This is a communications campaign that will inform and help current members to support the Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund’s efforts.

RESEARCH

Situation/Summary:

ARCHITECTS is a national organization to promote different types of efficiency of architecture. It connects architects and other professional related to architecture under the common goal of improving the building environment.

The membership is comprised mainly of architects but other participants include landscape architects, engineers and other designers. ARCHITECTS raise funds for different organizations for the betterment of the profession. The members meet at a national convention and through formal proposals they decide on which fundraiser would be the best. At the next convention is taking place in Los Angeles, CA. The Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund is to be highly supported and ultimately chosen by the members. This fund is dedicated to restoration, preservation and educational programs to promote the works of the famous neo-modern architect that sparked an architectural revolution in the 1930s.

This fund is having some problems with various groups inside the organization fighting over the goals and objectives. The board of ARCHITECTS feels that a treasure of design experience will be lost unless the organization supports the Fund over the next five years. This will be a long-term campaign and a proactive one.

Client Research:

• Membership list will be looked at and analyzed to study the people that belong to ARCHITECTS.

• SWOT Analysis will help explain what the strengths and weaknesses currently are. Opportunities and threats are not as important as the strengths and weaknesses due to internal vs. external.

• Interviews and Surveys will be conducted to find out if the members are satisfied, using likert scale we can use SPSS to analyze the data found. We will also be able to find out important questions such as how these members usually communicate with each other so we can pass along salient information to them concerning the Fund at hand.

• An internal focus group made up of only members will give me a better understanding on how these people think, act, and ultimately, how to get them on the same boat in supporting the Frank Louis Williams Fund

Publics Research:

The primary target public, and in this case, the only target public is everyone involved in ARCHITECTS. The members are spread throughout the United States.

Management: upper, mid and lower level administrators.

Nonmanagement: specialists, clerical personnel, and executive assistants. Uniformed personnel: equipment operators, drivers, and security personnel,” (Hendrix & Hayes, p. 90).

Everyone within the organization will be researched and studied. After identifying all of these people I will have a better idea of the objectives we will need to successfully reach in order to get ARCHITECTS behind the Frank Louis Williams Fund. I will reach out to each member and really make myself personable to make them feel comfortable and to understand the objectives and take initiative one person at a time sort of speak in supporting this Fund.

OBJECTIVES
1. To favor members’ attitudes about the Frank Louis Williams Fund by 75% before the national convention in Los Angeles, CA.
2. To decrease the doubt that various groups within the organization have about the board’s objectives and goals of the organization by 60% before the next national convention in Los Angeles, CA.
3. To inform 100% the members of ARCHITECTS about the Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund before the next national convention in Los Angeles, CA.


PROGRAMMING
Themes/Messages:
1. Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund is dedicated to restoration just as all members of ARCHITECTS are.
2. Supporting this Frank Louis Williams Fund will gain design experience.
3. The Treasure of Design is Before Us!
4. In 1996, Frank Louis Williams’ home and was declared a National Historic Landmark. In 2003, he received the American Association of Architects’ prestigious National Honor Award. Who would we be to not support his effort?

Special Events:

1. Every Saturday leading up to the national convention in Los Angeles my team and I will conduct barbeques in major cities around United States. Every member is invited and there will be free food and non-alcoholic drinks. Alcoholic drinks will be discounted. At this event I will prepare a PowerPoint presentation and hand out backgrounders/fact sheets about the Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund. At the end of the presentation I will hand out surveys to get personal feedback from the members.
-Since it is a national organization, it may be hard to get many members to show up. That is why I have chosen Saturdays and free food/drink, discounted alcoholic drinks to attract these members into a major city for a fun day on Saturdays.

2. Each week leading up to the national convention meeting in LA I will hold a competition online in which it will be a live blog. Here I will hold another PowerPoint presentation for everyone to see before the live blog goes up. At the end of the week there will be a quiz on the Frank Louis Williams Fund and its organization only portraying the positives. Those who score the highest on the quiz will receive prizes. One of the prizes will be a visit to Frank Louis Williams’ National Historic Landmark house and its museum sites for the member and his/her family.
-This will allow members to become more familiar with the Fund and only its positives and also allows members the chance to have a weekend vacation for his or her family to a Frank Louis Williams museum site.

Use of media:

“In addition to email, voicemail, websites, and house publications, employee relations programs use a variety of other forms of controlled media such as: bulletin boards, displays and exhibits, telephone hotlines, internal video, executive blogs, teleconferences, audiovisual presentations, booklets, pamphlets, and brochures,” (Hendrix & Hayes, p. 93). In this case the use of media will always be controlled because we are dealing with just the members of the organization. Everything done and made (found in the list above) will make the members perceive the Frank Louis Williams Preservation Fund in a positive manner. Getting across the information about the Fund is a number one priority and each form of media will be different yet portray the same thoughts and ideas by using the principles of effective communication.

Effective use of Communication:

1. Opinion leaders: I will need to seek out the more “popular” members and also the board to act as opinion leaders to relay information to the other members.

2. Audience participation: This is a huge aspect for as everything that is done in this campaign will need the audience participation to help inform, receive, understand, retain, believe, and act on the objective at hand. At every barbeque, and online chat, and online competition I am striving for the audience participation. I understand that with the barbeques not everyone there will be there because they want to support the Fund but changing them into supporting the Fund is the key to success.

3. Salient information: Bulletin boards, displays and exhibits, telephone hotlines, internal video, executive blogs, teleconferences, audiovisual presentations, booklets, pamphlets, and brochures will all be relevant to the Frank Louis Williams Fund and will also be only positive information about it.

4. Verbal communication: I must be clear, appropriate, accurate, and targeted to members of ARCHITECTS by using simple words. Clear, concise and to the point in everything done in this campaign.


EVALUATION

This will be an ongoing process for the objective is to have the members support this fund for five years. The informational objective will be measured and evaluated by determining the message exposure, message comprehension, and message retention. Audience size will be conducted at every barbeque and online blog. I understand that not everyone there will be engaged in the message exposure, comprehension and retention but it is good to know the numbers of who is showing up. Since this campaign is proactive and long term surveys will be sent out to better understand the members’ message comprehension and message retention. Surveys will be conducted each month to test the members about the Fund to see who is still knowledgeable and familiar with the Fund. Each objective will be evaluated according to its percentages by using surveys. Surveys will be handed out before the campaign starts to get an idea of where the members stand. The same survey will be handed out during and after the campaign starts.