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From November 2001
PRSA gets it right, sort of, finally.
Learn the highlights of the PRSA 2001 National Assembly
You can go to the Public Relations Society of America web site at www.prsa.org
and look for Presentation
Highlights from PRSA's 2001 National Assembly and
then go read the slides, but no other commentary, from several
presentations at the Society's big shindig in Atlanta in October. You
can even try clicking on the underlined "Presentation Highlights...
"words here. On my computer, doing that takes you right to the
presentations.
A
million people like to put Powerpoint slides up on web sites without
bothering with any commentary or explanation. I could pretend to
wonder why, but I know the reason. They're just too .... to do it right,
or too ..... (pick some words to go in the blanks) to do it right. When
they give the presentation live, they know they have to explain the
words, right? But they won't bother putting the slides into context for
web visitors. Am I being harsh? Can you think of any other reason?
But
so what? At least sometimes anything is better than nothing. And
I should be happy, after my whining last week in a piece I wrote you
can re-read down here
that you can now read anything at all from the conference. If you
care about the world's largest one-nation association of professional
public relations practitioners, go read for yourself. Here's the few
parts from their 64 slides I found most interesting, taking into account
my self-serving point of view. In general, Kathleen Larey Lewton, the
elected queen of PRSA who makes excellent speeches and then hides them
(You ask what I'm talking about? You have not been paying attention. Go
here. There's still no link to the last speech anywhere I can see on
the PRSA web site, weeks later) reported on major accomplishments in
solving problems that she probably/maybe can't officially attribute to
de-frocked ex-top paid guy Ray Gaulke, who got the boot last year,
because the lawyers told her not to mention him. And Catherine
Bolton, the genuine public relations woman who arrved in the top
paid job, reported on other changes, including the addition of some
staff at the "director" level.
But the parts I found most interesting
focused on public relations plans for the public relations society. What
a quaint idea.
Here in black is some or all of the
content from a few of the slides, with my commentary in green.
Selected slides from the Public Relations Society of America national
Assembly,
Atlanta, October 2001
Slide number 40
Public Relations
Repair our reputation with trades
O’Dwyer
PR Week
PR News
I'm hurt. I really am. It's a good thing
I'm writing this on a desktop keyboard and not a notebook, because my
tears are flowing into the keys, and on a notebook, that means
short-circuits and major repairs. They left me / us / you out. Isn't BAK's
Report a more interesting read than those other things? And
besides, I alert you to the best of O'Dwyer, anyway. You should go there
for Seitel, not counting anything else. And I'll tell you a Seitel /
Kilgore story sometime soon.
But repair, regardless of whether they
repair with us, is needed. I get nothing in the way of
releases, no insights, no phone calls, no nothing. From IABC I get lots
of stuff, and I know many IABC people around the world read BAK's
Report. And if they don't do what I advocate, at least they
think about what is written here.
Slide number 41
Promote / Reactive
Washington Post
Atlanta Constitution
Baltimore Sun
ABC News.com Radio and TV
Next Phase - go proactive
Apparently there were stories in these papers
about PRSA. But I don't think you can find anything on the PRSA web site
telling you what was said, because... well, why can't you? There is
no acceptable excuse.
To the best of my recollection, you can't find
anything on the PRSA web site about ABC.com either, but you could at
least find info on PRSA and ABC.com here in BAK's Report. (I've
blown it away since.) Catherine Bolton, the paid top exec., did an
excellent interview on a web cast, and although PRSA did not bother
giving its web site visitors a link, I did. Geezzz, come to think of it
... (I got the link from O'Dwyer, by the way.) I've been doing a
pretty good job handling PR for PRSA.
We'll see if "going proactive" means
actually sending me news releases instead of having me go search them
out on the PRSA web site. I can't remember seeing anyone but me
running the scholarship story for "multi-cultural"
students. You can read my
take on it here.
Slide number 51
Vision Statement
PRSA is the organization to unify, strengthen and advance the
profession of public relations.
I (seriously) love vision statements. At
least good ones, and this one seems fine to me. Unify,
strengthen, and advance the profession. That's what I think an
association should do, too. "Unify" will be fun. Let's see
what PRSA does to merge with (denial, denial, by all concerned) IABC, or
take its members away from it. I was part of merger talks years ago, and
back then the big problem was IABC owed too much money, having blown its
brains out on a conference in London. (The one in England, not the one
in Western Ontario.)
Slide number 52
Target Audiences
Present and prospective PRSA members
Anyone engaged in public relations profession
Users of public relations
Minority practitioners.
As is the case with far to many United States
of America-style American organizations (as distinct from other North,
Central, and South American "American" organizations) PRSA
isn't clear about the geographic limits, if any, to this statement, and
PRSA is messing around with international aspirations, but setting that
aside, I'm pleased to see PRSA is interested in the entire
profession, and not just interested in its members. It's socially
responsible, in addition to being wise from a business point of view.
Congratulations.
And what's with this "Minority
practitioners" crap? Don't "minority" people count as
"anyone" or is this just more special privileges for lord
knows who. "Men" are the minority, by the way, in the North
American public relations practice. See my "multicultural"
musings down here, if you
care about this stuff.
Slide Number 56
Develop a comprehensive public relations program for PRSA and to
advance the reputation of the Society and the profession.
About time.
New on
Wednesday, October 31
NOTHING HAPPENED
AT PRSA
CONFERENCE
-- well, not much, anyway
The new President and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America is
Joann E. Killeen, APR, Fellow PRSA, but this is no surprise to anyone
who cares, because PRSA has one of those you-get-elected-a-year-early
schemes. So the big news, if being the boss of PRSA is big news, is that
Reed B. Byrum, APR, is the President elect. He gets to be real president a
year and a bit from now. Under the PRSA governance scenario, there's two
months of lame-duck presidency from conference to start of the year in
office, which starts in January. Nothing much happens, usually, as far as
I've ever been able to tell, during the two-months when the duck just
limps along. Byrum's election, if you can call it that since he ran
unopposed, came out of the PRSA national conference in Atlanta over the
weekend and earlier this week.
Absolutely nothing else important happened at the
conference. Otherwise, PRSA, run by PR people, would have had the
brains to put the news into news releases and send them to the PR
industry media, like me and O'Dwyer, say, and to the real business
media, like the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Well,
wouldn't they? And I did not get anything.
And they would have put the news up on the PRSA web site,
wouldn't they? Taken the presentations out of the room and all around the
world, because, after all, smart PR people know just how important this
is, right? Zilch there, except the officers announcement. Here's what PRSA
says:
Elected to serve with 2002 President and CEO Joann E.
Killeen, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Immediate-Past President Kathleen Larey
Lewton, APR, Fellow PRSA, were: President-elect, Reed B. Byrum, APR;
Secretary, Judith T. Phair, APR, Fellow PRSA; Treasurer, Del Galloway,
APR. Voted to serve as directors for 2002 were: Jeffrey Julin, APR
(three-year term), Debbie Mason, APR (three-year term), James McCall, APR
(three-year term), Sherry Treco-Jones, APR, Fellow PRSA (two-year term),
and Mary Beth West, APR (two-year term). In addition, Gail F. Baker, APR,
and Robert Berry, APR, Fellow PRSA, were elected as delegates-as-large.
Daniel Granger, APR, was voted as Canadian delegate-at-large. Each of the
candidates ran unopposed. The six returning directors are T. Michael
Jackson, APR, Fellow PRSA; Grace T. Leong, APR; Carole M. Gorney, APR,
Fellow PRSA; Vivian M. Hamilton, APR, Fellow PRSA; Dean A. Kruckeberg,
Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA; Paul J. Wetzel, APR.
And PRSA changed the top elected official's title to
President and Chief Executive Officer from Chair and CEO.
January 2002: Below is a story from October 2001.
I followed it up with more stories, but PRSA seems to not care about my
readers. Maybe the new (January 2002) boss will say something. It's not
worth moving all the older stories about PRSA's anti-Irish scholarship
program over here, though.
Starting
three paragraphs below here is the whole PRSA release about the
multicultural scholarships. There's no point in the students not getting
some publicity. As you read about them, you'll see they look like sharp
folks.
I've
got to admit I'm curious what the last part of "The
program is open to full-time, four-year college communications students who
are of a multicultural ancestry" means. Half and half
kids? Mom traces her family back to France, and dad traces his back to
England? I've got a son with a mom who moved from Czechoslovakia when she
was a child and a dad who, if you go back 150 years, has relatives from
Ireland. I've got a daughter (you can see her picture at the top of the
page) with birth parents from the Caribbean and Baltic Europe,
double-Irish adoptive parents, and the Czech step-mom. That's pretty
multi-cultural.
Regular
readers of BAK's Report probably noticed references to Toronto's Festival
Caravan. It's an annual multi-cultural extravaganza of food, drink,
entertainment, culture and education, so, folks, if anyone knows what
multi-cultural means, it's me, Caravan's PR man for years. Our pavilions
over the years have included Canadian Indians, and representatives of
Wales, Greece, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, (they lump
themselves together for Caravan -- we know the countries are far apart and
independent of each other), Finland, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Sri
Lanka, India, Hungry, Poland, various parts of Africa, the Caribbean in
general and specific pavilions from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, Cuba, and
Trinidad & Tobago, plus lots more. When I look at multicultural, it
seems to me everyone qualifies, unless you need to be half and half.
But what a weird distinction to qualify your for $1500. (Unless, of
course, there's some secret code hidden in "multicultural.") Are
you curious if Brian and Keisha got any money? I am.
College
Seniors Awarded PRSA Multicultural Affairs Scholarship
Southeast Missouri State and
University of South Florida Students Recognized
NEW
YORK, NY (October 16, 2001)
– The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) today announced Mira
McManus, Southeast Missouri State University and Terri Medina,
University of South Florida are the recipients of the 2001 PRSA
Multicultural Affairs Scholarship in the amount of $1,500.
Brian Lee,
University of Wisconsin-Madison and Keisha Pickett, Florida A&M
University, were selected for honorable mention recognition.
The Scholarship winners will be honored
at the PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society) National Awards Dinner
held Monday, October 29th during the PRSSA National
Conference October 26-30 in Atlanta. PRSA’s 2001 International
Conference is also being held in Atlanta October 27-30.
Sponsored by
PRSA’s National Multicultural Communications Section, the
Multicultural Affairs Scholarship was established in 1989 to assist and
recognize students for outstanding academic achievement and commitment
to the practice of public relations. The program is open to full-time,
four-year college communications students who are of a multicultural
ancestry.
McManus is a
senior majoring in mass communications-public relations at Southeast
Missouri State University; a member of her local PRSSA Chapter;
president of the Mass Communications Student Association; and
Presidential Ambassador, Office of the President, Southeast Missouri
State University.
A University of
South Florida senior majoring in public relations, Medina is a member,
the PR director, and newsletter editor of her local PRSSA Chapter as
well as a columnist for her local community newspaper, Tempo
News.
PRSSA is the
world's pre-eminent, pre-professional public relations organization.
Founded in 1968 by its parent society, PRSA, the organization has grown
to include 225 chapters in 43 states and the District of Columbia. It
currently has more than 6,500 members.
The Public
Relations Society of America (www.prsa.org), headquartered in New York
City, is the world's largest professional organization for public
relations professionals, with nearly 20,000 members organized into 116
chapters nationwide who represent business and industry, counseling
firms, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional
services firms and nonprofit organizations.
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