Teaching PR

Today I had a meeting with the first of next semester's three (plus the Bateman team) Campaigns class clients, the Athens Symphony Orchestra. It's a volunteer group, does six performances a year, and recently added a chorus. They've been around for almost 30 years, and I've been in Athens for 14, but I knew next to nothing about them--making them, of course, a perfect candidate for the class. The students will be involved with recruitment (members for both the orchestra and the chorus), fundraising, media relations, and whatever else comes up in the research phase.

Client choice is one of my favorite things about Campaigns. Local organizations and UGA departments pretty much line up to participate, and I get to choose whatever interests me and will benefit the students. In the past I've chosen two clients with competing teams on each account, but I decided to go with three this year as an experiment. It will undoubtedly be more work for me, but since I have a personal interest in the ones I choose, it should be fun.

Labels: campaigns, teaching