Circle of PR Friends

Dear PRSA Friends,

Please allow me to extend a request to our generous and creative PR community. Pam Miles, our 2004 Chapter President and long-time member of PRSA, needs your help. This letter may come as a surprise to fellow Chapter members who know Pam. She has persevered for many years with Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic and fatal disease that affects the lungs and digestive system, but recently her condition has deteriorated. Unless she receives a lung transplant within the next six months she will not survive. Her health insurance covers the transplant surgery; however it does not pay for all of the transplant-related expenses including anti-rejection medications which cost approximately $200,000. She can’t be a candidate for the transplant without these funds. We need to raise these dollars to help save Pam's life.

Pam is sharp, independent, hard-working, and a person of high integrity. She has navigated her way through a successful public relations career, including starting her own public relations practice, while wrestling with chronic infections and other ailments that accompany CF. Pam has juggled many responsibilities while actively serving our Chapter, as well as contributing her time to national PRSA. She is a member of our community and a person many of us call “friend” (as her chocolate brown Cocker Spaniel, Olivia Godiva, would agree).

Those of us who know Pam know that she has never been defined by this disease and she has refused to let it keep her from living a full life. An intelligent and vibrant woman, she will celebrate her 40th birthday this month. Her resolve to live a normal life has enabled her to reach this milestone. Her strength and determination can see her through this ordeal -- but only if we raise the funds to pay for the anti-rejection medications. It’s why your financial support is needed.  

With the power of her colleagues and friends from the public relations community united behind her, we can raise the funds needed for Pam’s transplant.

To donate or learn more, please visit: http://www.cota.org/pammiles or contact Heathere Evans-Keenan, heathere@keenanpr.com.

Donations for Pam are being administered by COTA (The Children's Organ Transplant Association), a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded to help children and adults in need of life-saving transplants. All donations are tax deductible and 100% of your donation will go directly to the transplant-related expenses.

The Chapter’s board of directors also has agreed to a progressive raffle from June 1 through the Thoth Seminar and Gala on Sept. 28. At most chapter events this summer, tickets can be purchased for a drawing at the event, as well as the grand prize, which will be awarded at the Thoth Gala.  There also will be a silent auction during Thoth to help raise funds, including two tickets from Washington to London on MAXJet (http://www.maxjet.com).  If you have additional questions, please contact Sandra Hannon, PRSA-NCC president elect, shannon@thehannongroup.com.

Thank you so much for your contribution. Words can't adequately express what this means for Pam. Your donation literally is the gift of life.

On behalf of my dear friend and colleague, I sincerely appreciate your support.  Please keep Pam and her family in your prayers. And if you have other suggestions or feedback, please send me an email, tschario@gwu.edu. Thank you again.

Regards,
Tracy A. Schario
PRSA-NCC President

PS – Read on.  This issue is packed with information about benefits and upcoming events.  And be sure to check the Web site for details.

PS #2 – If you’re interested in judging the Thoth Awards, please contact Fred Whiting at fwhiting@pointsoflight.org or (202) 729-8177 or Debbie Friez at dfriez@westglen.com or (202) 419-1850. Judging will be held at the DC offices of Ogilvy on June 29 and 30.

PS #3 – Thank you to those who contributed and participated in the Cook for the Cure and Race for the Cure events in tribute to Paige Eversole McMahon.  We raised more than $1,600 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

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"Ask a PRofessional”

By Fred Whiting, APR

I'm trying to land my first PR job but I have three years of marketing experience on my resume. I also want to break into the PR entertainment industry. Are there any PR companies in the DC area specializing in entertainment, and how can I grab their attention in my resume? I'm also looking for a PR mentor. If you can give me some advice that would be great.—JK, Washington, DC 

The PR entertainment industry centers are New York and Los Angeles, although smaller cities are developing their own niches.  Richmond, VA, for example, has quite a reputation for video production; Baltimore seems to do marketing especially well; and cities in Canada are now doing most outdoor shooting for films that can’t afford to shoot on location, because the labor costs are lower.  Try doing a Google search for “public relations” and “entertainment” and see what you come up with.  If you’re limiting your search to a particular city, you might include that as one of the search terms.

In the meantime, please go to the PRSA-NCC Mentoring Program page and sign up as a protégé.  We’ll try to match you with an appropriate mentor.  NOTE: Experienced PR pros are urged to sign up as mentors!  It’s not a lifetime commitment, and you’ll get more out of it than you put into it.  For information, sign up here.

For online job-seeking resources, visit the chapter’s Jobline.  Be sure to attend professional development seminars and other chapter events that would provide networking opportunities to seek the kind of job you’re looking for. 

Regards,
Fred

Do you have a question that relates to the practice of public relations?  Go to Ask a PRofessional, and receive a personal reply.  Your question and answer may appear in the next PRSA-NCC newsletter!  (All submissions are confidential.) 

Inside the 2006 Executive Board

By Kisha Wiggins

Mary-Jane Atwater, Secretary of PRSA-NCC’s 2006 Executive Board, is founder and president of Atwater Communications, an independent public relations/marketing and communications firm based in Alexandria, VA. Since founding the company in 1996, Mary-Jane has developed strategic communications campaigns for nonprofit organizations, associations, small businesses and local governments. She specializes in social marketing, community relations, market research, media relations, collateral materials development and writing/editing.

Mary-Jane has been an active member of PRSA for over 10 years. She decided to join the chapter for its “many professional development and networking opportunities.”  Mary-Jane continues “When IPRA [Independent Public Relations Alliance] was established as a section of PRSA-NCC in 2002, I became a founding member and helped get IPRA up and running.  I had the privilege of serving as IPRA's chair in 2004.  My membership in IPRA has given me amazing opportunities to get to know a group of talented senior independent practitioners with whom I collaborate and who have become good professional friends and colleagues.”

Prior to launching Atwater Communications, Mary-Jane managed public relations and communications in an agency setting where she developed environmental public information campaigns, managed special events and conducted market research. “PR is actually my second career.  I started out as a drug rehabilitation counselor and worked for four years in a residential treatment program for drug abusers and offenders.  I found that I most enjoyed making presentations in ‘drug court’ on behalf of clients and helping to publicize the program's success stories—so it was a natural move into PR.”

Outside of the office, Mary-Jane volunteers to help with development and fundraising for her college and high school, facilitates groups at her church, and enjoys kayaking, skiing, and gardening. In her down time she notes “I love to read and recommend Victoria Clarke's new book:  Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game—a great read for anyone in PR.”

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The International Committee Isn’t Only for the Seasoned

By Chanda Gilmore

Some people consider international public relations a nebulous field that only the most seasoned PR professional can work in.  The PRSA-NCC International Committee begs to differ.

The PRSA-NCC International Committee is dedicated to promoting the growing field of international public relations, media relations and public affairs. The focus of the committee's work is a series of seminars, discussions and panel presentations held quarterly at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

The committee was co-founded by Paul Hanley more than ten years ago to provide issue-driven programming for those who have an interest in international public relations.  The committee conducts 2-3 seminar and 1-2 social events annually. The committee also hosts an August luncheon with a speaker who is prominently known in the international public relations arena (or field).

According to Gary Nordlinger, board oversight, members who participate on the committee receive three primary benefits: 1) members can be as active as they want; 2) meet people in D.C. who also have an interest in international public relations; and 3) have dinner with speakers that include “lively discussions.” 

The committee encourages those who may have a curiosity in international public relations to join, especially young PR professionals.  “We need help with promotions and finding new speakers, and this is a great opportunity for young professionals to build their contact list and work with international communication figures,” Nordlinger added.  Past speakers have included the Al Jazeera bureau chief, foreign ambassadors and Reuter reporters.

“Being part of the committee also helps young professionals build skills in interacting with senior level management.  When you ask these professionals to speak at a program, you are establishing a professional relationship with them that can later work to the benefit of your organization or career,” said co-chair Ken Hess.

The committee meets every other Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the National Press Club in the weeks prior to an event.  For more information, please contact committee co-chairs: Ruth Sexton at ruthsexton@earthlink.net or Ken Hess at khess@egginc.com.

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Michele Bell

Director
Communications Marketing Group

How does Michele Bell maintain the sanity of work, family and a social life? Learning the power to say no and knowing when to turn off the telephone and blackberry.  Bell recently joined PRSA-NCC and has been in the field for 20 years.

1. Why did you join PRSA?  Networking and professional development opportunities.
   
   
2. What skills do you think are important for a PR Professional? People skills, insight, an affinity for strategic thinking and the ability to communicate very well, verbally and in writing, are basic.  I think it’s especially helpful to have the ability to take in disparate information – perhaps obscure and/or voluminous – and quickly identify what’s essential there and the best way to communicate that to others in order to produce a certain outcome.  Having a natural insight into people, and what makes them do what they do, is extremely helpful.  Experience and judgment never hurt either.
   
   
3. Where would you like to see yourself in five years? Paris!
   
   
4. What’s your dream job?  Vice president of communications for a dynamic, international firm, with offices in all my favorite cities, with a great business model and fantastic story to tell.
   
   
5. Who’s your role model and why do you admire her?  I love the fact that Jane Goodall did something despite all the obstacles and a thousand reasons not to before many women did.  I love that she did it thinking it obscure–maybe only important to her, never imagining what she’d find or how important she and the work would become.  And I love how she still sees the world and what she still believes despite everything she’s done, seen and been between then and now.

Prepared by Chanda Gilmore. If you’ve joined the chapter within the past six months and would like to receive a questionnaire, please contact newsletter@prsa-ncc.org.

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