From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Amendment 2 underlines need for crisis management plan
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 02:57:36 GMT

Some are calling Amendment 2 Colorado's version of the Exxon Valdez--a sudden, 
devastating, "politically incorrect" cataastrophe that will take months to 
clean up.

To others, it seems like the furor surrounding Amendment 2 has become a 
self-perpetuating crisis, with interest groups serving their daily spoonfuls to 
a media community eager to keep the story alive.

Like trying to steer a hurricane, Mayor Wellington Webb, Greater Denver Corp. 
officials and PR counsel Bob Schenkein headed off to New York City last week, 
hoping to "clear the air" about Amendment 2 amid two days of media briefings 
about Denver's economic turnaround.

But did they manage the crisis or is the crisis managing them?

The group was dogged throughout the trip by members of the gay activist group 
Lesbian Avengers,had their primary subject of the "new Denver" sidelined by the 
Amendment 2 fallout and, despite meetings with New York Mayor David Dinkins, 
still failed to stop him from banning city-paid travel to Colorado.

An activist with the gay group Queer Nation-New York called Webb's visit a 
"public-relations disaster" for Colorado.

It's the kind of situation that reinforces the need for organizations, 
governments and companies to enact crisis communications plans long before the 
crisis strikes.

The New York media trip had been planned in August to carry a Denver 
International Airport agenda, to educate the national and international media 
about Denver's turnaround and its attraction a a good place for expanding or 
relocating businesses.  As the national media attention grew, 
Schenkein/Sherman drafted a comprehensive crisis plan addressing Amendment 2 
two weeks before the trip.

"Amendment 2 involves morality, societal trends and deep-seeded personal belief 
systems of individuals," Schenkein said.  "It's a pretty complex set of 
criteria we're dealing with.  In 20 years in Denver I've never dealt with 
something of this scale."

I asked some of Denver's leading PR executives how they viewed what has been 
done and what should be done to handle the fallout from Amendment 2.  Here are 
some of their comments:

Marc Servoss, president of Servoss Public Relations: "I don't think Webb's trip 
was a bad idea.  It was an aggressive stance rather than a stand back and be 
asssaulted approach.  But I think that Gov. Romer should have been there along 
with Webb."

"Also there was no emphasis before the election that Colorado would be 
boycotted or shamed in the eyes of the nation, or that we'd lose $30 million in 
conventions because of this.  It was simply about how you felt about the gay 
community and special rights.  I believe if we held the election again today 
it'd reverse itself."

Gwin Johnston, chief executive officer of The Johnston Wells group: "The key 
with crisis communications is to get the spotlight off the problem as quickly 
as you can.  It seems that instead of trying to get the spotlight off this 
problem and onto another issue we've turned 10 more spotlights on it.  There's 
no strategy here, just reaction.  We ought to be looking at creative ways to 
move more toward some positive issues."

Schenkein:  "We believe the trip was a success because Webb and the others 
maintained their focus, got their key points across about Amendment 2 and 
Denver's turnaround and that Colorado is not a hate state.  A tremendous amount 
of effort has to be made to educate people in this state and nationally about 
the issues we're dealing with here.  Without that we're not going to achieve 
our ultimate goal of overturning this amendment."

Ultimately, the city's strategy of keeping the focus on Denver is as good as 
any.  Because Denver voters voted 2 to 1 against Amendment 2, officials from 
City Hall to the Convention & Visitors Bureau are touting the message that 
Denver's not the bad guy and the city is working harad to find ways to overturn 
the state law.

It's the old "it's not me, I wasn't there" approach to getting out of a bad 
situation.

But I'd warn the message-makers that all the self-righteous indignation about 
how the rest of Colorado voted doesn't buy much sympathy among Coloradans 
outside of the five-county metro area.

I would call any crisis plan seriously flawed if it didn't provide for how to 
deal with another public referendum on Amendment 2.

As much as some would like to bad-mouth the ignorance of the electorate, the 
truth is that most people who take the time to vote are informed about the 
decisions they make in the voting booth.

And, given another chance next year, they must may vote exactly as they did on 
Nov. 3.

PR "spin doctors" and government officials are building a house of cards if 
they don't realize that no amount of Denver spin control will matter if Denver 
keeps its "not me" stance and the issue comes to a vote again and Colorado 
voters answer back the same way.

Colorado is just now shaking the image of an anti-business state that voting 
down the Olympics won it, and the quick and dirty phrase "hate state" is likely 
to get a lot of mileage in the future, whether or not it's accurate.

Expect the slogan to stick to the Mile High City unless the media and the 
public find other issues to associate with Denver.

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