Building Lifelong Connections: The Community Spirit of the National Information Officers Association

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio. And this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Stewart Smith, who is the president of the National Information Officers Association. Welcome.

Stewart Smith: Thank you. Lee, I’m glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. For folks who aren’t familiar, can you share a little bit about NIOA? How are you serving folks?

Stewart Smith: Yeah, absolutely. So the National Information Officers Association, we’ve got about a thousand members strong nationwide. And it serves, uh, those that serve as public information officers who work in the government sector, uh, law enforcement, public safety realm, you know, EMS, fire, emergency management, government schools, uh, medical field. Pretty much anybody that works in the government sector that does not work for a private entity whose job it is to get information out to the public and also to their employees. And so that’s kind of what we encompass. So like I said, we’re about a thousand members strong across the country. And we’ve got uh, some international members as well.

Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea? What was the need that came about where folks decided to, hey, let’s organize as an association and really serve this group.

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So this started back around 1989, when a group of public information officers who saw some other smaller state organizations and they felt the need to start a national organization, and that started around 1989. And then a group of them decided to meet in the Chicago area a couple years later, and I think around 40 or 50 members, luckily and surprisingly, showed up. And that was kind of the catalyst for Nioa. And it’s been meeting ever since. We primarily meet yearly in the summertime in August in beautiful Clearwater Beach, Florida. And then, uh, about every 3 or 4 years, we will change it up and go up around the Nashville area just for kind of a change of scenery. And we will have, uh, usually we average around 550 members. And this year we found a way to maneuver and work our magic. And so we have increased our conference enrollment up to 650 members. And we are about 200 seats shy of filling this thing up. And I have no doubt it will fill up in the coming weeks.

Lee Kantor: So what do you attribute the ability to get such a high percentage of the members to show up at an event? A lot of people would be jealous to get that level of engagement.

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So one of the strengths, I believe of the organization is the networking. And we have four full days of learning. We bring in speakers from all across the country. The agenda this year is very diverse. We’re talking about hurricane relief. We’re talking about, you know, terrorist attacks. We’re talking about mental health. You know, we’ve got a session for our new members to bring them in to, you know, encourage them to teach them about the organization. And I think it fills up so much just because we offer a variety of a agenda for people. And it’s one of a kind. There’s not a lot of conferences out there. I think we’re the only one that, you know, specifies or specializes in public information officers. There’s others out there, but, um, ours is just a large organization that focuses on that. And we are PIOs are unique individuals in the fact there’s not when you look at police agencies, fire agencies and those other specialties are named. You know, you may have an agency that has one Pio, and they may have 200 officers that are specialized in other things, like my home agency, where I work here in Lagrange, Georgia, for the Troup County Sheriff’s Office. We’ve got, you know, about 170, 180 employees. And I’m the lone public information officer. And that’s very common around the United States. You may have 1 or 2 PIOs max for an agency. And so, um, the to get all those people together is very special so they can learn from each other.

Lee Kantor: Now, throughout the year, what type of means do you have to communicate in terms of helping each other? And I’m sure, um, you know, you’ve run across issues where you’re like, well, let me call somebody else here that might know how to handle this because I’ve never seen this before.

Stewart Smith: 100%. So and that’s where our networking is one of the strengths of our organization and we have the ability we do a bi monthly newsletter. We also do bi monthly webinars where we are doing we’re bringing in a speaker like we do for our conference, but they’re going to teach and kind of like a zoom environment, if you will. And sometimes we’ll have 50 or 60 members log on to that. And they’re showing a PowerPoint they’re teaching. And like I said through the newsletter, the the organization is broke down by regions. We have different regions throughout the country. And each of those is assigned a region director, and they stay in contact with their members throughout the year. And so there is that continual engagement that goes on through the year. And the membership is so strong that, like you said, when somebody needs something, when they get into a tough time, they know their friends that they can call up, they can send a text message, they can send an email, and they’re going to respond right back to them. Because a lot of what we do in our industry is not original. Uh, somebody has dealt with that situation or had to create that speech, that graphic or something. Um, already. And so when you reach out to your friends in the business, it certainly helps you along the way.

Lee Kantor: So, um, what drew you to this line of work? What’s your backstory?

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So I started in public safety and, uh, way back when, in 1997, I was, uh, not long out of high school. I started as a communications officer or A911, uh, dispatcher that’s commonly referred to as, uh, here in Troup County and always had a dream and desire to work in public safety. And then I was able to go to the police academy in Columbus, Georgia, in 1999 and worked as a deputy for several years here in Troup County, and then had the opportunity to go back to 911. Um, I think in early 2000 in a supervisor training role, and did that for several years. And then in 2013, a good friend of mine, uh, James Woodruff ran for sheriff here in Troup County and won that election. And he was putting a staff in place. And he and I had some conversations about the way his administration wanted to look. And he, uh, brought me on board at his as his public information officer. And I’ve been in that seat ever since. And so that that’s kind of my back story of how I became a Pio. And I’ve done it ever since. He’s allowed me the grace to do that. And then a friend of mine who was a also a local Pio for a fire department introduced me to Nikoa, um, back, uh, several years ago. And then I joined at that point, and I’ve, uh, been with it ever since. It’s kind of that, um, slogan you hear sometimes I’m not just the president, I’m a member also. And so, uh, but it’s been a very good organization to be a part of.

Lee Kantor: So for folks who may not have ever considered a role like this, what are some of the kind of qualities you find in people who are good as a public information Officer.

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So number one, you need to have the support of your, uh, chief, your sheriff, your, uh, chief executive. You need to be, uh, you know, when I first started this work, long, long time ago, I was, uh, hesitant to be a public speaker. That was not my strength. And then as I got into it, I learned the job a little bit. You’ve got to have good writing skills. Not excellent writing skills, but you need to have good creative writing skills. And a lot of us in this role, we are a natural kind of introverts, if you will. But this role kind of pushes you outside of that introvert role, and you become an extrovert when you’re on the job and just just someone that that can adapt very quickly. You need to have a creative mind. You need to be able to, uh, work with your peers. How to, uh, need to know how to work with bosses, work with those around you, and just be a creative person. There’s a lot of young people that are coming into this roles, and they are hungry to learn from those like myself that are kind of veterans of the business. And so it’s up to us to kind of bring them on board and kind of really show them what has worked for us, where we’ve had hiccups, where we’ve had bumps and bruises along the way. And you know what kind of made us better as a person? Um, and made our department better.

Lee Kantor: So you mentioned a background coming from law enforcement. Is that something that’s essential, or was it like like how did that add to your ability to do what you do on a daily basis?

Stewart Smith: You know, we see a lot of those that work in our industry that, uh, do. So as a civilian, they’re not necessarily a sworn police officer or sworn firefighter. They’re coming in in a civilian role, and some of them have a media background. And I would say those that have worked in the media and they have transitioned over to PIOs on this side of the camera, if you will. They do very well in the industry and a lot of times we learn those of us that didn’t come from that media background, we learn a lot from those that have worked in the media business. And I make it a point to, uh, get to know a lot of those in the media that I work with on a regular basis, and we have a great working relationship. And that’s one thing we encourage PIOs to do, is have those great working relationships with people in the media, like yourself, who are just trying to get out there and tell a story, because if we’re working well with them and we need our story out there, they’re going to be the ones we call on when we’re not doing it ourselves, such as on social media. So just really, um, you know, a successful Pio is one that just kind of, um, is able to honestly adjust with the times as well.

Lee Kantor: Now, as part of the conference you mentioned there, networking is so important. Um, how important is kind of education or continuous education and training? Is that something else that the Nioa, um, invests in?

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So we we we don’t do like, yearly trainings outside of the webinars, but we do make an a a, uh, we make it very important decisions to look at our speakers that we’re getting for the webinars and making sure they’re coming from very diverse groups. But there’s also other groups out there like, uh, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They offer a lot of courses throughout the year. There’s a group called FBI Leeda. They offer courses throughout the year, and I’ve been able to take a lot of those courses. You’ve got a lot of state agencies that offer pilot trainings, especially for new PIOs. It is very important for new PIOs to get in there and learn the job through professionals. And one of the agenda items that that we’re having this year is, like I mentioned, the new beginner’s class or the new members class, but we’re also offering kind of like a Pio 101 One for new members that really have not been in the job for a long time, and a lot of our veteran board members and members, we’re going to just kind of teach a class on how to be a successful Pio and kind of just feed them, you know, through a fire hose for a couple hours. It’s not going to give them everything they know, but it will at least get their feet wet and give them a chance to ask those that have been in the business a long time, some Q and A’s that they may have already before they get down there.

Lee Kantor: Now, is it possible to be a member of, uh, nioa without being an actual public information officer? Is it something like can I if I was aspiring to be a public information officer, would it benefit me to be a member just to meet people, kind of learn, get the education and then look for an opportunity?

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So right now, the, uh, for membership, to qualify for membership, you need to be actively employed Void or on a part time basis with an agency, you can actually be retired also. We’ve got a lot of retired Pos that are still members, but if this is a job that you’re interested in, you can certainly, uh, reach out to an IOA and we can certainly point you in the right direction and find someone, um, on our membership that may be in the general area where this particular person may be interested in working in, and we can certainly connect them with that person, and they can help guide them and potentially be a mentor along the way.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help you? Do you need more members? Do you need, uh, more speakers? What do you need more of?

Stewart Smith: So when we look across our, uh, member roster, we, uh, we we know when we look at our member roster, we’ve got, like I said, roughly a thousand members. And some of those are, you know, um, couple of people from the same agency maybe coming to our conference. We may have, you know, out of that thousand, we may have 10 or 20 that are, you know, duplications from the same organization, if that makes sense. And so we know we have a lot of public safety agencies out there, uh, healthcare industry out there, government entities out there that have PIOs or, you know, whatever the official title is, it can be Pio, it can be, uh, chief Communications officer, whatever that title is. But they are charged with giving the message to their community. And so we know there are, uh, you know, probably hundreds of other PIOs out there that are not plugged in to our group. And so we would love to have those PIOs out there that especially the ones that are those, uh, shops of one, as we call it. And we would love to just have them come on board with us, especially, um, we have we are very heavy on like, the east side of the country with PIOs and kind of that west side of the country, like out, you know, the California way, the Nevada way, Washington state way. We don’t have a lot of members out that way. And, uh, we really don’t know why, but, um, we would love to certainly grow our membership base kind of out on the west side of the country. And, um, you know, that’s one thing we we are, um, really pushing for. We’ve got a lot of good region directors out that way who know of agencies that have PIOs, but they’re not plugged in. And so we would love to have those PIOs contact us if they need, uh, kind of getting their chief executive on board to persuade them. You know, we can certainly do that with a phone call or an email or a letter.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wanted to learn more, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect with you or somebody on the team?

Stewart Smith: Yeah. So they can, uh, Google the national or, you know, Yahoo, whatever your search engine is. Um, they can just look up the National Information Officers Association. I’ve learned if you type in Nioa sometime, it might get you somewhere else. There are a couple other, uh, abbreviations out there, but if you just type the whole thing out, uh, National Information Officers Association, it’s going to take you to a website, and it’s, uh, it’s a brand new website. Uh, we’re very excited about it. We went live with it on April 1st. It has some great information on there. Um, it’s got our board on there. It’s got conference information on there. You can even click on that as a non member and see kind of like what the conference has for you. And so if you look that up it’s going to give you some contact information. It’s got all the board listed on there, their names where they work. We’ve got phone numbers emails. The uh the website is uh like I said, it’s brand new. We’re very excited about it. And it’s a great resource of information for our organization.

Lee Kantor: It must be such rewarding work. Is there a story you can share about maybe something that was impactful that you’ve done or learned, uh, since being the president?

Stewart Smith: You know, I took the gavel in, uh, August the the role of president. It’s a one year term, but it’s a three year commitment. You’re you are elected as a vice president, and you serve that role for a year, and then you roll up to president. And then after that, like this coming August at the last day of the conference, I’ll pass the gavel to our new president, who’s actually the sitting vice president right now. Her name is Chelsea Crest, and she is from, um, Texas. And so I will pass the gavel to her. But the rewarding thing, uh, to me, Lee has been, uh, being on the executive board now for two years and just going through this planning process to plan this conference. It is unless someone has ever planned a national conference with, you know, an attendance, uh, projection of 650 people. You really don’t know the level of work that goes into it. And so the rewarding part has been, you know, getting the agenda finalized, getting a new website rolled out, getting the conference rolled out and all that kind of come together within just a few days, um, of rolling out the conference and the agenda and just getting the positive feedback that we’ve gotten from our members. When we went live with the conference registration, we were about halfway full within the first few days. And so that that just kind of tells you the level of excitement that’s out there and the anticipation to get back down to Clearwater in August.

Lee Kantor: Yeah. And the and the work is so important. The impact is real. I mean, your work affects communities all over the country. I mean, it’s yeah, it’s so important.

Stewart Smith: Yeah. And that’s the thing we like to teach people because those in our business, they’re charged with getting the right information, you know, to their communities at the right time so that they can make the right decisions. And that’s one thing we like to teach these people, because we’ll have members that have been coming for years and years and years, and they just keep coming back. And it’s almost like a it’s almost like a, a large family. When you get down there, it’s almost like a family reunion that you get together once a year. And I’ve got a lot of people that I’m just in communication with through text messages on a almost daily basis. You know, I’ve got friends from, you know, Georgia to Virginia, Texas, California and all points in between. And I think it’s because of this organization, I’ve been able to make those relationships and build that networking of friends. And that that’s one of the large benefits of this organization is just the friends that you’ll make. And they’re lifelong friends for me.

Lee Kantor: Well, Stewart, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Stewart Smith: Yes, sir. Ken, I appreciate you guys having us on and sharing the message of an IOA.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on the Association Leadership Radio.