PR Workshop - York Gate London

31 January.  I undertake a solo engagement in London, as I have been invited to a Public Relations Workshop at York Gate, Regents Park.  I suppose they wanted me there because of all the high level  meetings I am regularly involved in, and the insight I can therefore give in presenting a positive image of Rotary. I had to be there for 9 a.m. so it necessitated an early start. I was aiming for the 7.10 train from Shepperton, which would get me in to Waterloo at about 8 a.m. I then intended to walk to York Gate, which I reckoned would take me about an hour, but I quite enjoy walking through central London. I don’t do it often enough to become tired of it. As it happened, I got to Shepperton a little earlier than expected and caught an earlier train, leaving at 6.59 a.m. I didn’t mind arriving a little earlier, as I could always stop for a coffee en route.The train was almost completely empty apart from me, as it left Shepperton.

                                                         Unusual, empty train leaving Shepperton

Before long, I wished I hadn’t caught this train. It went as far as Kingston, then stopped for 10 minutes. When it got going again we were going back the way we had just come! We went back to Teddington, then turned off for Strawberry Hill, now taking the loop to Waterloo via Richmond. This was annoying, as we didn’t arrive until 8.20, too late for me to walk to York Gate and arrive in time. So I had two choices, either to take a bus, or the faster Tube. I decided on the Tube, as I remembered what happened a few months ago, on the buses.

                                                                  Strawberry Hill Station

The last time I travelled on London’s buses was particularly memorable for me, as I had three altercations with different bus drivers in one day. It was November last year, and the DG and I decided to have a day in London. I wanted to see the Late Turner exhibition at the Tate Britain Gallery and we both wanted to see the poppies at the Tower of London. The Tate Gallery was a simple walk from Vauxhall station so no problems there. To get to the Tower, however, we needed to catch a bus to The Aldwych, then change and get another to Tower Hill. I thought it would be easy. Virtually all London’s buses are now accessible to wheelchairs, by virtue of a ramp in the middle of the vehicle which automatically comes down to the kerb, making it easy to board the bus.  Furthermore disabled passengers travel for free, so it was just me who needed a ticket. Our previous trip to London had been almost 12 months previously, when I learnt how to obtain my ticket by means of a machine situated at the bus stop. A very good system, I thought, which saves time when boarding the bus.

                                                        Turner's The Blue Rigi, Sunrise

However the system had changed in the intervening period. Outside the Tate Gallery, there was a bus stop but no machine to obtain a ticket from. Never mind, I thought, I’ll just pay the driver. When the bus arrived, the DG was loaded via the ramp, and I went to the front of the bus to pay for my ticket. ‘I can’t take any cash’ the bus driver said. ‘Well how can I pay for my ticket?’ I replied. ‘You need an Oyster card’ he told me. I knew about Oyster cards, of course, but I had never used one before. They are basically a payment card that you can pre-load with money, just like a top-up phone. They can be used on Tube trains as well as buses, by simply  touching them against a pad as you enter. My problem was, I was now on the bus and I didn’t have an Oyster card. ‘You can stay on the bus if you want’ said the driver ‘but if a ticket inspector comes aboard, you might end up with a £100 fine’. I opted to stay on the bus, but was on tenterhooks every time we stopped, in case a Blakie lookalike (remember him? ‘I hate you Butler’) was waiting to get on.

                                       A London Bus. The ramp comes out below the doors in the middle of the bus

We made it safely to The Aldwych, where I resolved to get myself an Oyster card. The trouble is, I didn’t know where I could buy one. I asked a man who looked like a tour guide and he was extremely helpful. I could get one at any Tube station, he said, but the nearest Tube station was about 15 minutes walk for us. A better idea, he said, would be to walk up Fleet Street, which was on our way, as there were two Newsagent shops which sold Oyster Cards. So off we went along Fleet Street, and about halfway along I spied a Newsagent where I bought an Oyster Card. The card cost £5 and then I invested £10 into it, which I reckoned would be enough for the 3 bus journeys I expected to make that day.

                                                                      A bus ramp

Armed with our Oyster Card, the DG and I went to the nearest bus stop, and it wasn’t long before our bus came along. The driver didn’t put the automatic ramp down straightaway, so I walked to the front of the bus and asked him if he could let the ramp down for the wheelchair. He had to move forward a bit as he wasn’t correctly lined up with the kerb, but we were soon on board, and I walked proudly to the front of the bus to flourish my Oyster Card. To my surprise the driver seemed rather cross. ‘How was I supposed to know you wanted this bus?’ he said. This took me by surprise.  ‘How do you mean’ I asked politely. He said ‘If I knew you wanted this bus I would have lined up properly to the kerb and there wouldn’t have been all this hassle’. ‘I’m sorry’, I said ‘I’ll stick my arm out in future’. ‘I don’t care what you stick out’ he said ‘So long as you get my attention.’ It occurred to me then that these drivers take pride in pulling up at bus stops, and don’t like having to undertake further manoeuvres. ‘Please forgive me’ I said ‘We don’t come to London very often’. I even put a slight West Country burr to my voice for added effect. On reflection I don’t know why I did that, as I don’t suppose the driver cared where we were from.

                                                               Oyster card with pad

Anyway we got off the bus at Tower Hill without further incident, and spent some time at the Tower admiring the amazing display of ceramic poppies marking the centenary of the First World War. There was one poppy for every British soldier who died, over 800,000 of them. After lunch it was time to catch our bus back to Waterloo Station. This time I was determined to do everything perfectly. As our bus approached I waved ostentatiously to the driver, who stopped and put down the ramp for us. I walked to the front of the bus to wave my Oyster card at the pad. There was no comment from the driver. We needed to get off near Waterloo Bridge Road, so I kept a look out and when we arrived at the stop that we wanted, the side doors were opened and people got on and off. The ramp, however didn’t come down. So I asked the driver if he would kindly let the ramp down for us so we could get off. ‘ Why didn’t you ring the bell?’ he said crossly. ‘The bell by the wheelchair space has a different ring and then I know you need the ramp.’ Once again he wasn’t correctly lined up to the kerb and would have to do some difficult manoeuvring. I told him not to worry, we would get off at the next stop. ‘Are you sure?’ he said, starting to feel sorry for me now. ‘Yes’ I said. I didn’t tell him, but I had noticed that the next stop was the one we really wanted, and I thought I would retain the moral high ground.

                                                        Amazing display of poppies at the Tower of London

I had enough money left on my Oyster Card for one more bus trip, so instead of walking over Waterloo Bridge, we caught a bus. For the first time today, everything went smoothly. The bus was correctly hailed, I paid with my card, I rang the bell and told the driver in advance when we wanted to alight, and he even gave us a cheery wave as we left. At last I'd cracked it!

                                             Waterloo Sunset (not my picture)

Anyway, back to the PR Workshop. I caught the Jubilee Line to Baker Street, and walked past Madame Tussauds (people were queuing to get in already) and arrived at no. 6 York Gate at 8.45. This fine Georgian building is the headquarters of the London Rotary District 1130. I don’t know whether they own the building, but they certainly have use of the downstairs rooms, as meetings and events are held there all year round. They are not the only residents of the building, as I was shortly to discover. Upon arrival I met the Workshop Leader, Stewart Gilbert, and some old friends, Mukesh Malhotra, Mike Thorn and John Fletcher of Kew Gardens. Also there was Jenny Muir, DG of District 1260, and she told me the story of how she lost one of her Presidents the previous night (he was following her car but they got separated in traffic). I don’t think my DG has managed to do that yet.

                                                             Madame Tussauds

Before settling down, I thought I would use the loo, and there was a notice on the meeting room door which said that toilets were at the top of the stairs. So off I went, not realising that there must have been 4 long flights of stairs to get to the top of the building. Breathing a little heavily at the top of the stairs, I then I walked quite a way along a corridor before coming to the gents toilet. Looking for a sink to wash my hands in, I went through a partition, only to surprise someone having a shower! I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me. When I got back downstairs, I learnt that there were a number of residents using flats on the upper floors, and it must have been one of them that I surprised. The toilet I should have used was actually downstairs.

                                                          6 York Gate, Regents Park

The workshop got under way more or less on time, and we had a pretty impressive line up of presenters, starting with Stewart Gilbert, who has a background as a newspaper editor. He had some very good messages about the importance of a strategic plan which should have as its objectives supporting and strengthening clubs and enhancing Rotary’s public image. 

                                                       Before the work begins

Our next speaker was called Marius (I didn’t catch his surname) who had some useful things to say about the latest Rotary catch-phrase, giving ‘The Gift of Rotary’ to others. I didn’t agree with everything he said, but he was right when he said that clubs could be more welcoming to visitors if they were to attract new members. He also said some interesting things about Corporate Membership, which Rotary seems to be taking seriously at last.

                                                     Networking - Jenny Muir, Mike Stone and Mukesh Malhotra

Mukesh was on next, talking about his favourite topic, Social Media, and demonstrating how it can be used to good effect. He gave as an example, his ‘World’s Greatest Meal’ idea to raise funds for the end Polio now campaign. With his co-conspirator, Suzanne Rea from Australia this initiative was launched last year, and publicised almost entirely by Social media (ie. Facebook and Twitter). As a result, it has reached 60 countries across the world and has raised some £2 million for End Polio Now. How amazing is that? His latest project is to walk across the Dome of the O2 Building in London to raise funds for the Polio campaign, and in a weak moment I agreed to join him on this venture.

                                                         Mukesh with Suzanne Rea on another occasion

The meeting then took on an International feel,  as we  had a talk from a Bulgarian Rotaractor,  Iva Grigorova. As well as being the Vice President of the Sofia-Balkan Rotaract Club, she is also a member of the Bulgarian Society of  Public Relations, so was suitably qualified to address our august group of PR chairmen, a DG and a Consort.  In excellent English, she described an initiative in her own country that she is involved in, to improve PR among Rotary Clubs. Remarkably she is only over here for 4 days, and one of those was spent addressing a similar meeting to this. I hope she spent the remaining two days of her trip doing some sightseeing.

                                                         Attentive delegates - can you see me?

Last speaker before lunch was the most informative, I thought.  Peter Walker is a Past President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and is a senior partner in a major Public Relations Consultancy.  He gave some valuable tips on how to prepare Press Releases and other communications with Media organisations, and showed examples of horror stories of Rotary Club’s coverage in Local press.  He recommended doing some research among our families, in the High Street, at our events etc. to discover the public’s perception of Rotary. Research carried out nationally indicates that 4 out of 10 people don’t even know what Rotary is.

                                                        Our presenters - Mukesh, Iva, Peter, Jan, Stewart, Jane

We had an excellent lunch prepared for us by Deaba, who I understand is the regular caterer for events at York Gate. Chicken casserole with rice and potatoes dauphinoise was followed by either fruit salad or chocolate cake (or both, in my case). I couldn’t fault any of it. When given a choice, my instinct is to go for quantity rather than quality, but this meal scored highly on both counts. Lunch didn’t last long, as we were running half an hour late already, but I had a chance for a chat with Peter Walker, who I suggested shouldn’t be too hard on organisations who get poor coverage in the local press. I cited examples of my own, where I have sent press releases to the local paper for Rotary events, and what gets published often bears little resemblance to the report sent in. I also had an opportunity to speak to Paul Sharma, one of the delegates, who has devoted the past 18 years to organising highly successful Dragon Racing events around the country. I told him about the great day I had with Kingston Rotary Club at their Dragon Boat race last July.

                                                                     Deaba in charge of catering

After lunch we had a short talk from Jan Meek, who is a most extraordinary woman. At the age of 50 she rowed across the Atlantic with her son, and 10 years later she walked to the North Pole with him. She was the first woman to row the Atlantic and has 3 Guinness  World Records to her name. She was inspirational, and I would have liked to hear more from her. I think the reason she was invited to speak to us was to give us an example of a good speaker, because too often clubs have lacklustre speaker programmes, which don’t entertain members or attract visitors.

                                                                              Jan Meek with Paul Sharma

The talk from Jan Meek was followed by Jane Hammond, editor of Rotary in London giving us an exercise, in syndicates, to devise club programmes for a District to encourage clubs to book quality speakers (like Jan) in order to attract better attendance at clubs and increase interest in joining.  This exercise took care of the rest of the afternoon. In the question and answer session which concluded the Workshop, I learned a useful piece of information from Peter Walker, who said that large PR Consultancies will sometimes to ‘Pro bono’ work for clients, particularly charities. This effectively means they don’t charge for their work, and Peter suggested we approach PR Consultants in our areas for pro bono help. There’s no harm in asking, after all.

                                                            Our presenters pose in front of End Polio Now banner

As we were leaving I bought a book on PR, called ‘Managing Your Reputation’ by Roger Haywood for a discounted price of £5. If nothing else, I thought, it would be something to read on the train home. I walked to Baker Street Tube station with Jenny Muir and Michael Ziedens, a former Rotaractor who is now a member of an e-Rotary Club. This is a new concept, where people join an online Rotary Club, and have their meetings online. I‘m not sure that would suit me, I prefer face to face contact with people. On the train I read the first few pages of my new book and found it very readable. One extract particularly appealed to me. The author, Roger Haywood wrote this: ‘ Churchill put it better when he said to me once ‘If you ain’t got the punters with you, mate, you can forget it’.*

I was dismayed to find that the train did exactly the same thing as this morning in reverse. It went via Richmond all the way round the loop to Kingston, then retraced its steps back to Teddington before branching off to Shepperton. Was I just unlucky, or is this the new route to and from Waterloo?  I sincerely hope not.

*Fred Churchill, proprietor of the  Fix’em Fast Motor Centre, Wandsworth.