Emails and realising mistakes

Part of my role within the Western Force media team is covering and writing about the PINDAN Premier Grade, the top tier of senior rugby in Western Australia. To put it into perspective, if you compared it to Australian football, it would be like the WAFL is to the AFL. With that in mind, it is important when writing about these teams that you keep their brand in mind, and ensure the articles, reviews and press releases you write accurately reflect the brands the clubs are intending to promote. 

When writing these pieces, we attempt to communicate and relate to the club rugby community by occasionally referring to clubs by the nicknames they have coined over the years, for example Wests Scarborough = 'Wests' or 'The Boars', Cottesloe could be called 'Cott' or 'The Gulls' and Perth Bayswater could be referred to as 'Baysie' or 'The Numbats'. 

To my surprise, I logged into my work emails, the standard email address for every media intern that has ever been through RugbyWA to find an email from a person high up in the Palmyra Ruby Club. It read; 

"Hi there,

Just a small thing. When writing about Palmyra can you refer to us as “Pally” not “Paly” as this is a brand we are trying to promote.

Thanks very much

Best regards,

Steve (not his real name)."

I was originally worried when I first saw this, thinking I had made a big mistake, but soon realised that not all mistakes are bad ones. I had never previously been warned about this, and after re-reading the email I realised that the person sending it was not actually upset or angry about the mistake, he was simply giving me a heads up for next time. 

I since took the advice on board, and have continuously referred to Palmyra as 'Pally', not 'Paly' in all forms of Premier Grade stakeholder communication. 

Luke.