Managing Communications

This unit will discuss the importance of HOT communications, how to effectively monitor and manage the various channels.

Communication Triage

Communication channels can quickly become flooded in the early days of a major disaster, being able to effectively manage the volume of communication is a necessary skill of Public Relations volunteers.

Planning Ahead

Possibly more than any other role, Public Relations needs to be staffed all day every day; at least for the initial response.

When building the Activation Team, if the scope of the event is expected to be major, especially if news media is or has been reporting predictions for 'catastrophic' damage or mass casualties, there should be a tight scheduling if not multiple Public Relations trained Activators to cover global media inquiries. This teams goal is to accomplish several things:

General inquiries are addressed in a reasonable time-frame and communication issues minimized
Ensure existing or potential partner or donor inquiries are addressed by appropriate liaison(s) or staff
The community has all the information they need to participate

Who Should Respond?

Maybe the most important skill of the Public Relations volunteers is knowing who should speak about what, especially when it needs to be handled by the Executive Director or HOT Board. This is dynamic and only endorsed Public Relations volunteers will be given access to the list of staff and key volunteer contact info (for privacy reasons). For training purposes, you should follow these guidelines.

Typically Public Relations can wait for the community to answer general inquiries about mapping or how to volunteer for the Activation, make sure the enquirer is pointed to the Activation wiki-page, Tasking Manager, LearnOSM or other appropriate guidance.
Media inquiries can sometimes be handled in a similar fashion, but Public Relations should try to respond first; more often those inquiries will require more attention and should be forwarded to the Communications Working Group.
Communication from existing partners and donors should go directly to the corresponding liaison, but sometimes someone new or unfamiliar will email the main list or another channel, also potential partners and donors may contact us via email, social media or activation coordination channels, make sure to connect these inquiries with a Partner Liaison or the Executive Director.
Sometimes inappropriate, angry or otherwise disruptive communication makes it past moderation onto one of our communication channels, make sure to include the Community Care volunteer(s) and assist them to de-escalate and resolve the issue.

Review

Choose the appropriate person or group to forward the following message: "Hi, my name is Rian and I work with a local non-profit in the area of this disaster, I am hoping you can connect me to someone operating mapping services in the nearby city; please reply soon?"

Forward to the Activation Lead(s).
Forward to the Communications Working Group.
Forward the message to Partner Liaisons with Executive Director copied.

People reading this material for credit on the HOT Courses website should share their answer in the #courses slack channel on HOT's Slack ( Request Invite ) If anyone has any question about the correct answer to a Review question, please ask in the #courses channel of HOT's Slack.

Communicating OUT

Disseminate Reports

Often the Reporting Activator will be focused on gathering and documenting and may need help drafting and disseminating reports. Also the Public Relations volunteers may be working more closely with the Activation Leads, Partner Liaisons and Community Care who in turn may be the best Activators for soliciting stories from partners, responders in the field and local OSM contributors. A good Public Relations volunteer will seek opportunities to capture data and stories for documentation and reporting. Also expect the Activation Lead(s) to need help trying to contact local OpenStreetMap communities and other messaging throughout an Activation.

Communication Working Group

It is strongly encouraged that Public Relations volunteers actively participate in the Communications Working Group. This group is charged with most things communication related in HOT, including:

Managing content on the website
Trying to maintain, clean-up and update the HOT section of the OpenStreetMap wiki
Managing the HOT social media profiles
Assisting the community with drafting and posting to all HOT platforms
Review and editing upon request of staff or community members who have access to post

Review

Public Relations volunteers create all external communication during an Activation.

True
False

Managing Communications