PROBLEMS WITH PR PROPOSALS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

Writing a PR proposal for a board has some similarities to writing a press release—you have to grab attention and put your key messages upfront.

But there the similarity ends, because your purpose is different. In a board proposal, you are using asking for something, i.e. writing a recommendation.

Many organisations have high-level templates with headings such as purpose, background and recommendation. The recommendation either comes at the beginning or end—increasingly, I am seeing it at the beginning.

Many board paper writers run into trouble with recommendations because they don’t clearly ask for what they want. For instance a proposal for sponsorship may recommend that the board endorse the sponsorship outlined in the proposal without summarising the key details. This lack of detail means the board has to re-read your proposal to tease out the key facts.

With poorly written recommendations, part of the problem arises from not knowing how much detail to include. I believe a good recommendation needs to have enough detail so it can stand-alone and be copied and pasted to become the resolution in the minutes.

A concise, yet detailed resolution, allows people responsible for the action to know the extent of their authority and responsibilities.
It also acts as a historical and legal record should the matter ever be disputed. For example, a proposal for sponsorship needs to state the name of the organisation you propose sponsoring, the amount of money or time to be given and the period of time the sponsorship will run.

Make your key messages stand out.

Once you have clear recommendation, your paper should flow smoothly. The body of the paper will explain the background to your proposal, setting the topic in context for board members who do not have PR expertise.

In this section, many writers make the mistake of drowning the reader in detail so the key messages become buried. Some readers may want the detail, and if that's the case, put it in an appendix, but keep the body of the report clear, concise and relevant.

Quality, not quantity, will have most impact when you're asking for what you want.

For more information on writing board papers go to Mary Morel, Bored with Bored Papers.