SUGARCANE BREEDING INSTITUTE (ICAR)
COIMBATORE - 641 007
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PUBLICITY COMMITTEE MEETING
in r/o. CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS OF SBI HELD ON 24.9.2011
The first meeting of the Publicity Committee, constituted in connection with the Centenary Celebrations of SBI, was held at the Auditorium on 24.9.2011 from 10.30 a.m onwards.
The following were present -
1. Dr.D.Puthira Prathap, Senior Scientist … Chairman
2. Dr.A.Bhaskaran, Senior Scientist … Member
3. Dr. C.Karpagam, Scientist … Member
4. Shri.C.Mahadevaiah, Scientist … Member
5. Dr.P.T.Prathima, Scientist … Member
6. Dr.K.Lakshmi, Scientist … Member
7. Dr N.Thiravium, Technical Officer … Member
8. Shri A.R.Balasundaram, Technical Officer … Member
9. Shri.A.C.Chandrasekaran, T.O … Member
10. Smt.V.Ashakumari, Assistant … Member
11. Shri R.Palanisamy, Photographer … Member
12. Shri V.V.Galagali, LDC … Member
13. Shri M.Kannaian, SSS … Member
The Chairman initially highlighted the roles and responsibilities of the Publicity Committee in r/o. the centenary celebrations of Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore and elicited the views from members on various publicity activities and their feasibility, during events such as launch of centenary celebrations on October 29, 2011, International symposium, seminars, Institute-Industry Interface meet, Agri fair, etc. The purpose of this meeting was to list out the activities of the committee and prepare an action plan, he added.
The following suggestions were put forth during the meeting.
- Publicity through print and electronic media
- Press coverage during the Centenary launch/Foundation day on October 25, 2011 will be the first major activity
- In line with the magnitude of the events, press meets should be arranged. Invited media agencies should be adequately taken care of. Publicity through regular methods such as Radio (AIR/FM), TV, newspapers should also be carried out. It was decided that a separate enclosure/room should be provided for the media-persons during the events.
- Photos to be printed and sent immediately after the event to those agencies that do not turn-up for the event along with the Press release.
- Preparing Press releases
- Press releases should be prepared in all possible languages to announce the centenary. Releases may be prepared in English first and then translated to Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and in Malayalam languages. For this, the committee should identify those staff members who can type-out in Unicode and include them in all the activities.
- Creating a blog
- It was decided to create a blog exclusively for the Centenary. Committee has suggested a few titles such as Sweetcentenary, Sugarcane@100, sugarcentenary etc., This may be decided depending upon the availability. Wordpress or BlogSpot can be used for creating the blog. An email (sbicentenary@gmail.com, if available) ID should be created for the purpose. This is to be completed before the next meeting.
Posts to the blog should include:
- A directory with the particulars of all the committee members- contact e-mail IDs, phone numbers, etc. for easy contact
- All Press releases – in Tamil, English, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and in Malayalam.
- Vintage and Important photographs like those covering visits of VIPs, old & popular variety photos - to be collected and uploaded in the blog
- Information pertaining to brief achievements of 100 years (milestones) and popular & significant varieties released in every decade should be uploaded
- Journals/Magazines involved in Agriculture and allied fields should be approached for free publicity
- A directory of sugarcane researchers across the globe (with email IDs and organizations) should be prepared
- Publicity committee should co-ordinate with the Dept. of Posts, Delhi, Chennai and Coimbatore for releasing the commemorative stamp.
- Permanent flex- boards should be displayed in important and crowded places for public awareness. The Dept. of Agriculture and KVKs may be approached for this.
- Attractive posters (A3 size) to be prepared and sent to institutions and factories across the country.
- Small size stickers to be prepared and pasted in official vehicles and on vehicles used by SBI staff.
- A ‘Doodle in Google’ can be tried out for an important event during the year (say on President’s visit or on October 25, 2012). [Check URLs http://www.google.com/logos and proposals on this aspect to be sent to proposals@google.com)
- Updates/Alerts can be sent to interested registered users, besides all SBI staff on Centenary events [ Similar to the’ salary deposit’ SMS alerts]
- Flash news about centenary celebrations of SBI should be displayed in our websites viz. http://www.sugarcane.res.in and http://www.caneinfo.nic.in a week before each centenary activity..
- The committee felt that the Public too should be involved/aware of the Centenary of this Institute and suggested organizing competitions viz. Quiz for College/School students (General/Agricultural), essay writing, painting & music competitions, competitive science exhibits etc. for the school students to create awareness and to involve the public. Financial aspects to be discussed beforehand.
- Discussion with Director on possible production and Sale of T-shirt/ Caps with the centenary celebration logo. Financial commitment to office/Society to be discussed beforehand.
- Signage at vantage points during each event.
- Sub-committees will be formed based on the action points during the next meeting, in consultation with Director.
The meeting ended with tea.
(D.PUTHIRA PRATHAP)
Chairman, Publicity committee
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Distribution:
Members, Publicity committee
Centenary Secretariat
PA to Director for information