Word Count: 1,773
Read Time: 5 minutes
In this issue you will find:
1. Member Connections
2. Be in the Know – How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group
3. Buzz from the Beat
4. Link(s) of the Month
5. Community Coverage
6. GMT Welcomes 3 New Members
7. Support: Database Do’s and Don’ts
8. Opt out instructions
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Member Connections:
Get your news on the airwaves through Public News Service
To support democracy and promote public dialogue in a rapidly changing media environment, Public News Service is an AP-style member-supported news service that advocates journalism in the public interest.
PNS's network of state-based news services distribute high quality public interest news and information that is aired on both mainstream and alternative media on a daily basis. Their stories are also available online in both text and podcast versions at www.publicnewsservice.org.
Last year, over 4,000 radio stations from across the geographic and political spectrum aired PNS stories a minimum of 174,500 times, from Sirius, Clear Channel & CBS Networks to Native Network News and Pacifica stations. Their Spanish production is expanding rapidly and they launched a highly successful Spanish talkshow project with Mainstream Media Project.
Their work is supported by over 450 nonprofit organizations, foundations and individual gifts that fund issue-based reporting.
To find out how to participate, contact
Susan Green
303.284.1443, sgreen@publicservice.org.
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Network within GMT’s 200 members~
Here are two effective ways to network on the new GMT site:
~~User Profile:
Search for others with the same skills and interests using the tag clouds.
Your profile is your landing page when you sign into the Member Hub.
http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/community
~~Organization Profile:
Use your organization profile to add recent media successes, press releases, info and links to your current campaigns, discussions, and more….
You can access all profiles through the Member Directory at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/directory and your organization’s profile through your user profile
When you arrive at the page for the first time, you will land on the About Us section and mission statement
Please help me meet my goal to have 100% of profiles completed
by November 1st
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2. Be in the Know - How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group:
Start a Discussion~
The new GMT member center has a Discussion Forum where you can engage your fellow members in discussions about current news, interesting blog posts, or other issues in environmental advocacy relevant to your work. You can also post questions out to the GMT community to get advice on the challenges we all face each day whether implementing a new communications strategy, building an active Board, or prepping your outreach budget.
Discussions are started with member posts in the forum at
http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/community/discussion
where you can…..
- Begin a discussion by going to “Add Post”
- Read the discussions and member comments
- Post your own comments
- Subscribe to a discussion to receive notifications when another GMT user comments
- Network with other GMT members
We also have discussions going on our public blog post at http://www.greenmediatoolshed.org/blog, accessible via our front page, www.greenmediatoolshed.org
Questions? Write nina@greenmediatoolshed.org
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Buzz from the Beat: Is your car running as sustainably as it can be?
Not sure? Then give your car a Green Checkup at http://www.greendrivingusa.com/greencheckup.html
A recent press release on World Wire News.com featured The Green Checkup project. The project provides a resource for drivers who are looking for ways to make their vehicles and transportation more sustainable (and save some gas money).
The project features an online checklist of maintenance tips to keep your car or other road vehicle sustainable. Created by the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), this list strives to have each vehicle perform at its most sustainable potential.
Read the full release at:
Read more about the Green Driving USA Project.
View the Green Checkup list at http://www.greendrivingusa.com/greencheckup.html
Browse a list of frequently asked questions about the best ways to save gasoline at http://www.greendrivingusa.com/greencheckup.html
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Link of the month:
Dogwood Alliance Video Game Pacs a Punch for Southern Forests
Dogwood Alliance, a Southern forest protection organization and longtime member of Green Media Toolshed, launched an environmentally themed video game, Packaging Man, to raise awareness about the destructive impact fast food paper packaging has on Southern forests. The game is a new take on the classic video game, Pac-Man, following the exploits of the hero Packaging Man as he works to save forest creatures by collecting excessive packaging and recycling it, all the while avoiding the “evil” fast food corporate executives.
Players have the opportunity to send a message to the top fast food companies in between games!
Play the game and send some letters at http://www.nofreerefills.org/files/packman/packman.html
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Community Coverage:
The Dogwood Alliance
Using Video Games to Raise Awareness for Environmental Issues
As noted above, Dogwood Alliance created and released a new environmental version of the classic video game Pac-Man to raise awareness about the impact the fast food industry is having on Southern forests. So far thousands of people have played the game and over 10,000 people have sent emails to targeted fast food CEOs asking them to use less packaging, use more recycled content in their packaging, and stop buying packaging that originates from endangered forests in the Southern US.
In addition to sending a press release to traditional media outlets nationally, regionally and locally via Green Media Toolshed, the organization adopted an aggressive Web 2.0 outreach strategy for reaching a wider audience with the game. Using the media database, Dogwood Alliance developed a targeted video game media list that mainly included video game blogs and online forums.
Beyond basic media, Dogwood Alliance did widespread outreach to the blogosphere, posted announcements on Facebook and MySpace, worked the game through Digg and Twitter, posted the opening animation sequence on YouTube, and sought out top free online gaming sites to post the game. They even figured out a way to embed the game in a MySpace profile and are working to do the same in Facebook. A whole team of staff and interns spent the launch day gathered together in their conference room working all of these angles.
Based on the numbers cited above, the launch was a success. Additionally, Dogwood Alliance received coverage on three big video game blogs, Grist, Mother Jones and a received a lot of local print. Though the Dogwood team sees this as a success, they are always looking for new and better ways and outlets for the game and welcome all suggestions. They hope to develop a follow-up game in the future.
If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please contact Scot Quaranda at scot@dogwoodalliance.org.
Want to share one of YOUR successes? Send submissions to nina@greenmediatoolshed.org.
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Let’s Welcome 3 New Members to our GMT Community:
Connecticut Food Bank strives to eliminate hunger by supplying food products and resources to member agencies, and promoting public awareness about the problem of hunger. They have participated in many projects that provide relief for victims of environmental disasters, and helped provide aid to Hurricane Katrina victims. Learn more about their work at http://www.ctfoodbank.org/
Satilla Riverkeeper works to achieve 100% compliance with all activities within the Satilla River watershed’s clean water regulations. They promote a high level of awareness among the general public, local government, and local business interests about the effect of their activities on the quality of the Satilla River system, and the importance of the Satilla River and its tributaries to their way and quality of life. Read more about their projects at http://www.satillariverkeeper.org/
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) is a coalition of people's organizations, non-profit groups and individuals who have joined forces to campaign for justice for the survivors of the Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal. Three organizations of survivors from Bhopal play a leading role in the international network. Members of ICJB continue to pressure Union Carbide's current owner, The Dow Chemical Company, and the US and Indian governments to ensure adequate health care, safe environment and proper rehabilitation for the survivors of the disaster and their children. Exemplary punishment of the Corporation and its guilty officials is one of the key demands of ICJB. Read more into their successes at http://www.bhopal.net/
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Are unsubscribe messages from reporters filling your inbox? There’s an easy GMT solution….
At the bottom of each of your emails that you send through the media database, there is an opt-out link, which reporters can click to automatically unsubscribe from your mailing list.
Reporters may also write you an email with this request. If you receive many of these emails, we can set up a User Defined Unsubscribe Field for your organization in the media database, which enables you to
~~Keep an ongoing list of the reporters who wish to unsubscribe from your organization’s communication
~~Add and remove contacts from the list at any time
~~Use the field in all of your searches to automatically ensure that these reporters do not appear on your list
The User Defined Unsubscribe Field is easy to edit and use, and will save you a lot of time removing reporters individually from your lists.
If this would be a good option for you, get in touch with Nina at (202) 408- 8850 x. 10, who can set one up for you.
And Remember………….. to always make your lists as targeted as possible to reduce the number of reporters requesting to unsubscribe.
Other media database questions? Contact Nina Schwartz at 202-408-8850 x. 10 or nina@greenmediatoolshed.org, Monday - Friday 9am- 5pm EST.
Need a refresher media database training? View our schedule at http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/taxonomy/term/989 and email nina@greenmediatoolshed.org to RSVP.
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View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center: http://www.greenmediatoolshed.org/taxonomy/term/38
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