Congrats! You’re getting promoted, moving up the chain, maybe taking on a Public Affairs assignment at the Division or Corps staff (or higher). Sure, you’re further away from the action
Congrats! You’re getting promoted, moving up the chain, maybe taking on a Public Affairs assignment at the Division or Corps staff (or higher). Sure, you’re further away from the action
Maybe it’s not as serious as the title. The question is, as the public communicator, do you want to know? Do you need to know about the secret plan to
You can’t ask a reporter to hold a story if you’re not willing to have a conversation about context. You can’t put your commander on camera if you’re not going
I’m not usually one to advocate for more command information. PAOs spend too much time creating content to talk to ourselves, rather than plugging into the mission and talking about
I’m deployed. I have limited time to fix what our country is doing in Afghanistan. Luckily I can work as much as I want. I am only limited by time,
We’ve made it. A journalist asked a question. The journalist has enough interest in our topic that he or she e-mailed us. Once you respond they are likely going to
I hear from our ID Card Facility two or three times a week. Unfortunately, it’s only from the consistent e-mail alerts that they are going to be closed during times
“This document is so Public Affairsy! … No, no, I don’t mean any offense. It just doesn’t help me!” – A respected colleague’s exclamation, in the JOC, while researching information
Novels and movies love the build-up and payoff, right? It’s fun, and entertaining, to spend hours gathering all the pieces and then finally, surprisingly, find out how they fit together.
GoodmorningSir. I’manempoweredbadge-wearingmemberofyourorganization. I’mnowgoingtoreadyousomewordsfromapieceofpaper. ThisisabriefIwastoldtogivethismorning. ThisscriptwasreviewedseveraltimesbyvariousstaffleaderssoIamnotgoingtodeviatefromit. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. IonlywrotelikethirtyperentofthecontentI’mbriefingrightnow. Theyremovedsomeofthemostimportantinformationfrommyscriptbecauseweweren’tsureiftheG2hadseenthatinformationyet, oriftheyagreedwithmyassessment. Wedon’twantyoutoknowtwoprofessionalstaffelementscouldpotentiallyhavedifferentperspectivesonacomplicatedtopic. Blahblahblahblahblahblah. Thisscriptwasapproved24hoursagosomostoftheinformationisoutofdate. Blahblahblahblah. Areyoulistening? It’shardtotellbecauseIdon’twanttotakemyeyesofmyscript. Blahblah. MaybeI’llsneakonepeek. Itlookslikeyou’rejusttalkingtotheCommandSergeantMajoratthefronttablewhileI’mbriefing. Maybethat’sforthebest. NowIcanjustgetthroughthisfasterandhopefullyyouwon’thaveanyquestions. Mysupervisorsdidn’ttellmewhattodoifyouaskanyquestionsorwanttohaveadiscussion. Thatisn’tinmyscript. Thiscould’vebeenane-mail. Blahblahblah. Pendingyourquestions. (Photo by Pfc. Andrew Valenza,