Last month I was at a conference in Washington for an organization whose board I Chair. I was asked to give a brief presentation. I spoke, it was well received, but when I sat down the person sitting next to me whispered, “Nice job, you must have been under the gun though, you didn’t do a PowerPoint.” This got me to thinking.

Each Sunday morning at the firehouse we hold probationary training school. Due to the nature of the material we cover the advent of PowerPoint has been a boon. We can lecture, show the numerous acronyms we use in the fire service relevant to the lecture in written form on the screen and play video and still shots. All of this helps enhance our training methods. But in my overall estimation, the vast majority of times we all have to sit through tedious PowerPoint presentations can be avoided by not showing them at all.

For technical presentations, such as at fire school, PowerPoint is great. But project yourself back years ago and think of any great presentation you attended before the release of PowerPoint and like tools. You were usually moved by the content of the speaker and the ideas he or she offered. This used to be done with no flashy graphics or distractions from having to stare at a screen while the speaker was talking. At the end of the presentation handouts were offered to cover the salient point.

It seems PowerPoint is definitely being overused. The rule of thumb now is to show no more than five slides. The Fire PIOs new rule of thumb is to show no slides unless it is completely necessary. The last time I posted on this subject was back in May, when I said to “keep it simple.”

If you want t make an impression the next time you make a presentation, I say ditch the PowerPoint so your audience can focus on your message. You can go ahead and create the online visuals if you want; PowerPoint can indeed be a great way to help you organize your thoughts. But instead of projecting them on the conference room screen, makes copies for everyone and distribute them after the meeting. Without all those charts, graphs and bullet points to distract them, and lull them to sleep, folks might just end up paying attention to you!

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A new form of reporting local news is taking root across America. It’s called hyperlocal and is much more nimble and reactive then traditional community news sources.

Next month I am inviting the editors of Smithtown Patch to the firehouse for a media open house. I hold these events several times a year in which I invite one media outlet at a time to come and tour our department and get to know a little better about who we are and how we serve the community. This is the first time I am inviting what at this point can be called a non traditional or newly emerging form of media.

In Smithtown we currently have three hyperlocal web sources, Smithtown Patch, Smithtown Radio and Smithtown Matters. All three have been contacting me when news breaks and posting the stories almost as fast as I get them up on the web. Hyperlocal seems to be able to capture community news in almost real-time.

The biggest of these hyperlocal operations is Patch. The parent of Patch is AOL. The home page is constantly being updated with breaking news, restaurant reviews, community profiles etc. Here’s a look at the Smithtown Patch .

Currently there are Patch editions in communities in 11 states.

Although hits are currently sparse, I see hyperlocal news sources as a growing form of local information gathering.

It appears that many hard copy local papers that print on a weekly basis will have to come up to speed and create their own hyperlocal websites. Many community papers have engaged reader of their weeklies with fresher information via the web, but a large majority of these publications have, for what ever reason, shied away from providing daily web based news, and only provide it once a week in newstand and delivery print editions.

This may  prove to be a bad strategy, as hyperlocal sites such as Patch start grabbing both readership and local advertising revenue.

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There was a time in life when folks would not receive a “free pass” for their indiscretions. Recently I was pounding away on the computer in the conference room at the firehouse when two of the younger guys walked in and sat at the table to shoot the breeze.

One of the guys was talking about a friend who cheated by hanging out with his girlfriend. When he confronted the friend, he admitted to his misdeeds and was forgiven. He got a “free pass.” In my younger days a similar situation would have ended with fists flying. That might not have been the correct resolution to the problem, but it did replace the “free pass.”

The question is how did the “free pass” develop? I blame it all on professional sports. Years ago the late George Steinbrenner, who I respected as a businessman, sportsman and Yankee team owner created the “free pass” which has lead to more problems then it has resolved.

In an era of paying athletes humongous salaries, there was a need to protect your investment. If the Dwight Gooden’s of the world were caught using drugs they received the “free pass.” Oh, as long as he admits to what he’s done and goes to rehab he’s welcome back. Oh, if he abuses his wife but goes for counseling, he’s welcome back.

Some of these athletes over the years have received multiple “free passes” for their lack of tact and judgment. Now it has crept into the world of entertainment, another venue for following and emulating poor celebrity judgment by impressionable youth.  Lindsay Lohan is in jail. In today’s culture kids think – that’s cool, she’ll serve her time go to rehab, which is probably like a vacation and then receive the “free pass.”

Unfortunately this attitude of a wimpy slap on the wrist has permeated society.

Where as in the past rules were meant to be followed, today they are bent to meet a specific agenda or need.

How often in our own fire service are guys given the old “free pass” for not meeting call quota’s, not appearing at events, work details or drills or acting stupid at Class A uniform functions?

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A couple of years ago one of the guys at the firehouse was showing me how to use Photoshop. I needed to learn some simple skills – specifically how to erase license plates from MVA photos I wanted to send to the press.  As a result of boredom over the lesson the famed “sock on fire” trick photo shot was created.

It’s pretty funny when you look at some of the altered images people create with programs like Photoshop, but it is no laughing matter when the press or a news source uses these tools to create something that isn’t really there.

I remember a PR seminar I went to a few years back about the dangers of altering photo’s to slant a news story. Back in 2006 a Reuters photographer took it upon himself to alter a photo of an Israeli air attack on Beirut. As you can see the picture was photo shopped to make the incident appear worse than it actually was. After condemnation of Reuters, the news service put into place strict guidelines about the altering of original photo’s.

Speed ahead to last month. The June 19th issue of the Economist featured a cover image of President Obama standing on a beach in Louisiana, looking down in deep thought and seemingly pondering, as President, the enormous responsibility he has of how to make things bearable once again for those who are suffering though this disaster.

However, that’s not what the picture is actually about. It is deceiving. A New York Times article recently reported that the Economist modified the cover image which was shot by a Reuters photographer.

The unaltered image, shot on May 28 by a Reuters photographer, Larry Downing, shows Adm. Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard and Charlotte Randolph, a local Parish President, standing alongside the President. But in the image that appeared on The Economist’s cover, Admiral Allen and Randolph had been scrubbed out, replaced by the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico.

In an email, Economist deputy editor Emma Duncan told the Times that Admiral Allen was removed by the crop, and that Charlotte Randolph was edited out of the picture because no one knew who she was. Duncan claims that goal was not to isolate President Obama, but to have readers focus on him while the article examines the oil spills damage to business in America, not the President.

Was the picture cropped and altered to make the President look rock solid in his handling of the spill, or was it true that the photo included non familiar faces that were of little interest to readers?

In either case, this is a question we should not be pondering at all. The altering of this picture is a dangerous precedent in allowing a media outlet to editorialize through the use of something that never really happened.

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Like in the movie Groundhog Day I have a situation that happens over and over again, in the same manner each June. My department hands out a number of scholarships to deserving students at the high school, I take pictures, submit them to the local paper and they never get printed.

Everything I normally send to this newspaper gets printed, I have a great relationship with the paper, its employees and editor but each year for some unknown reason the scholarship story and photos never makes it to print.

This lack of coverage brings consternation to the folks in the firehouse who work on this program. Unfortunately magic wands are only in fairy tales and I do not try to usurp the press. I cannot tell them what to print and what not to print.

I can tell them if a story, quote, photo caption or fact is inaccurate, but I can’t tell them what to place in an edition. I don’t know their reasoning behind this one or if it is just a coincidence, but scholarship photos and the paper haven’t seemed to mix.

Have any of my fellow PIO’s had a similar situation? Are we crossing the editorial line by asking why a story is not being printed?  

I’m probably standing too much on journalistic formality.

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This past Saturday night I was part of a standby crew that did an overnight shift at a neighboring volunteer fire department. We brought an engine and an ambulance to their house to answer calls during their department’s installation.

I give the department an “A” for their fire house. This “A” is a PIO grade that I base, not on equipment in the truck room, but what the public would perceive is they visited the station beyond the “restricted” doors.

I am always proud to show our firehouse to visitors. We are basically a bare bones operation that gives great credence to the appropriation of taxpayer dollars. Yes we have flat screen TV’s, yes we have a bar area, yes we have a donated pool table, but beyond those few small amenities we are a simple house that provides just enough to encourage our members  to spend some time in the fire house to be ready to answer calls. Obviously the bar is a no, no when one contimplates answering calls.

Our standby visit showed me a department similar to ours. Maybe a more updated bar area and ready room, but essentially the type of fire house you would be happy to show taxpayers both inside and out, although the justification of bars in house can get sticky to explain.

Unfortunately a good number of fire houses here on Long Island get the PIO “F” grade. Many are monuments to waste of taxpayer dollars. These “Golden Palaces” have banquet rooms that rival the best catering halls, bars that put top sports bars to shame, workout rooms that have better equipment then a Golds Gym and truck rooms that you could fit a jetliner in. Who thought this was a good idea? Who thought that this was a wise way to spend taxpayer dollars?

This is why many in the public do not like us. This is where we get the perception of being elite drunkards.

If you worry about visitors seeing the inside of your palace, maybe you should have bought a more modest home.

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What is it about blue lights? In New York State a blue light can be used by a firefighter responding to an alarm, but it serves strictly as an indication for another driver’s courtesy. The public does not have to yield. It seems blue lights have this hypnotic, mezmorizing effect that causes most motorists to become totally oblivious to your attempt to get to the fire house as quickly as possible while staying within the speed limit and rules of the road. Many doesn’t know exactly what to do, a number of sadistic drivers intentionally slow down, while a few good citizens actually yield.

I posted a few day ago about a totally involved fire we had in town. The editor of one of our papers called me to find out about our response time. It seems a neighbor told one of his reporters that it took us 15 minutes to respond.

We are a transparent department and reviewed the records. We found out that the initial response for the first due engine was 8 minutes. No where near the 15 minutes claimed, but not as rapid as we respond under optimal conditions.

Before I called back the editor to make a statement on the response time, the Chief felt a closer analysis was warranted in the event the editor wanted to delve closer into the dynamics behind the response.

The alarm was a mid day call, on a work day. Main Street in our town is extremely congested during the week.

The analysis provided two clues to why the response time was 8 minutes. First, the heavy smoke from the fire that could be seen on Main Street had drivers slowing down to watch. The second, more telling fact was that many firefighters attempting to get to the firehouse, which is located just off Main Street, were not given what we considered to be the simple yield courtesy of many drivers on Main Street. Drivers could see the smoke, slowed down, but in a number of cases would not yield.

We felt though that the response time overall was within the acceptable range for a weekday fire when many members are out of town at work. Obviously for a volunteer firefighter to get to the station, they have to leave work or their home, get into their vehicle and make their way to the firehouse.

The incident opened the Chiefs eyes to formulating a public information campaign to let residents understand what a blue light is and why it is being used. I think this is a great idea.

Any of my fellow PIO’s ever create a blue light campaign? I’d like to know about it and if it achieved any tangible results.

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As a volunteer fire department PIO, and not in house based, I have to be prepared to respond from wherever I am in the community when an alarm is toned out. Since my main PIO “toolbox” is located at the main house, I need a fully redundant system that can duplicate some of the items I keep in the firehouse.

At the firehouse I have a large camera bag that holds the following items –

Digital camera

Camcorder

Kodak Xi8 pocket camcorder

Flip camcorder

PIO Armband

Extra batteries

PIO baseball cap

Reporter’s notebook

Pens

Business Cards

All of my media contacts are on speed dial on my Blackberry which I always carry.

I don’t always carry the camera bag when I go on calls. If I anticipate an alarm is going to be pretty much status quo I don’t bring the bag. As a result I have some backup in my turnout gear. In my pockets I have –

A small digital camera

Flip camcorder

Reporter’s notebook

Pens

Business Cards

My department does not allow turnout gear to be stowed in your vehicle. If I’m tooling around in my truck when an alarm is toned out and I pass the scene on the way to the firehouse, and it appears that sufficient manpower is on the fireground and I do not have to be a PIO/firefighter  I keep the following in my truck –

A digital camera

Flip camcorder

Reporter’s notebook

Pens

PIO vest

PIO baseball cap

Business cards

Extra batteries

In my jacket or pants pocket, all the time I keep a Flip video camera.

With this redundant system I am confident that I always have the tools needed to do my job, wherever I am.

The one reoccurring item I have in all my backups is a Flip cam. They are inexpensive, lightweight, can shoot both video and stills, have rapid edit capability, replay on any computer and quickly download to YouTube and other video sharing Website. In my estimation the quality is as good as or better than many full sized camcorders and is so inexpensive you can carry multiple units such as I do.

If you don’t use a Flip, Kodak Zi8 or other similar camera, you are missing out on a simple way to collect scene video.

Here’s a quick overview on the Flip –

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