I’m privileged to have worked with the Waco Chamber of Commerce for the past few months. The main thing my team was working on was a content analysis to help them with their website. One of the jobs we were assigned to was researching many economic development websites to find trends among them. It’s great experience to work with other people who you can share ideas with and ask questions.

I love how the class is separated into teams. It’s good to know how to work with other people and I, for one, prefer working by myself with my own ideas; but I could not have had a better experience with my team! The class was great practice and now that the semester is almost over, I feel so much more prepared than when I started the class and can really see the benefits the course has given me!

By Brandy Stinchcomb

By: Rebecca Jung

This week, the BRIC team was given the assignment of writing a press release announcing the completion of Phase 1 at the BRIC facility. We had a short amount of time to gather information and write the release, but it helped us gain experience working in a situation where the client needs information quickly. This press release will be sent to media in the local Waco area, as well as in Houston, Dallas and Austin. We worked with leaders at the BRIC, with Professor Neill and with Lori Fogleman, Director of Media Relations at Baylor University. The press release will be sent through Lori Fogleman and Baylor media relations.

Baylor Oso PR Agency teaches us more about the agency setting each day. It is a great opportunity for any student looking to further their studies in the public relations field. Not only do we learn about the daily activities and requirements of a public relations agency, but we also gain valuable work experience that helps the greater Waco community.

By Emily Anne Moore

Pitching.  It’s a term everyone who has taken a basic public relations course has at least heard of.  However, it’s a skill and requirement that is learned by repetition and takes practice.

In our classes and at our internships, we have practiced writing pitch letters, but in many cases have never actually called a reporter and pitched a story.

On Thursday, the students working with Baylor OSO PR got firsthand experience at pitching to a real reporter.  Bruce Gietzen from KXXV-TV visited our class and took the time to listen to and critique a pitch each student had prepared.

The exercise mimicked a phone call a public relations practitioner may make to a reporter to pitch a story.  Students introduced themselves to Mr. Gietzen and pitched their ideas.  He then offered feedback on how to improve our pitches by making them more newsworthy, speaking louder or having more information before calling a reporter.

In this class we are offered opportunities to put the skills we have learned in the classroom to practice.  PR practitioners with work experience and reporters who regularly work with PR people come to our class to speak and act as mentors to our small, growing agency. 

Baylor OSO PR and the accompanying class are great for any student looking to see how the real world of PR looks and works.

Cameron Proffitt

 As a class, the Baylor Oso Public Relations Agency is working extremely hard producing quality work for our clients, the BRIC and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce. 

As mentioned in the two previous posts by Sara and Kyle, my fellow BRIC teammates, meeting as a group is probably the most difficult obstacle that we as students face.  We all have our own commitments outside of class, and scheduling can be extremely difficult; however, we manage to meet together and produce material that will benefit our clients.  It is possible, even if meeting at the library at eight on a Sunday evening is the only available time. 

Working on the BRIC project, our job is built on reaching out to the stakeholders, the ones who have invested in the construction of this new research facility.  Our goal is to inform these publics on the progress of the facility and what technologies will be offered inside.  We also are trying to think of methods of attracting students to want to attend Baylor and become part of this new research initiative. 

 A highlight for me in these past weeks was taking a tour of the BRIC with a portion of our team.  For me, it really put in perspective what the objectives and goals of the research facility are going to be.  Of course, the building is still in the construction phase, so there was a lot of imagining in my mind of what the inside will look like, but I think I have a good understanding.  I have a feeling that when complete, and the facility becomes operational, the BRIC has the potential to boost Baylor as a world-class research university.  I am excited to see the growth as the years go on. 

It is astonishing how quickly the semester has flown by.  I am proud of the work we as an Agency have done in nine short weeks and am looking forward to what else the semester has for us. 

By Ryan Garrett

As Sara talked about in the last blog entry, working in a group is hard to do because it is so difficult to find a time to meet together.  This had been the problem for those of us working with the  Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative. We could never get a time scheduled to tour the facility and see everything that had been done with the construction.  But last week, we were finally able to meet and tour what is about to become the BRIC.

While we were at the BRIC, we were able to see the things we had heard about throughout meetings.  As we were walking towards the building, we immediately saw the progress being made on the exterior of the building.  It is almost completed and the glass around the atrium area is nearly all in place.  The only thing left outside is the landscaping.

From there, we went inside and looked at the work being done on the interior of the building.  We saw the new walls that are being put up and the new stairwells and elevator shafts that have been added since construction began.  On the third floor, we saw a glimpse of the upcoming layout for the space science center and where the BRIC will house a mission control facility and the lab of Dr. Marvin Scully.  The most impressive feature of the BRIC was on the second floor atrium area where you walk into a big open room that has glass enclosures on two sides, and you can see Baylor and downtown Waco off in the distance.

The construction at the BRIC is scheduled to go on for another couple of years, but people will be moving into the BRIC in January of 2013 so there are exciting things ahead for the project.

Click on the photos below for a larger view:

One of the hardest parts of working on a client project as a student is finding a time to meet as a group. Most of us in the class are juniors or seniors and have ample experience working with others, and falling into a new group of highly intelligent, focused individuals is not a problem. Division of labor is not usually an issue, as most of us are genuinely interested in the work we are doing and are trying our hardest to do good work. Creativity, quality and finished product are generally wonderful, as having individuals from many different backgrounds allows for vastly different ideas. But getting us all together makes up in hardness for the rest of our seemingly effortless work.

Between class, work and social organizations, we barely find time to eat and sleep, let alone pour over data and write an analysis about gathered information. Somehow, we always make it work. It might be that one of us Skype’s with the rest of the group or takes a screenshot of necessary data to email to everyone else. Sometimes we meet at midnight or very early in the morning. Frequently we meet short amounts of time, long enough to produce a draft to be edited multiple times by each of us separately.

This method probably would not have worked before we were able to communicate via Twitter, Facebook or smartphone. Social media and being able to receive emails on phones has made group work much easier. We can now communicate with each other instantly without having to track down where someone is.

Of course we have all learned about working with clients this semester. At this moment I’m revising a survey to be administered to potential graduate students, something I never thought I would know how to do while still in college. Even more so, we have learned about effective team work, and how to make the most out of what little time we have together.

I am very pleased with the work our class has done this semester and am anxious to see how this all looks in the end!

By Sara Lemister

Professor Robert Darden says, “Why is this music so difficult to find, or even hear, today?

Although small gospel labels still release classics, and reissue labels like Document Records and Collectables have repackaged some Golden Age music, these companies don’t have the wide distribution of the major labels and mostly depend on mail and Internet orders. In fact, catalogues of early gospel labels are mostly owned by the large corporations that dominate the music industry. For the most part, these companies have released only a few classic albums on compact disc.

We want to make the soul survive! Black Gospel Restoration Project with Baylor’s Oso Public Relations is off to a great start. After meeting with Professor Darden, it took the help of Ms. Neill’s first hand experience to give our PR plan a firm direction. Ms. Neill broadened our horizon. We’re excited to contribute to such a well-established project, and reaching out to the black community through younger generations by social networking.

Our goal is to use the newer generation to spread the word and find as much old vinyl as possible. Contacting pastors, DJ’s, and the older community is within our grasp. With strong spirit and energy, we’re thrilled to help BGR connect on a new level!

The purpose of this project is to identify, acquire, preserve, record and catalogue the most at-risk music from the black gospel music tradition. This collection will primarily contain 78s, 45s, LPs, and the various tape formats issued in the United States and abroad between the 1940s and the 1980s. Additionally, any ephemera that may be of use to scholars, including -

• PR photos and press packets,
• Taped interviews,
• Informal photographs,
• Tour books and programs,
• Newspaper and magazine clippings,
• and Sheet music; will also be acquired as it becomes available.

The ultimate goal is to have a copy of every song released by every black gospel artist or group during that time period.Contact Professor Darden

We’ve spent our first meetings getting acquainted with each other and clients, brushing up on PR strategy and forming the smaller teams who will work with each client. Professor Neill also put us through our own mock focus group, so we could experience a common research technique firsthand.

Our new clients are the Waco Chamber of Commerce and Baylor’s Black Gospel Restoration Project, and we will continue to partner with last semester’s client, the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative.

Ironically, the hardest thing I’ve done so far in Oso PR is less related to job skills or clients: simply working with my individual team (Waco Chamber) to find a consistent meeting time outside of class. We’re not side-by-side in an office from 9-5, and we don’t have a conference room. But come to think of it, this challenge could have applications in the job world: it stretches our creativity, flexibility and time management. 

Regardless, I’m looking forward to contributing to Oso PR. The other team members and I will update this blog weekly with agency or class news. Thanks for stopping by! 

This week’s post brought to you by Cate Westenhover (team bios coming soon).

Lariat article on Oso PR

We’ve hit it big, we finally made it into the Homecoming edition of the school newspaper. The Baylor Lariat headline reads:

New public relations class offers real-world experience

Yes. YES we do! Here at Baylor Oso Public Relations we are so excited about this achievement and we hope this is just the beginning of  stories written about the agency. If you would like to read the article, click here! 

Then, if the article sold you on gaining real-world experience through taking the PR agency course then Baylor students– JOIN THE TEAM: enroll in Journalism course 3370 for the spring or contact Professor Marlene Neill, APR, at 254-710-6322 or by email at Marlene_Neill@baylor.edu