PRSA Assembly Highlights 2012 #prsaicon

PRSA Assembly Highlights 2012 
Submitted by Andra Bennett House, APR

National Board 
Even though the PRSA Southwest District does not have a district rep on the board (because no one ran), Blake Lewis, APR of Dallas was elected as National Treasurer. Blake will be an excellent “go-to” person for our district, if the need arises.

PRServing America PRServing America is a competition for the best pro-bono community service project by a chapter. PRSSA can participate as well. For 1st place, the prize is $2,500 and the prize amounts go down from there. Our Chapter could think about a pro bono project that would be a possible submission for this recognition and reward.

Advocacy 
PRSA submitted an op-ed to Roll Call re: Senate inquiry into federal agencies and contractors payments to PR firms.

PRSA advocated on behalf of PR pros being able to edit Wikipedia for clients. The owner of Wikipedia apparently was against this. The name of the Facebook group in favor of it is called Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wiki Engagement (CREWE).

Get more PRSA advocacy news.

Business Case of PR 
PRSA wrote Forbes op-ed for business schools including reputation management in MBA programs. (MBA Initiative)

Commission on Public Relations Education gave a lengthy presentation on the disparity of what colleges require for PR degrees.

Membership 
Currently PRSA National has 21,378 members. This is down from 2008 highs, but steadily climbing back up.

Free webinars this year – 63 have been offered, with 6,500 participants, exponentially up from any previous time.

Chapter resources – document sharing platform is being developed for online. No more chapters keeping stuff in shoeboxes!

Next year, ALL Members will be able to pay dues quarterly for a $15 processing fee. This will be optional for chapters to allow members to do this or not. It may allow more members to join, but could affect chapter cash flow.

Issues & Trends emails have been upgraded to be more user friendly and quickly read.

Priorities for 2013 are Ethics, Diversity, Advocacy and the Brand: One PRSA.

Unconference
Value of Districts – upshot of discussion was that National should look at possibly re-drawing the Districts into smaller territories, separating it from board representation, or subsidizing districts to help pay for regional conferences. There are members who do not belong to Chapters, yet chapters fund the Districts, so some members are benefiting without contributing.

Member Benefits – Districts could help aggregate benefit information for the Districts and provide it in a canned fashion for the chapters for newsletters, luncheon announcements, etc. Districts could help pen op-eds and localize the advocacy efforts of National for chapters to submit to their local publications.

Many topics discussed and videotaped – National to condense and make available soon.

Town Hall
Many delegates expressed concern that the Assembly did not vote on anything except the board slate. We listened to reports and gave feedback, but some did not feel the expense of the travel was worth being there in person, and did not feel the Assembly “accomplished” much.

I predict if there is no “beefy” agenda next year, and only voting on board nominees, many chapters will send proxies vs. delegates unless they are staying for the conference.

Thank you to Andra Bennett House, APR and Holly Ellman for representing the Greater Ft. Worth Chapter of PRSA as delegates to the Assembly during the 2012 PRSA International Conference.

May is all about leadership

by Allyson Cross, Greater Fort Worth PRSA Chapter President

On May 31 we will host our first Worthy Awards Gala at The Marquis on Magnolia beginning at 7:00 PM. We will honor the year’s best in public relations work and leadership. Bob Ray Sanders will serve as emcee and will also present our award to the Communicator of the Year, an individual who is not in day-to-day public relations but who exemplifies communication leadership.

I’m so pleased to announce that at 49 submissions we exceeded our awards entry goal. Feedback from across the country suggests that this is a fabulous response for an inaugural awards program. I hope you’re as excited as I am to see the judging results.

Our May 9 luncheon will feature Sam Sims, PRSA’s Southwest District chairman for 2012. Mr. Sims will speak to us on communications and leadership — a great topic as we honor our own local communications leaders! And speaking of leadership, kudos to Dr. Amiso George, APR, Fellow PRSA, with the launch of her new book, “Case Studies in Crisis Communication: International Perspectives on Hits and Misses.” (On April 26, Dr. George, pictured below at left, shared her thoughts during a chapter mixer on coordinating and editing her book's production with contributors across the globe.)

For a final note on leadership, it’s a good time to honor those in our chapter who have been designated PRSA fellows. The PRSA College of Fellows is an honorary organization of more than 400 senior practitioners and educators, each of whom has left a footprint on our profession. Our local fellows are Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA; Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA; Dr. Amiso George, APR, Fellow PRSA; Bill Lawrence, APR, Fellow PRSA; and Dr. Doug Newsom, APR, Fellow PRSA. Special thanks to each of you for your tremendous impact on public relations.

Help Define Public Relations - #PRDefined

by Richie Escovedo (@vedo)

In 1982, a first-class stamp was 20 cents, Michael Jackson's Thriller was released, the world's population was 4.6 billion, and Johnson & Johnson had a PR nightmare on their hands that led to what is now a model crisis response case study. Ironically, 1982 was also the last time the Public Relations Society of America defined public relations.

Last week, PRSA launched a campaign to create a modern definition for PR with a dedicated site and a strategic Media & Advertising column placement in the New York Times.  I was thrilled to see this collaborative effort to get an updated (and hopefully better) answer to the question, "What is public relations?"

We've needed something new. Public relations takes a beating outside the industry from those who relegate it to only media relations or worse, spin. And honestly, we seldom do an adequate job within the ranks of PR pros of fighting these and other misconceptions. So it's time for a change. (Disclosure: I've been a member of PRSA since 2001.)

Out with the old, in with the new
In 1982, PRSA adopted a definition for PR as:

“Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Today, we have an opportunity to adapt this definition to better fit what it is that we do. Take some time to review the notes from the one-day summit of the Definition of Public Relations Task Force.

The group concluded that a modern definition of public relations should be limited to a single sentence: 

Public relations [DOES WHAT] with/for [WHOM] to [DO WHAT] for [WHAT PURPOSE].

The group also saw the need for the modern PR definition to explain two specific things:

1. How public relations drives business success; and
2. How public relations protects and/or promotes the organization or brand.

Submit your definition by Friday, December 2, 2011.

Only the beginning
The campaign is just a start to what could be something really fantastic for public relations. Will the final definition end the debate? No way. Consider it the start to a much greater conversation within our field. I can't wait to see what's next.

Follow the conversation on Twitter with the #PRDefined hastag.

(This is cross-posted from the Next Communications blog.)

Related articles

• What is PR? An Updated Definition for Public Relations (comprehension.prsa.org)
• AdVoice: Defining PR: Words with Friends (forbes.com)
• Have your say in redefining public relations for the modern age (nevillehobson.com)
• Public Relations ... Defined (prsay.prsa.org)
• Redefine PR? No, just learn to listen (globalneighbourhoods.net)