NETA Kids Club Phone Conference
Notes by Mike McKenzie/APT (May 2003)
OVERVIEW
Lots of stations have kids clubs and lots more would like to. Kids clubs can be done in
many different ways and for several different purposes. Kids clubs can
1) offer incentives to parents to become financial supporters of public television
2) provide promotional value to reinforce a station's mission and stimulate viewership
3) provide added services to children and extend the mission of childrens programming
4) create partnerships with other non-profit institutions including libraries, museums,
zoos, and science centers which serve the same market
We gathered a diverse panel to discuss several different approaches to kids clubs and
share their ideas with phone conference participants. The panel included:
Bob Neese - Louisiana Public Broadcasting
LPB does kids events in a large market area - the whole state of Louisiana - by
concentrating efforts for maximum impact. It’s a lot of work, but LPB has developed
some tactics to make it happen.
With the advent of the Local/National Zoom Initiative and the Share A Story Initiative,
the promotions Departments responsibilities in outreach have been expanded. However,
it has also given us an opportunity to maximize our personnel and monetary resources in
relation to our Kids Club Activities.
Because Louisiana Public Broadcasting is a statewide network, we try to schedule some
kind of outreach event in all six of our major markets. Some of these events are handled
by our Educational Services Department while others are handled by a combination of
Promotions and Ed Services
What we try to do is to combine as many activities as possible into one road trip. For
instance, when we went to Alexandria for a Zoom Into Action Book Drive at the local
mall, we also held a Kids Club Breakfast with Clifford and Beesley the LPB Kids club
mascot at 8 o’clock before the Mall opened. One of our board members got the