Being green is good for the environment, but is it good your bottom-line?

Image by K. W. Sanders via Flickr

President's Column: Andra Bennett, APR

Green's my favorite color. Huge green elephant ears gently sway in the breeze outside my home office window as I write this, bringing peace to my work.

My affection toward green extends to the ink on U.S. currency. Having that kind of green brings peace of mind, too.

Can those two greens live in harmony? As environmentally-friendly “green” initiatives have come upon the PR scene, how do we implement programs and campaigns that are relevant to our customer and measure the return to our company / client?

Find out at our next PRSA luncheon Oct. 14 as our panel shares how the public and private sectors are working to steward our precious environment, communicate these efforts to the public, and bring a positive return to a company. Panel members are:

Brian Boerner, director of environmental management, City of Fort Worth

Tom Burke, APR, manager of public relations and communications, IBM

Chris Smith, Texas media director, Environmental Defense Fund

Giving away some green...
We’ll also be handing out some green. The Greater Fort Worth Chapter has established scholarship funds for outstanding PRSSA students at ACU, TCU and UTA. A student from each university is selected to receive $500 each and will receive their check at the October luncheon. The students are:

ACU - Will Moore

TCU - Katie Pool
UTA - Kathelin Buxton

Finally, congratulations to Diane Rhodes Bergman, APR, for achieving her accreditation status from National PRSA. Diane will receive her APR pin and $100 from the Chapter’s Jim Blackmore APR Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund was established last year in memory of Blackmore’s PRSA legacy in Dallas-Fort Worth, and is awarded to GFW members who achieve accreditation.

Chapter members, your annual dues fund these important local awards that elevate the status of our profession and help support fellow members and students. Please join us in October at our annual meeting for the luncheon program, presentations and elections. Your participation is appreciated.

Ft. Worth PRSA considering chapter dues increase

A message from the President of the Greater Ft. Worth Chapter PRSA, Andra Bennett, APR:

I'm asking Chapter members to consider something that's sort of like a running joke about members of Congress.  Vote yourselves a dues increase.

Our chapter dues are $45 annually. They have not been increased since the mid-to-late '90s, according to chapter records. The Board has proposed increasing the dues to $55 annually, effective January 2010. Bylaws require a majority vote of the membership at the annual meeting at noon on October 14th, at the Petroleum Club, to raise dues. (Register for this meeting here.)

Over the past 11-15 years (when dues were last raised), the chapter has doubled in size, requiring us to send an additional assembly delegate to the national assembly. The chapter has created eight new Special Interest Groups, several new committees such as Diversity and Ethics, committed to annual student scholarships for three universities (UTA, TCU and ACU), and a scholarship fund for members who attain their APR.

Every new activity has associated expense line items - small expenses but necessary for the committees to function. Operation expenses have increased, such as credit card and bank fees for online registrations. Because of our increase in size and budget ($30,000), we now retain an accountant for tax preparation, because even as a non-profit, we are required to file a tax return and associated state tax paperwork. As a 501 (c) 6, we are required to pay sales tax, which has increased as prices have increased.

We have diversified our income streams to include fees for award judging, portions of revenues from the Job Bank and TPRA awards contest, and sponsorships, in order to keep luncheon fees down and not raise dues.

This year, the Board reduced the budget and renegotiated contracts. We are exploring a new venue for luncheons that retains quality and professionalism but would contain costs better.

However, to sustain the many activities and operations of our chapter, we should consider increasing our dues to help cover and defray rising expenses and maintain a balanced budget. In addition, this would add room for further chapter expansion OR protect us from economic downturns like the one we saw this year.

Fyi, a $10 annual increase amounts to 83 cents per month per member.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me (abennett [at] fortworthchamber.com) or our Treasurer Allyson Cross (cross [at] gcgadvertising.com).

Andra Bennett, APR
President, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Making the News: The Rise of the Crowd

On Tuesday, September 15, GFW PRSA members Tracy Syler-Jones and Richie Escovedo provided a session for the chapter's Education Special Interest Group.

Making the News: The Rise of the Crowd

Tracy Syler-Jones (@TracySJ) - Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communication at TCU
Richie Escovedo (@vedo) - Media and Communication Development at Mansfield ISD

Today's supercharged communication world presents numerous challenges for communicators. In the recent past, one could rely on traditional media to pass along news and information that could reach, and hopefully, influence the masses.

However, a shrinking number of reporters means communicators must learn how to effectively utilize, integrate and manage social networking and new media tools to remain visible and connected with key audiences. Learn more about the role the crowd plays in pushing your message along and how to tap into that energy.

Additional links promised to attendees:

• Social Media Guidelines for Schools
• Social Media Policies
  

Understanding organizational ethics: How PR professionals can steer a safe course

Image by clspeace via Flickr

From PRSA’s Public Relations Tactics, Vol. 19, Issue 9/September 2009

By Linda Ld Jacobson, APR

Ponzi schemes, bank failures and million-dollar bonuses. The public barometer of trust in U.S. corporations measured a frail 38 percent for informed publics, aged 35 to 64, according to a StrategyOne survey in December 2008. Public backlash ballooned, erupting against those companies guided by a moral compass different from that of Main Street.
Under this public scrutiny, how can PR professionals assess whether an organization is steering an ethical course? And what strategies can PR pros implement if they find an enemy from within?

The Looking Glass

As a first step to understanding an organization’s ethics, PR professionals can perform a “looking glass” exercise that allows them to view an organization’s actions from two different moral perspectives, utilitarianism and communitarianism. In a utilitarian model, an organization stresses positive outcomes that produce the greatest good for the largest number of stakeholders, placing a priority on consequences. A communitarian ethic balances individual freedoms and social responsibility so that an organization’s decisions result from values expressed by its stakeholders.
To perform the exercise, focus both utilitarian and communitarian lenses on a particular corporate action, using PRSA member values: advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty and fairness. Prioritize these values first within one model, then the other.
Jacque Lambiase, associate professor of strategic communications at Texas Christian University, uses this exercise to illustrate how the same values can produce very different outcomes. She says that objectively gauging corporate ethics is helpful for pros in the middle of a crisis or for those who experience a disconnect between corporate policy and corporate actions.

Red Flags

Unfortunately, when organizations begin to stray from an ethical course, PR pros aren’t always able to pinpoint the departure. But certain red flags can signal shifts in a company’s moral compass:
1. The organization’s decisions reflect an absence or low priority on ethics. Many organizations say that integrity is a core value, but the real test is whether the C-level emphasizes that value and demonstrates that behavior.
At American Airlines, Charley Wilson, managing director, external communications and international advertising, says that during a recent crisis, the airline’s CEO requested that a customer’s family receive the first communication, one of sympathy, before making any statement. That type of ethical leadership powerfully impresses employees. Indeed, a 2007 Deloitte & Touche Ethics and Workplace Survey revealed that 42 percent of employees believe that management’s behavior positively impacts organizational ethics. “We require our team to adhere to the airline’s standards of conduct, but nothing beats a leader who walks the talk,” says Wilson.
2. The organization does not show an overt commitment to ethics. Just because an organization says it is ethical does not mean it acts ethically. Ask these questions: Does the company corporately abide by a code of ethics? Are its values taken seriously internally? Is there infrastructure to support ethics or ethics compliance? Internally, does the company encourage open communications?
Reace Alvarenga Smith, APR, PR manager for Texas Health Resources, says that her organization places special emphasis on the company’s code of conduct, known as their company’s promise. “We provide monthly training sessions on what our promise means and behaviors we expect from employees,” Smith says. “Our promise gives us a filter by which we make all our corporate decisions and foster open discussions.”
Recent research undertaken by Jinae Kang, a doctoral student at The University of Alabama, reinforces PR perceptions of ethical practice in an open communications structure.
3. The organization lacks a robust fact-checking and approval process. PR professionals most often work collaboratively or cross-functionally when crafting communications. This means that attorneys, executives or coworkers review documents for factual errors or suggestions. If this process is absent, that indicates lax oversight. Wilson says that the airline’s Corporate Communications team complies with both the letter and the spirit of the law. If an issue arises, leaders at the company guide discussions, but decisions are rarely made in a vacuum.
4. The organization shifts responsibility. Lambiase points to an example in 2007 when a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo killed a visitor. “In addition to releasing incorrect information, the zoo director maligned the victim rather than focusing on the zoo’s responsibility to keep the public safe.” When things go wrong, ask yourself and your team whether the organization looks at its own role or assigns blame to others.

Ethics Strategies

PR pros who find themselves working with or for an unethical organization can employ a number of strategies, according to Dr. Karla Gower, director of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations:

• Arm yourself with knowledge. Know the laws and regulations that concern the organization’s industry, especially laws dealing with communications. Be able to discern if something is seriously amiss with a company’s financial statements.
• Prepare for a variety of crisis situations now. Once a crisis occurs, there is more potential for the legal response to take over at the expense of public relations. Gain buy-in now on the priorities for making appropriate and sensitive messages.
• Trust your instincts. Don’t blindly accept assignments. Ask questions!
• Begin a campaign for ethics. Occupy the role of ethics counselor, and campaign for the organization to adopt ethical practices.

What if the PR professional continues to grapple with conflicts or meets extreme resistance? Gower says it may be time to end the relationship. “It’s never easy to walk away from a job, especially in this economy, but at the end of the day all you have is your integrity,” she says. “You won’t get any thanks for staying loyal to an unethical company, not even when you end up taking the fall for others.”


Linda Ld Jacobson, APR, is the principal of Que Public Relations and an instructor of PR ethics at The University of North Texas. She can be reached at ljacobson@quepr.com or via Twitter @LindaJacobson.

Wrestling with Ethical Dilemmas

Image via Wikipedia

by Margaret Ritsch

I'm chair of the ethics committee for the Greater Fort Worth Chapter PRSA (Public Relations Society of America). My big responsibility, and really my only responsibility in this volunteer position, is to put together a program focused on ethics in the fall.

All along I have wanted this program to be highly interactive -- to really challenge us to carefully think through situations we face everyday in our profession that call into question our values and ethics. Now it's just around the corner and I'm very excited!

On Wednesday, Sept. 9, we will run a full morning and lunch program with guest speaker Alan Hilburg called “Building a Recession-Proof Brand Communications Strategy Through Ethical Decision-Making.”

We're asking everyone who plans to attend to be prepared to think through -- and share -- real situations and challenging questions.

We will work in small groups of four, following a conversational process that Hilburg helped develop called "World Cafe." Sounds cool, huh? Brings to mind a little cafe on the River Gauche, smoke wafting from your Gauloises as you rereading your Camus and gaze at the stylish passers-by .... Back to Fort Worth. The program will be held at the Petroleum Club in our usual 39th floor setting overlooking the city.

Here's Hilburg's description of World Café:

"a conversational process based on a set of integrated design principles that reveal a deeper living network pattern through which we co-evolve our collective future. As a conversational process, the World Café is an innovative yet simple methodology for hosting conversations about questions that matter. These conversations link and build on each other as people move between groups, cross-pollinate ideas, and discover new insights into the questions or issues that are most important in their life, work, or community. As a process, the World Café can evoke and make visible the collective intelligence of any group, thus increasing people’s capacity for effective action in pursuit of common aims.

❧ Seat four or five people at small Café-style tables or in conversation clusters.
❧ Set up progressive (usually two) rounds of conversation of approximately 20 minutes each.
❧ Questions or issues will focus on ethics, ethical judgment and ethical decisions in life, work or community
❧ Each table has a host. Both table hosts and members to write, doodle and draw key ideas on their tablecloths or to note key ideas on large index cards or placemats in the center of the group.
❧ Upon completing the initial round of conversation, one person remains at the table as the “host” while the others serve as travelers or “ambassadors of meaning.” The travelers carry key ideas, themes and questions into their new conversations.
❧ Ask the table host to welcome the new guests and briefly share the main ideas, themes and questions of the initial conversation. Encourage guests to link and connect ideas coming from their previous table conversations—listening carefully and building on each other's contributions.
❧ By providing opportunities for people to move in several rounds of conversation, ideas, questions, and themes begin to link and connect. At the end of the second round, all of the tables or conversation clusters in the room will be cross-pollinated with insights from prior conversations.
❧ In the third round of conversation, a new question is posed to deepen the exploration of the focus and again participants switch tables to synthesize their discoveries .

Round One Questions:
1. Write a definition of what constitutes unethical communications?
2. What is poor ethical judgment?

Round Two Questions:
1. What are examples of unethical language?
2. What contributes to unethical behavior?

Round Three Questions:
1. Describe the most unethical business situation you are aware of?
2. What are your most significant barriers to maintaining your own values when confronting unethical business situations?

Round Four Questions:
1. If you were going to create a PRSA Code of Ethical Communications, what would be the three most important elements of that work?
2. What are the greatest challenges in getting this Code adopted?

Please join us for this important, engaging learning opportunity at the Petroleum Club! The program begins at 9 a.m.; breakfast and networking at 8:30 a.m. Find out more and register at www.fortworthprsa.org.

More about the speaker:

Alan Hilburg, president and CEO of Hilburg Associates, is an award winning author, filmmaker, teacher and senior advisor in organizational transition communications and marketing. Now based in Northern Virginia, Hilburg lived in the DFW for many years when he served as president of the former Bloom Co. Hilberg is perhaps best known for his leadership, for over 30 years, as one of the world's leading strategic institutional branding counselors assisting senior executive teams and boards of directors survive organizational transitions (crisis, litigation and the introduction and socialization of principles of values-based decision-making) while maintaining the continuity of their institutional brand objectives.