The ARRL Public Relations Committee is undergoing some changes under the leadership of new committee chair Steve “Sid” Caesar, NH7C, with ARRL Board Liaison and Roanoke Division Vice Director Bill Morine, N2COP, and ARRL Communications Manager David Isgur. An ARRL Life Member who has served on the PR Committee for about 3 years, Caesar succeeds Scott Westerman, W9WSW, as chair.

The mission and goals for 2018 have been set. Caesar, Morine, and Isgur are putting together a team that will focus on empowering ARRL Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Public Information Coordinators (PICs) by giving them better tools and resources to reach out to traditional media outlets and social media, and to continue to raise the visibility of Amateur Radio.

These will include a revamped Contact! e-newsletter that will offer tips, suggestions, and “best practices” for PIOs and PICs; a re-energized PR reflector to share success stories and examples of what works and what doesn’t in pitching media outlets, and a 2018 events calendar, to give PIOs and PICs a hook for drawing media attention to Amateur Radio. In addition, social media page guidelines are being developed to leverage coverage to communities both within and outside of Amateur Radio.

Caesar, the new PR Committee chair, serves as the chief of Bureau of Indian Affairs Emergency Management (BIA EM) in the US Department of the Interior. Previously, Caesar served as the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) Emergency Manager at the Department of the Interior’s Office of Emergency Management (DOI OEM) in Washington, DC.

His 34-year public safety and emergency management career has also included experience in various areas of public safety. He is an active SKYWARN volunteer in the Washington, DC, area and an active contester and member of the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC). During the run-up to ARRL’s National Parks on the Air (NPOTA) operating event, Caesar assisted in coordinating with the National Park Service.

Morine returns to the PR Committee after a 3-year hiatus. With more than 30 years as an independent financial planner, Morine worked during and after college as a TV news producer in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC. He has served as an ARRL PIO, North Carolina Section PIC, and as North Carolina Section Manager.

Morine was previously on the PR Committee from 2004 until 2014, serving as chairman for 3 of those years. He is the 2001 winner of ARRL’s Philip J. McGan Silver Antenna Award for outstanding public relations on behalf of Amateur Radio.

Other PR Committee members include committee stalwart Angel Santana, WP3GW; Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR, a Walt Disney Parks and Resorts systems engineer and a University of Florida alumnus, who is an active leader of the ARRL’s College Amateur Radio Initiative (CARI); Northern New Jersey PIC Ed Efchak, WX2R, and Alan Griffin, who represents Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) on the Committee.