Success and turnout of Islam Awareness Week at your campus is dependent on the creativity and determination of the Public Relations committee. The scope of this committee is large and requires the manpower of the entire MSA. Responsibilities include: seeking co-sponsorships with other university organizations and/or academic departments, advertising through local media such as the school newspaper/radio/community newspapers/TV agencies, and targeting your audience through banners, flyers, chalking, and handouts distributed around the university campus. The final responsibility of the Public Relations committee is to document the happenings during the week through photographs and video recording so as to ensure a record of the event.

Co-sponsorships

In order to receive more publicity and support, individual MSAs should consider co-sponsorships with other organizations or academic departments with similar objectives and interests. A co-sponsorship is an agreement between two organizations to work together on an event of mutual benefit. Co-sponsorships are valuable since they immediately provide more manpower, funding, and contacts. They also allow for the building of relationships, which lead to a larger recognition of Islam Awareness Week by the University community. If your MSA does consider this option, please be advised to inquire with your university the procedures for co-sponsorships. It is also recommended that you draft contracts with other organizations or academic department outlining the exact roles and responsibilities of each organization in order to facilitate healthy relations.

Effectiveness Publicity

1. Publicity can take many forms and some are better than others. Posters should be attractive and mass publicity (posters hanging up all over campus) only works to a certain extent. If you use mass publicity in the form of posters, design several types of posters. If you only have one type, people will quickly recognize it and not look at it. Other methods of publicity are:
2. Target Publicity. More effective than hanging posters is finding a specific audience that can relate to a presentation or topic. If you are doing a presentation on War and Peace in Islam, for example, target Political Science departments or Middle Eastern Studies departments. Find out when their classes or meetings are and ask for five minutes of their time to inform them of the event.
3. Handbills and Chalking. The day of your event, make small, attractive flyers or handbills you can distribute outside rooms where your event is taking place. In addition, with the permission of your university, chalking sidewalks proves to draw attention and is a good publicity tool to use the day of your event.
4. Banners. A big banner outside of your Student Union or Student Center building is a constant reminder of what activity is going on.
5. Newspaper, Radio, and TV. If you can afford it, go for it. Otherwise, send public service announcements that show how your event is serving your campus (perhaps by educating them) and get the media to support you.
6. Websites and E-mail. If your MSA has a website, utilize this medium for advertising. In addition, utilize contacts from your own MSA database to spread the word. Finally, networking websites such as Facebook might be of use in spreading the word to a wider range of people.

Documentation

Building an archive of videos, evaluations, pictures, etc. serves many purposes. For one, it allows you to see what you have done and improve for the future. Secondly, it prevents us from having to reinvent the wheel. Ideas, proposals, and activities should be shared so that in the future if an MSA decided to do similar project, the information would be available to access.

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