At a breakout session during an NASC Sports Event Symposium there was discussion regarding how best to work with your local medias to educate your community on what you do and why. It was brought up that many local media’s are struggling and are looking for new ideas. Considering we ask a lot of our local newspaper’s sports department it only made sense to determine how we could help them – try to find a way to create that “win-win scenario”.

So I got the idea of offering our staff to write a weekly article giving the inside scoop on what’s going on in the world of amateur sports; locally, regionally and nationally. I met with the leadership of our local newspaper and pitched the idea. The basic concept was that most things published today are readily available to most readers regarding major sports stories through numerous other resources. Local newsworthy items of interest that were not available via the internet would be of value – yet they were getting it at no cost. They agreed to give it a try and we created the “Amateur Update” as a weekly newspaper sports section column focusing on the happenings of the amateur sports world.

So, we went to work. We shared stories about what the sports commission is, how and why we belong to the NASC, what we hear and learn at the Symposium, how we attract and select future events, what is the outcome of bid presentations, how our board works, and the list goes on. Our sales manager wrote about sales efforts, our operations manager wrote about preparation and duties of hosting events. Before long, we found that the local newspaper was thrilled with the column as it had not only exceeded their expectations but garnered numerous positive comments from the community. Now, more than eighteen months later, it is a column that is followed by many.

Some weeks we struggle for new content but with the new twists and changes of the world we deal with – we always seem to come up with something of interest. Most importantly we are supplying our community with information on who we are and what we do in an interesting and effective manner.

We are now looking at how we can expand on this and move into the television and radio media’s with an “amateur Athlete of the week” or “amateur update minute” to keep the community informed.  Communications of this type not only help to educate the community on what sports commissions do – but can also act as an arm of sales – making people aware of your presence so they can bring ideas or connections to you of potential future events.

So consider this when working with your local media outlets.  Keep the idea in mind of how you can help them achieve their goals and success. Perhaps an opportunity will open up that benefits them and also helps you promote what you do and how you run your sports commission – creating the win-win scenario we all like to be a part of.

About the Guest Contributor:  Ed Hruska, CSEE Rochester Amateur Sports Commission

Ed Hruska spent most of his life involved with leadership roles in amateur sports in some manner before being hired as the Executive Director in 2003. He served on the Sports Commission Board of Directors from 1996 – 2002 and was Board President in 1999. He has also served as chair of the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau and was elected to the Rochester City Council in 2004 – a seat he still holds. Recently Ed received an appointment to the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission Board of Directors. Ed earned his CSEE in 2007 and has been a member of the Member Mentoring committee over recent years.