On Wednesday May 20th, 2009, GMT invited Richard K Judy, an experienced PR Professional at the corporate and nonprofit level, to hold an open interview for GMT members.

With a background in public relations, Richard has extensive experience working both for corporations as well as with numerous environmental groups. He has done media relations and crisis communications training for Amoco Corporation, BP America, the U.S. Green Building Council, and Propex Fabrics. He finished working at BP America in 2003 after having risen to director of public affairs for the Southeast U.S.

In addition to these corporate ventures, he has served on the board and volunteered at numerous non profits, including the National Wildlife Federation, CHARIS Community Housing, The Nature Conservancy, the Chattahoochee Nature Center, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. He also served for two years as executive director of EarthShare of Georgia, the Georgia chapter of a national workplace giving organization.

Richard left GMT with a lot of good points to take away with. Listen to the recording of the session at the link below to learn how you can get your environmental group to sit at the same table as smokestack companies and other corporations, manage your crisis communications, and build better relationships with reporters.

A few pieces of advice we took away building relationships are:

1. Get out and about when environmentalists get together. Environmental conferences are goldmines for reporters, so you can bet on seeing a few media acquaintences there. Host an event and invite a variety of environmental groups and reporters, who exchange information and benefit from each others' attention. Events also enable you to get to know the reporters personally.

2. Make yourself into a resource for reporters. Call reporters when you have facts and figures that will be valuable to them. Don't make blind phone pitches unless you have a headline story.