snow, it was a sure sign that the spring was not going to be good. And it seemed almost as soon as it start the melting and the levels started going up, the city was on it, trying to prevent what could have been the most devastating flood in Valley City. And then as the need for sandbaggers grew, Dr. Shirley and staff called off classes many days to encourage and allow students to go up to the Winter Show barns and help fight the flood. Which I personally thought was way cool of him and the staff at VCSU, helping out the community that much. The high school also let students out. The effort from this community was crazy! (in a good way)
And after all of this, I've realized how strong this community really is. How willing so many people are to give up their time to help others and help the city win the battle. And for a whole city to cooperate with a NO WATER DRAINING ban is also amazing to see. Everyone was doing everything they could to save the city. Unfortunately, it'll now be years til its a pretty city again. . . Roads (such as Winter Show, 9th and Main), levees, people's yards and all the other things damaged by the water.
I feel that since I was here, and I can talk to a lot of people that live here, I should be able to get some very useful information dealing with the Flood of '09.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
In a time of crisis
As we all may know by now, Valley City, North Dakota, was recently dealing with major flood threats. There is still a threat since the river is over the flood level, but it was dealt with very well. Just recently, Friday the 17, the sewer system gave, leaving many businesses within a four-block radius with water in their basements. Shortly after that, Mayor Mary Lee Nielson came onto the radio and announced what happened. And what was going to change for the next month. Life as Valley City knew it was thrown back in time, but with electricity.
All non-essential businesses were asked to shut down. The only thing open were the clinics, hardware stores, gas stations and grocery stores. From Friday until Wednesday, the whole town was basically dead. Not being able to use water, well you can use it - you just cannot drain it. Everyone was suddenly coming up with creative ways to rid of their wastewater. And let me tell you, working at a gas station/farm store, we saw a lot of how people were planning to rig up their washer, sump pump the water out of the tub, and so on. Luckily, for Valley City, and after a business owner made a big deal about what is essential and what is not, all businesses were allowed to open back up on Wednesday the 22. However, they too still had some water restrictions, and the residential people were still on their no draining orders. If you were to enter Valley City now, you would see porta potties on every block. I do believe it was about 500 of them that they brought into town.
The reason I'm writing about the Flood of Valley City and all that came with it is because this is a violent natural crisis. So I started looking for things that deal with crisis communication, and I came upon an article about crisis communication kits and what you need in them. The article/web site is entitled "7 Must-have Elements in Every Crisis Communications Kit". It discusses how all businesses should have a kit and a plan ready to go. The seven items that should be included are as follows: 1) A list of the members of the crisis management team; 2) contact information for key officers, spokespeople, and crisis management team members; 3) fact sheets on the company, each division, each physical location, and each product offered; 4) profiles and biographies for each key manager in your company; 5) copies of your company, division and product logos, your press release format and the scanned in signature of your CEO on disk; 6) pre-written scripts answering key questions that you have generated through your crisis scenario analysis; and 7) contact information for each of your key media contacts both locally, nationally, and if appropriate, key financial press and analysts.
As I assume, Valley City's leaders probably had it all figured out - and dubbed the mayor to be the spokesperson. Overall, they seemed to handle this natural crisis pretty well. Handling things quickly, getting info out to the public as soon as new news arrives.
All non-essential businesses were asked to shut down. The only thing open were the clinics, hardware stores, gas stations and grocery stores. From Friday until Wednesday, the whole town was basically dead. Not being able to use water, well you can use it - you just cannot drain it. Everyone was suddenly coming up with creative ways to rid of their wastewater. And let me tell you, working at a gas station/farm store, we saw a lot of how people were planning to rig up their washer, sump pump the water out of the tub, and so on. Luckily, for Valley City, and after a business owner made a big deal about what is essential and what is not, all businesses were allowed to open back up on Wednesday the 22. However, they too still had some water restrictions, and the residential people were still on their no draining orders. If you were to enter Valley City now, you would see porta potties on every block. I do believe it was about 500 of them that they brought into town.
The reason I'm writing about the Flood of Valley City and all that came with it is because this is a violent natural crisis. So I started looking for things that deal with crisis communication, and I came upon an article about crisis communication kits and what you need in them. The article/web site is entitled "7 Must-have Elements in Every Crisis Communications Kit". It discusses how all businesses should have a kit and a plan ready to go. The seven items that should be included are as follows: 1) A list of the members of the crisis management team; 2) contact information for key officers, spokespeople, and crisis management team members; 3) fact sheets on the company, each division, each physical location, and each product offered; 4) profiles and biographies for each key manager in your company; 5) copies of your company, division and product logos, your press release format and the scanned in signature of your CEO on disk; 6) pre-written scripts answering key questions that you have generated through your crisis scenario analysis; and 7) contact information for each of your key media contacts both locally, nationally, and if appropriate, key financial press and analysts.
As I assume, Valley City's leaders probably had it all figured out - and dubbed the mayor to be the spokesperson. Overall, they seemed to handle this natural crisis pretty well. Handling things quickly, getting info out to the public as soon as new news arrives.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A music video site...supported by advertisement
I found an interesting article on MSNBC.com, entitled "YouTube, Universal partner in music video site". According to the article, YouTube and Unviersal Music Group are teaming up on a music video venture. They are going to have about 10,000 videos available to watch for free, thanks to advertising. Their website for this is going to be Vevo.com, on which they will be sharing all the revenue from the ads. Evenutally, there will buttons linking the videos to a buyable location (which will be Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc's iTunes). As the article states, a good portion all of music revenues from these sites go to the labels.
Why this is a really good idea: YouTube is already very popular amoung all sorts of ages. It is the place you go to find clips of movies, funny videos, or even music videos. So why not dedicate a whole site to music videos? Universal Music already offers site visitors a chance to watch videos as well. Universal has 19 different labels under them right now, some of which including A&M/Octone, Interscope Geffen A&M, Motown Records, UMG Nashville and Verve Music Group.
However, YouTube has had some problems with record labels that resulted recently in Warner Music disattaching themselves from YouTube. Warner Music pulled all of their music off of YouTube since they did not feel they received fair payments for themselves or their songwriters and artists. Another bad deal for YouTube is the $1 billion lawsuit that Viacom Inc. has against them because of infringement rights. Viacom Inc. runs BET Networks, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures.
For YouTube, they may want to get their act straightened up if this deal will run smoothly for both YouTube and Universal. Although, according to the article Universal will be the big spenders in this whole venture, I doubt they want to lose out on this whole ordeal. But overall, I think this idea is really cool, its not always easy for people to get to a tv and watch MTV or VH1, for example, so this will help out a lot for those who like to watch music videos.
Why this is a really good idea: YouTube is already very popular amoung all sorts of ages. It is the place you go to find clips of movies, funny videos, or even music videos. So why not dedicate a whole site to music videos? Universal Music already offers site visitors a chance to watch videos as well. Universal has 19 different labels under them right now, some of which including A&M/Octone, Interscope Geffen A&M, Motown Records, UMG Nashville and Verve Music Group.
However, YouTube has had some problems with record labels that resulted recently in Warner Music disattaching themselves from YouTube. Warner Music pulled all of their music off of YouTube since they did not feel they received fair payments for themselves or their songwriters and artists. Another bad deal for YouTube is the $1 billion lawsuit that Viacom Inc. has against them because of infringement rights. Viacom Inc. runs BET Networks, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures.
For YouTube, they may want to get their act straightened up if this deal will run smoothly for both YouTube and Universal. Although, according to the article Universal will be the big spenders in this whole venture, I doubt they want to lose out on this whole ordeal. But overall, I think this idea is really cool, its not always easy for people to get to a tv and watch MTV or VH1, for example, so this will help out a lot for those who like to watch music videos.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Now the suspect is Pistachios?!
So far this year we've had a peanut butter recall, which would be the second time peanut butter has been recalled in two years. Reasoning for being recalled? Salmonella. Salmonella is the most frequently reported case of food borne illnesses, according to the USDA. Two years ago the peanut butters that were the guilty parties were Peter Pan and Great Value. Even now, right on Peter Pan's website it states that "We’d like to assure you that Peter Pan Peanut Butter is safe to eat and no varieties of Peter Pan Peanut Butter have been recalled. ConAgra Foods, the maker of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, has confirmed that none of the ingredients used to make Peter Pan Peanut Butter come from any location operated by Peanut Corporation of America, the company that has recalled peanuts and peanut ingredients."
However, this year it was King Nut, and according to sources, this brand isn't sold directly to consumers. It may have also been in products in your cupboards. A news release right on the main page of their website date January 12, 2009 (two days after the recall) states: "We issued the recall after learning that salmonella had been discovered in an open container of peanut butter with our label. We also made it clear that we do not manufacture King Nut peanut butter nor do we supply any ingredients for the peanut butter. We are simply the distributors." A paragraph later their news release read: "(King Nut peanut butter is distributed to food service companies in Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire.)" Companies that had to recall items because of King Nut's peanut butter were Little Debbie, Hy-Vee, Perry's Ice Cream and Kellogg's.
But now there is another salmonella scare. Pistachios. You know, those shelled greenish colored nuts. 
Which are usually a popular snack and help improve cholesterol according to California Sungold.com. They also are useful in a lot of other things, such as being good in plants as drainage chips.
Which are usually a popular snack and help improve cholesterol according to California Sungold.com. They also are useful in a lot of other things, such as being good in plants as drainage chips. So what is so wrong with them?!?! Well, according to the article on MSNBC.com, investigation started on Thursday from a California nut processor to its sister plant in New York, where inspectors last month found cockroaches and rodent droppings. The FDA is investigating the nut plant Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc, Calif. Setton Pistachio recalled 2 million pounds of pistachios according to MSNBC.com.
For all the guilty parties involved in the peanut butter incident and now the pistachio incident, this is not good PR at all! I personally may never want Peter Pan peanut butter ever after knowing they were recalled. Same goes for pistachios, and they are good!, after all is said and done and they figure everything out, Setton's sales may go plummeting down. It is going to take a LOT of work for them to get out of the rut they're going to be in. Take another look at what Peter Pan's website had on it front web page, they are going to have to assure assure assure people that nothing is in their products.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Help Set A Record...
So I came across a pretty interesting article from PRweekus.com entitled "Cotton Inc. and 'National Geographic' align efforts". It is about how Cotton Inc. and National Geographic Kids magazine want to set a record by collecting the most jeans. So for the next three months in NG kids magazine they will be encouraging readers to help contribute to this collection.
Cotton Inc. has been doing this for three years. They intend to not only make a world record, but to use these recycled jeans and turn them into environmentally friendly home insulation. The insulation is then used to build homes in areas affected by natural disasters.
The age ranges in which NG kids reaches is mainly 6 - 14, as the article states. Cotton Inc.'s campaign, "Cotton: From blue to green" has been going on for 3 years, like previously stated, and they are going to launch the site that is linked to that by March 27. But now with NG's help maybe they'll be able to reach their goal and help out many others.
Stated on the NG kids' donation part of their website, it takes 500 pairs of jeans to insulate an average U.S. home. They would like the jeans received by June 30, 2009. Also on this article it gives more insightful information about what they're doing. This info is as follows:
The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive is a call-to-action to donate denim and give it "new life" by converting it into UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation.
UltraTouch™ is composed of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, non-itch natural cotton fiber insulation.
Recently, according to a press release from Cotton Inc., Cotton Inc. received 5000 pounds of denim from Monsanto. Also, straight from the article, "In the past three years, the Cotton. From Blue to Green.® denim drive traveled to 37colleges throughout the nation and worked with retail partners and corporations to collect an astounding 89,799 pieces of denim. "
That is pretty impressive, and if having the NG helping out gets them more, they will be able to get a lot more denim sent to them. Hopefully they are advertising on channels that have kids that subscribe to National Geographic.
Overall, that is great public relations for both of the companies. Helping the Earth be greener. It is the way to go after all.
Cotton Inc. has been doing this for three years. They intend to not only make a world record, but to use these recycled jeans and turn them into environmentally friendly home insulation. The insulation is then used to build homes in areas affected by natural disasters.
The age ranges in which NG kids reaches is mainly 6 - 14, as the article states. Cotton Inc.'s campaign, "Cotton: From blue to green" has been going on for 3 years, like previously stated, and they are going to launch the site that is linked to that by March 27. But now with NG's help maybe they'll be able to reach their goal and help out many others.
Stated on the NG kids' donation part of their website, it takes 500 pairs of jeans to insulate an average U.S. home. They would like the jeans received by June 30, 2009. Also on this article it gives more insightful information about what they're doing. This info is as follows:
The COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.® denim drive is a call-to-action to donate denim and give it "new life" by converting it into UltraTouch™ Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation.
UltraTouch™ is composed of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, non-itch natural cotton fiber insulation.
Recently, according to a press release from Cotton Inc., Cotton Inc. received 5000 pounds of denim from Monsanto. Also, straight from the article, "In the past three years, the Cotton. From Blue to Green.® denim drive traveled to 37colleges throughout the nation and worked with retail partners and corporations to collect an astounding 89,799 pieces of denim. "
That is pretty impressive, and if having the NG helping out gets them more, they will be able to get a lot more denim sent to them. Hopefully they are advertising on channels that have kids that subscribe to National Geographic.
Overall, that is great public relations for both of the companies. Helping the Earth be greener. It is the way to go after all.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Shootings...What is up with people these days?!
Within two days, there have been two headlining stories about shootings. One in Alabama and one in Germany.
The shootings that have happened since 1996 just make one think, "What is wrong with society? Why are people so mad?" According to infoplease.com - there were almost 50 school shootings since February 2, 1996. That is about 4 shootings a year. . . If anyone may recall on April 20, 1999, the nation's deadliest shooting took place in Littleton, Colo. The Columbine High School, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 14 students (including themselves) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. In 2007, the Virginia Tech shooting happened, the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, killed a total of 33 people (including himself) and injured 15 others. This almost made that the most deadly shooting for the U.S.
According to CBSNews in their article "Why Do School Shootings Happen" dated April 22, 2007, the first known school massacre in this country was in 1927, a revenge killing in Michigan carried out by the treasurer of the local school board, who was convinced high school taxes were the reason his farm was foreclosed.
The most recent school shooting was in Germany Wednesday March 11. Unlike how it happens in the U.S., this 17 year old student went into his former high school and killed at least 15 people before he was shot and killed by the police. According to this article, it was Germany's worst shooting since 2002 when another high school lost 16 students and the gunman. Wednesday's gunman had graduated from Albertville High School in 2008. He had no rhyme or reason to his shootings, they were just at random, shooting students and adults alike.
In Alabama, it is unclear whether the shooter started at his mother's house, starting it on fire while his mother was still inside. He then drove a dozen miles and killed another nine victims. Four of them that happened to be his relatives. The wife of the deputy and their daughter were also shot and killed on that porch. He drove farther and went after more people, shooting another two or three, injuring many. This rampage ended when he had a stand-off with the police, shot at and wounded an officer, and then went into his old workplace (Reliable Metal Products) and shot and killed himself. That brought his death toll up to 11, including himself.
We all know shootings, especially school shootings, are hard to go through. Because everyone is so close and losing a friend is very hard. And for these schools and towns, to make people believe that incidents like that are not what the town/school is really like all the time takes some good PR.
In Valley City, ND, we (because I am from here) once had a nickname of Death Valley, because about 8 or 9 years we had three different incidents within a year span. So it is hard to get people to forget about that kind of stuff when they hear about your town and what nots.
The shootings that have happened since 1996 just make one think, "What is wrong with society? Why are people so mad?" According to infoplease.com - there were almost 50 school shootings since February 2, 1996. That is about 4 shootings a year. . . If anyone may recall on April 20, 1999, the nation's deadliest shooting took place in Littleton, Colo. The Columbine High School, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 14 students (including themselves) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves. In 2007, the Virginia Tech shooting happened, the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, killed a total of 33 people (including himself) and injured 15 others. This almost made that the most deadly shooting for the U.S.
According to CBSNews in their article "Why Do School Shootings Happen" dated April 22, 2007, the first known school massacre in this country was in 1927, a revenge killing in Michigan carried out by the treasurer of the local school board, who was convinced high school taxes were the reason his farm was foreclosed.
The most recent school shooting was in Germany Wednesday March 11. Unlike how it happens in the U.S., this 17 year old student went into his former high school and killed at least 15 people before he was shot and killed by the police. According to this article, it was Germany's worst shooting since 2002 when another high school lost 16 students and the gunman. Wednesday's gunman had graduated from Albertville High School in 2008. He had no rhyme or reason to his shootings, they were just at random, shooting students and adults alike.
In Alabama, it is unclear whether the shooter started at his mother's house, starting it on fire while his mother was still inside. He then drove a dozen miles and killed another nine victims. Four of them that happened to be his relatives. The wife of the deputy and their daughter were also shot and killed on that porch. He drove farther and went after more people, shooting another two or three, injuring many. This rampage ended when he had a stand-off with the police, shot at and wounded an officer, and then went into his old workplace (Reliable Metal Products) and shot and killed himself. That brought his death toll up to 11, including himself.
We all know shootings, especially school shootings, are hard to go through. Because everyone is so close and losing a friend is very hard. And for these schools and towns, to make people believe that incidents like that are not what the town/school is really like all the time takes some good PR.
In Valley City, ND, we (because I am from here) once had a nickname of Death Valley, because about 8 or 9 years we had three different incidents within a year span. So it is hard to get people to forget about that kind of stuff when they hear about your town and what nots.
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