Benefits of Membership to Your Employer

We held a record-setting Leadership Rally on January 28, getting more than twice our typical registration for the initial networking event of the year. The Leadership Rally gave members the opportunity to volunteer for chapter service and to surface future leadership. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that many nonmembers registered to attend the event. I believe that's due to the proven value that the chapter has provided over the past few years and the excitement that exists for the chapter's 2010 plans.

I had the pleasure of conversing with groups of nonmembers in an informal environment and picked their brains regarding their interest in membership and to address their concerns.

It turns out prospective members already knew the benefits of membership:

• • Unequaled networking opportunities with potential clients, employers, and colleagues who can share solutions to similar challenges;
• • Accessible and affordable professional development programming that includes workshops and presentations from the area's top PR thought leaders;
• • Leadership opportunities that lead to accelerated skills development, professional growth, and enhanced networking; and
• • Access to services such as accreditation training (the NCC program is a national model) and discount rates on resources and publications, award entries, and events (including the 2010 International Conference that will be held Oct. 16-19 in Washington).

Powering PRogress, National Capital Chapter of PRSA Revs Up for 2010

More than 150 public relations professionals joined the 2010 PRSA-NCC Board of Directors for the annual Leadership Rally on Jan. 28 at the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. In addition to networking with colleagues and chapter leadership, two awards were presented for 2009.

Shannon Joyce, (shown at right, center) member of the Marketing and PR Committee, had previously received the 2009 "Diamond Award" for chapter service and her outstanding commitment to promoting chapter activities and accomplishments. Immediate Past President Barbara Burfeind, APR, presented the awards.

Jeff Ghannam, chapter president, added, "Through the professional development programs and networking opportunities, the chapter offers members the opportunity to develop their leadership and management skills and stay current with trends in PR. Also, Washington, D.C., is the host city for the 2010 PRSA International Conference in October. We encourage your participation in making 2010 our most successful year yet."

PRSA-NCC is the largest in the country with more than 1,350 members. The chapter has hosted the annual Leadership Rally since 1999. For more information please visit, www.prsa-ncc.org.

Submit Your Speaker Proposal for the 2010 Conference

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is seeking subject matter experts - including public relations and communications professionals, academics, economists, social scientists, futurists, technologists, management consultants, journalists, bloggers and others - to present at its 2010 International Conference: Powering Progress, Oct. 16-19, in Washington, D.C.. Specifically, PRSA is seeking presentations that demonstrate:

• • Public relations strategies and value (with measurable outcomes).
• • Solutions for organizational challenges (reputation and trust, staff development, internal communications, corporate social responsibility, social media engagement).
• • Public relations as a driver of critical business outcomes (crisis mitigation, sales generation, issues management, stakeholder engagement, legislative compliance, behavioral and attitudinal shifts).
• • Organizational positioning (branding, integrated marketing communications, risk management).
• • Career core competencies (ethics, leadership, business development, collaboration, networking).

Potential speakers may submit their proposals on the PRSA 2010 International Conference Web site. The deadline to submit proposals is February 16.

Become a Membership Ambassador

Looking for a way to become more involved in the National Capital Chapter and meet new people? Become a Membership Ambassador and gain the opportunity to network with local communicators like yourself and have the chance to share your professional skills with the chapter.

The Membership Ambassadors Program is designed to provide increased person-to-person interaction with prospective, new and inactive members. The goal of the Membership Ambassadors Program is to provide welcoming, direct contact with members and non-members alike, reinforcing the importance of their individual membership to the chapter and the value the chapter can bring to their career and professional development.

Membership Ambassadors will primarily help with outreach activities to new and prospective members. Roles in the Ambassador program can be tailored to your specific interests and availability. Ambassadors are responsible for attending chapter events to network with new and prospective members, making phone calls welcoming new members, and have the opportunity to participate in fun committee planning meetings to share ideas on how to make the Ambassador program stronger.

As an added bonus, Membership Ambassadors will be able to attend certain NCC professional development and networking events for FREE in return for serving as a membership liaison at the event.

For more information and to become involved as a Membership Ambassador, contact Membership Committee co-chairs Bren Landon at brenlandon@gmail.com or Ufuoma Otu at uotu@macstrategies.com.

We Need You: What's the Biggest Challenge You Face as a Nonprofit/Association Communications Professional This Year?

More than 37 percent of PRSA-NCC members work in communications for the Nonprofits/Association sector. So in 2009, PRSA-NCC re-energized its Nonprofit/Association Committee.

As the newest PRSA-NCC committee, we are off to a great start. More than 10 volunteers signed up to help the Committee at the PRSA-NCC leadership rally last week.  We are thrilled to have their input, ideas and help. But we need you!

To be sure we meet your needs in this challenging economy, we need to hear about the biggest challenges you face in 2010. Is it budget/staff/resource reductions? How to get press attention for your annual meeting when journalists can no longer afford to attend?  Maybe you are worried about how to design member communications with a competitive WOW factor. Or how to measure your efforts to prove they are a value-added to your nonprofit's bottom line.

Whatever is making you feel cautious about the next year, feel free to send your biggest challenges for 2010 via email to Sheri Singer, ssinger@singercomm.com, or Marguerite Higgins, Marguerite.Higgins@heritage.org, co-chairs of the Nonprofit/Association Committee. We'll use your input to formulate our 2010 professional development seminars.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Management Skills for PR Professionals Workshop Held

The Professional Development Committee along with Johns Hopkins University's Masters Program in Communications held a workshop on-site at JHU on "Management Skills for PR Professionals." 
 
Workshop speakers Diana Sun (Director of Communications for Arlington County) and Ralph Posner (SVP and Partner, Fleishman-Hillard) spoke to some 30 professional communicators and students of the graduate school program.  Diana focused on managing communications and other special projects in terms of creating and leading teams (internal and external) and making best use of budgets by using creative marketing and outreach techniques.  Ralph went through several
scenarios of creating make-sense budgets for agency clients based on needs and financial resources.  Budget tools can be used by communications staff at any organization to better help them plan and execute communications programs based on financial resources that may be at hand.

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Marguerite Higgins
Senior Editorial Services Associate
The Heritage Foundation

1)    Why did you join PRSA? 
I wanted to be up-to-speed on the latest developments in the PR industry as well as network with colleagues and mentors, who can help me better enhance my own communication skills.

2)    How long have you been in the PR field? 
Not long - about a year in an official PR position. I was a writer/editor at a small trade association that helped me ease into communication work after a career focus in print journalism.

3)    What skills are required to do your job? 
Good listening skills, being able to work on tight deadlines, strong communication (oral and written) with people inside and outside my organization, an ability to self-start projects and see them through and a constant search for the latest in health policy.

4)    What's your greatest career achievement? 
Achieving my goal to be a newspaper reporter at a major metropolitan newspaper and then moving to the next phase in my communication career.

5)    Where would you like to see yourself in five years? 
I'd like to be in a capacity where I'm challenged every day to help with various communication and policy issues, excited to get up and go to work and ready to take on whatever comes my way.

6)    How do you begin each day? 
If I'm incredibly disciplined, I'll exercise for half an hour before the morning routine. If I'm lazy and sleeping past the snooze alarm, catching up on the latest health care policy news over breakfast.

7)    What's your dream job?
My dream job would involve being well compensated for communication work that not only creates beneficial long-term relationships between publics and the organization but also helps make a positive impact on some economic sector,
community or policy issue.

8)    Who's your role model, and why do you admire him/her? 
Besides my mother, I would say my Aunt Mary Anne. She is an amazing 70-year-old (doesn't look a day over 50) who went to college at a time when professors told her women shouldn't become CPAs. She started her own firm with other female
CPAs after the firm she worked at said she would never achieve anything on her own. In her "semi-retired" state, she has more than 150 clients who will stay with her until they die. She's taught me a lot about being a truly independent woman who makes her way on her merit and tenacity.

9)    What's the last book you read or movie you saw?
Since I'm in grad school, the last book I read was an Introduction to the U.S. Health Care Sector. A fascinating read on the ins and outs of U.S. health care, even if I didn't agree with all of the policy ideas the author posited.

10)    Tips for maintaining the elusive work/life balance? 
Realize you're not always in control of a situation, focus on what you can actually do and do it to your best ability. This helps me stay focused at work with items I know I can and need to accomplish so that I leave on time. Also, reminding myself that I have to put in the same amount of effort in my social and networking life as I do in my work life to round things out.

Have you or someone you know joined the Chapter within the last six months?  If so, would you like to be in our spotlight?  Just contact newsletter@prsa-ncc.org for a copy of the questionnaire. To view past new Member Spotlights, visit the membership section of the Web site.

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(Q) I work for a small nonprofit organization that is facing financial challenges, and my boss wants me to demonstrate the value of what I do as a public relations professional, or else my job might be eliminated.  How show that my work has value?-SG, Washington, DC

(A) This is a challenge that all PR practitioners are facing, whether they are working for a small nonprofit organization, PR agency, or the federal government. Since public relations doesn't usually directly affect the bottom line, it may be considered a luxury that can't be afforded during difficult economic times. 

So the task we face is to design and implement communications programs that have as many measurable outcomes as possible. PR has historically relied primarily on counting audience impressions and media placements to demonstrate their
value, as advertisers frequently do.  However, these are just effects-not effectiveness. 

Start by identifying your target audiences as narrowly as possible. Create messages that will resonate with them. Use the Internet to invite interaction. And build in metrics that will show that your message was received and acted upon. 

PRSA National has some great resources on its web site on how to Communicate the Value of PR. And be sure to check the National Capital Chapter's professional development events for more guidance.

Regards,
Fred

Fred Whiting, APR, recently completed teaching a course in public communication writing at American University, and this semester he will teach a similar course at Hood College in Frederick, MD.

Do you have a question concerning the practice of public relations that would be of interest to others? Ask a PRofessional! Visit our Ask a PRofessional page to pose your question and receive a personal reply. Your question and the answer may appear in a future issue of the PRSA-NCC Chapter newsletter.

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