Archive for May, 2007

Does anybody out there want to team up with me to compete in the “Intelligent Use of Water” video competition? I’d love to try it, but I’ll need a partner.

Here’s a quick description of the opportunity:

Now is your opportunity to help raise awareness of the need to conserve and protect water. Create a short film proposing an intelligent way to manage and efficiently use the earth’s most precious resource. Submit your entry by August 15, 2007. Finalists will be presented at a screening event in Los Angeles, and cash prizes total $9,000.

The full contest description and rules are posted here: http://www.iuowfilm.com.

If you’ve got a brain full of water conservation solutions, I’ve got a camcorder, a big collection of stock footage, and the gift of gab. I’m handy with scripts, lighting, editing, and audio.

• I can do serious video like this.
• I can also do funny stuff like this, too.

But I need somebody with a great idea that I can turn into a winning video. It helps if you’re in the Washington DC metro area, but if you’ve got a good internet connection, geography is a surmountable obstacle. The rules do not require those who participate to be U.S. citizens.

Post a comment or drop me a note at eric dot eckl at waterwordsthatwork dot com.

Hat tip to Nalts at the Will Video for Food blog for announcing this opportunity.

The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, in Durham, NC, wants to replace the logo you see on the left, and they’re lifting a page from MoveOn.org’s playbook to do it: holding a design contest and inviting all comers to submit logos for their consideration.

It’s not clear how they’ll judge the entries, but they should consider inviting the members to vote. Give everybody a chance to make a little emotional investment in the organization!

There’s a lot to be said for this kind of approach and I hope it works out for them. If they do a good job promoting the contest, a lot of designers will check out their website, learn about their organization, and discuss their participation in the contest with their friends and family. That’s word of mouth PR for the group – the best kind. Furthermore, the winning designer may just be more interested in making a difference than making a buck. When they realize what they can do to help the group, they might do more: volunteering to redesign the website or newsletter, for example. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Now of course, it’s also possible that the group will only get a few entries and won’t like any of them. In that case, there are some new services on the market that will design your logos at very affordable rates.

• Logoworks
• Elance

Good luck to the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association!

For more than a dozen years now, I’ve been picking up copies of the Potomac Basin Reporter, newsletter of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. You can reliably find it on the brochure rack at outdoor stores and park visitor centers all around the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Somebody went to a lot of trouble at one point to set up this network of outlets, and it’s still a viable way to get the good word out. Instinctively, we know that outdoorsy people are more likely to care about the river than couch potatoes, and research tells us outdoorsy people are also more active in civic life than the couch potato set. So putting our message in front of them this way is just plain smart.

But my spidey senses are tingling, and they’re telling me this particular effort isn’t quite fulfilling on its promise. That’s because there’s a mismatch between how the newsletter is circulated and and how it’s written. Many issues are chock full of terminology that most park goers and outdoor store shoppers won’t get: watershed, nonregulatory, stormwater, and plenty of government-insider acronyms. It’s kind of like trying to entertain a bunch of six year olds by popping an episode of PBS Masterpiece Theater in the DVD player.

How does this happen? Probably because the editorial board is a group of earnest professionals who use each other as the frame of reference — and have completely lost sight of the potential readers browsing the brochure rack at REI.

So here’s a quick tip for improving the newsletter, and it won’t cost a penny or hurt a bit: Next time the editorial board meets to discuss the upcoming issue, they should do it at one of the parks where the newsletter is distributed. As they discuss what to include, what to leave out, and how to write it, they can observe the families with strollers and picnic baskets milling about, eavesdrop on the fishermen asking questions to the park rangers, and watch the school groups romp in front of the educational displays.

If they do that, I bet the gap between the language and the audience will start to close.

Anybody else got a suggestion to share?

Here’s a really neat organization that can help you engage and educate your community. It’s not clear to me if EarthWater is a nonprofit educational organization or a for profit retail operation, and they may have competitors, but they sell a neat product and I encourage you to check it out.

Stormdrain stenciling is a good activity because it helps you not just once, but twice.

Giving people a simple and fun but meaningful thing they can do to make a difference is a great way to start making friends and recruiting supporters in your community — and stenciling storm drains fits the bill. As those volunteers go out and play with the spraypaint, they’ll be making an emotional investment in your organization. A lot of them will be receptive when you come back later asking them to take that next step, such as writing or calling some official, or making a donation. Not only that, they will tell their friends and family later about what they did and why. Give ‘em a t-shirt and they’ll wear it with pride. It’s the best kind of marketing and public relations there is.

And of course, the stencils help! A lot of people have no idea what happens to the rainwater that runs into those drains. The stencils set them straight on that and at least give them an inkling that there’s a pollution issue in play, too.