PRSA News

Introducing “PRSAY”

PRSA is pleased to launch PRSAY, a place where PRSA leaders and members—and other industry professionals—can exchange viewpoints and opinions. The first question you’re probably asking is “why another blog?” After all, there are literally millions of blogs, including dozens in the public relations space, and your attention is already stretched by information overload. I’d like to give you a window into our thinking—but I’ll keep it brief, since time is in short supply for us all.

 

Over the past several years, we’ve solicited a great deal of feedback from members about their (our) organization. We’ve conducted several major research initiatives, held leadership rallies and teleconferences, sat in the Assembly, established electronic discussion boards (eGroups), asked for input in letters and e-mails, and created a professional development blog (check out my post on the ways PRSA can help you in lean economic times). While we’ll continue to seek our members’ input and guidance, we’ve established some clear direction based on what we’ve heard so far.

 

A common theme throughout our research findings is that members want their voices heard. On one level, this puzzled us, because there are many communications channels within PRSA. But as we looked more closely, this started to make sense. While PRSA is a single community of professionals bound by a desire to further themselves and their profession, it is also a fantastically complex organization made up of many “neighborhoods” and “constituencies”: 109 Chapters, 10 Districts, 20 Professional Interest Sections and Affinity Groups, 298 college chapters, dozens of committees, task forces, and working groups, hundreds of Assembly Delegates, and countless volunteer leaders. Each faction has its own ways of communicating, ranging from e-mail distribution lists to Web sites to Facebook and LinkedIn Groups to networking and learning events. While this mirrors the coming together of like-minded people happening online, it also creates a daunting number of layers and nuances.

 

Thus, our latest blog—a town square, if you will, where all the different elements of our Society can come together and discuss issues of mutual concern. In the months and years ahead, you’ll be hearing a lot from us about what is happening at PRSA and within our profession, so please join in the conversation as this new blog develops. It’s a simple, direct way for you to make your voice heard as a valued member of our community.

 

William Murray is PRSA’s President and COO.

About the author

William Murray

10 Comments

    • Thanks for writing. ComPRehension is our professional development (PD) blog. The posts in ComPRehension are often from our PD presenters, with a primary focus on the topics, skills and tools that our members are interested in — in short, an extension of the learning resources available from PRSA. PRSAY is much broader — here, we’ll be offering posts from our leaders across the country on a wide range of topics — from the internal workings of PRSA, to topics in the news. Ultimately, though, we hope that you’ll find both of interest — a quick and easy way to stay connected to those in your PRSA network, with insight into what they are thinking.

  • Dear Bill and your extended blog-o-sphere —
    Thanks for establishing this Blog. PRSA needs to connect with ALL of its members, not just those that can afford one week of their lives and $2,000+ of their assets to attend a National Conference and an Assembly.
    I hope Mike Cherenson will be a frequent contributor, since we need the “view from the top” to put things into perspective with our incredibly complex profession. Likewise, I hope other national offices and directors will chime in as well.
    Best wishes as you move PRSA and the profession forward into the 21st Century!
    Mike mcDermott, APR, Fellow PRSA

    • Hi Mike –

      Thanks for writing — and some great points about staying connected. Mike penned our second posting, and you’ll be hearing much more from him in the near future.

      Kind regards,

      Bill Murray

    • Hi Steve –

      Great to hear from you — hope all is well with you and that business stays strong for you this year.

      Kind regards,

      Bill Murray

  • I’m thrilled to see PRSA take this step! I’m on the Marketing and Public Relations Committee for the National Capital Chapter (PRSA-NCC), and we’ve been talking about starting a blog. This blog can be our model for best practice. I will follow the posts here and on Twitter with interest — congratulations!

    • Hi Mary,

      Thanks for writing — and good luck with the blog for NCC! I was in D.C. last month when I had a chance to meet with some of the Chapter leadership, so I know how passionate all of you are for the Chapter and profession. By the way, we have a more detailed “blog policy” — along the lines of our overall media policy — which we’d be happy to share if that would be helpful as you move ahead with this project.

      Kind regards,

      Bill Murray

  • Yes, This is a great idea and I’m sure it will be very successful. Between this and the daily Issues and Trends, you’ve made it realy simple to keep up with everything that’s new in PR.

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