From NFRW Public Relations Committee

The Florida Federation of Republican Women was awarded the highly prized Public Relations Award during the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) 42nd Biennial Convention in Oklahoma City on September 30, 2023. Texas and South Dakota took second and third place, respectively. 

FLORIDA, FIRST PLACE TROPHY
Florida's application was full of examples demonstrating how active they are. From written articles , podcasts and GOTV efforts on social media, to statewide monthly newsletters and engaging emails to their members, there was so much for us to read to help us see the level of activity happening in Florida. The Public Relations Committee was impressed that Florida has an open rate of 53% for their monthly newsletters when the national average open rate for organizations using email to communicate with its members is 21.5%. This showed us that they are not just producing lots of content, but that their members see great value in that content. They also implemented a texting campaign to reach newly-registered Republican women in their state.

TEXAS, SECOND PLACE
Texas showed us that they make great use of traditional media. They put a lot of effort into highlighting election integrity in their state and making it a priority to register Republican voters. Texas's efforts helped secure 400,000 new Republican voters - that's incredible! They also boldly held candidate training schools in heavily Democrat areas with great success. Lastly, Texas's intentionality in growing their social media presence and increasing their number of followers was very impressive.

SOUTH DAKOTA, THIRD PLACE
South Dakota impressed our committee with an entire section on "out of the box" public relations activities, including a Christmas Tree in the Capitol event, community parades, state fair booths, and promotion of the state federation while campaigning for key races. South Dakota also embraced the importance of word-of-mouth advertising. A highlight was the Embracing RARs (Recently Arrived Republicans) initiative -- a concerted outreach effort to look for and welcome new Republican women moving to the state.

PR AWARD PROGRAM UPDATED FOR 2022-2023
For the 2022-2023 term, the focus of the NFRW Public Relations Committee was to improve the application process and make the award more accessible to state federations. In previous years, broad and vague guidelines were given to state federations attempting to earn this award.

Several committee members had attempted this process in the last few years, and all agreed more specific guidelines would have been beneficial. After discussion, we decided we already had a great model in the Achievement Awards form that we could follow. Just as the Club Achievement Awards program is to be used as a roadmap for club presidents to plan their term, we wanted the PR Award form to serve as a roadmap for state presidents to follow in their PR strategy.

We really appreciate the states that submitted a form and made the effort to document and preserve their activities for the benefit of all NFRW members and for future presidents in their state. Those states include: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas.

The NFRW Public Relations Committee is extremely proud of the new award form and is impressed with what states are doing to promote themselves. We hope all state federation presidents will take a look at this form early in their term and use it to map their public relations journey.

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CAPTION: NFRW PR Chair Ingrid Lake presents the top Public Relations award to Florida Federation President Diane Van Parys at the NFRW 42nd Biennial Convention on Saturday, September 30, 2023.