Outreach

Hi,

Today's sermon is about "Outreach". I am at Montana State University for a meeting of the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, an alliance of US Government agencies, scientists rom seven western states' universities and private companies and non-profits, preparing to tackle Global Warming by developing technologies for sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere and storing it in soils, in trees, in old oil wells, in coal seams, and under rock beds beneath the oceans. There's a lot of weird science involved and the public have got to be comfortable with the proposals when they are released, or 10 years of work and millions will have been spent for no outcome. For this reason, the Partnership has a full time "Outreach" officer. Now Pamela Tomski is actually the group's marketing director and public relations manager and in-house lobbyist. But she wears the label "Outreach" which is a useful term for marketers. "Outreach" is what religious bodies do - the seek to reach the great unwashed and bring them the good news of salvation. And convert them into true believers, taking them from a state of ignorance and initquity to a state of knowledge and belief. How does Pamela do "Outreach"? She spreads the word through every channel possible... including public meetings and education in schools. She doesn't sell anything. She brings good news. "Outreach" is marketing, but marketing with a difference - with passion for a cause, with advocacy, with urgency. If you ever find yourself a little jaded, trapped in a marketing job just 'flogging stuff to mugs', either you can try to find the good news for salvation in your product offering. Or, if there is none, go out to the highways and byways and find one that has. Outreach means going to work with a passion and a purpose everyday.


Cheers!

Michael Kiely