|
"You
have entered a very elite circle, you are the cream of the
crop of the PR world," William H. Shepard, then VP-PR
of Aluminum Co. of America, told new members of PR Seminar
in 1979.
That
about sums up how members feel about this group that was a
spinoff of the National Assn. of Manufacturers in 1952.
The
PR directors of NAM companies used to gather separately before
the NAM meeting in the 1940s. They then decided to get together
apart from the NAM. Since 1952 was the first meeting using
the name, PRS, the 2000 meeting last year was billed as the
49th and this year's meeting June 6-9 is being billed as the
50th.
All
of the living ex-chairs of PRS have been invited back to this
meeting, which could be the largest gathering ever.
The Inn at Spanish Bay,
Pebble Beach, Calif. |
As
usual, it's at one of the finest resorts in the U.S., the
Inn at Spanish Bay, Pebble Beach, Calif., where rooms start
at about $400 a night.
The
conference fee for attendees is $1,800 and there is an extra
charge for spouses who attend. Most of the men bring their
wives and about half of the women members bring their husbands.
Total
Cost: $750K or More
One
member figured that between travel and other expenses the
bill for a couple would be at least $5,000. Since about 160
members attend (plus spouses), the cost will be upwards of
$750,000.
A
blue-chip list of speakers has been arranged for the meeting
including Paul Gigot, Potomac Watch columnist of the Wall
Street Journal; Michael Novak, columnist who is with the
American Enterprise Institute; Ken Dychtwald, specialist in
lifestyles of the aging, and Faye Wattleton, president, Center
for Gender Equality, New York.
Not
a word of the proceedings is supposed to escape although the
O'Dwyer Co. has covered the event with varying degrees of
completeness since 1970. A number of members, who do not believe
the event should be secret, have supplied, each year, membership
lists, programs and coverage of many of the speakers.
Such
members, who believe press relations is the No. 1 task of
PR people, disagree with the attitude of many PR Seminarians
that PR people are, first and foremost, members of top management.
A
veteran Seminarian said that would be fine but what he learned
was that many Seminarians had little, if any, contact with
their CEOs.
Sweeney
Blasted Nike
Howard Paster, CEO of
Hill and Knowlton, is this year's chairman of PRS. |
Some
of the speakers, including AFL-CIO president JohnSweeney,
have released their remarks to the press.
Sweeney addressed the 1998 PRS at the same Pebble Beach location,
blasting the "Nike Economy" that seeks subcontractors
offering the lowest wages in foreign countries. He called
the "new standards" proposed by Nike CEO Phil Knight
"a cheap PR stunt" because the standards are voluntary.
Knight
had promised ten days earlier to improve the conditions of
those working on Nike products.
Howard
Paster, chairman and CEO of Hill and Knowlton, is this year's
chairman of PRS. He was asked if the group might finally say
something for public consumption on its 50th anniversary.
He
said he would ask other leaders but doubted that tradition
would be broken, even for the anniversary.
Barlow
to Be Honored
There
will be special recognition of Walter Barlow of Research Strategies,
Princeton, N.J., the only member to have attended all 50 of
the meetings. Barlow serves as the photographer for the group
although none of the photographs has ever been published outside
of PRS circles.
Among
companies to be represented are Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart Stores,
General Electric and AT&T (from the top ten Fortune companies)
plus other blue chips such as Coca-Cola, Time-Warner, Eastman
Kodak, Aetna, Hewlett Packard, World Bank, Chevron, Dow Corning,
McDonald's, Sears Roebuck, Prudential Insurance, American
Airlines, Forbes, CBS, Warner-Lambert, United Airlines, Knight-Ridder,
ABC, Dow Chemical, Boeing, Nike, Johnson & Johnson and
Colgate-Palmolive.
The
blue chip count is down from a couple of decades ago when
almost all of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies were represented.
Yearly
turnover is almost five times what it once was, reflecting
high turnover in CEOs. Some 30-35 new Seminarians are needed
each year now to replenish the ranks vs. only seven or eight
in the 1970s.
CitiGroup
Not Attending
One
of those not attending is John M. Morris, retired senior PA
director of CitiGroup, who now works part-time as a consultant
to the company.
Morris
said he attended PRS four or five years but did not go last
year. His successor at CitiGroup, Leah Johnson, VP and director
of external affairs, is not going either.
"By meeting at elegant
resort hotels, holding black tie dinner parties and having
numerous other social events, Seminar participants mimic
the social lives of the corporate elite whom they serve,"
said Dr. Caroline Persell. |
Morris
said Johnson does not believe in groups such as PRS. "Our
department is focused more on getting out a defined corporate
message or philosophy about CitiGroup than connecting with
other PR executives," said Morris.
He
feels there has been a shift in recent years to PR pros being
more oriented to clients and employers whereas they once tried
to be equally loyal to the press and clients/employers.
Many
heads of PR have come from the political side where PR performs
a sales and marketing function for political leaders, he noted.
Such political PR or salespeople are 100% loyal to the candidates
and elected officials for whom they work, he said.
Paster
was formerly a Democratic lobbyist in Washington, as was Thomas
Hoog, president and CEO, H&K/USA.
Heads
of Big PR Firms Attend
Representing
PR firms, based on past attendance, will be Harold Burson,
Burson-Marsteller; David Drobis, Ketchum; Lou Capozzi, Manning,
Selvage & Lee; Daniel and Richard Edelman, Edelman PR
Worldwide; Al Golin, Golin/Harris Int'l; Bob Feldman, GCI
Group; Bob Druckenmiller, Porter Novelli; John Graham, Fleishman-Hillard;
Larry Weber, Weber Shandwick; Bob Seltzer, Ogilvy PR Worldwide,
and Andrea Cunningham, Citigate Cunningham.
Also
present will be PR people from major associations including
PRSA (the chair of which is always invited); Jack Bergen,
Council of PR Firms; Geoffrey Pickard, American Institute
of CPAs; Jon Holtzman, Chemical Mfrs. Assn.; Robert Zito,
New York Stock Exchange, and Michael Baroody, NAM.
A
top-flight speakers program has been set up for the chosen
few including:
–Paul
Gigot, Potomac Watch columnist, Wall Street Journal.
–Ken
Dychtwald, founder of Age Wave and a specialist in
lifestyles of the aging.
–Faye
Wattleton, president, Center for Gender Equality, New
York.
–Michael
Novak, American Enterprise Institute, who writes about
religion and the "voluntary sector."
–David
Ellington, president of NetNoir, focusing on black/African
American culture;
–Ted
Price, president, Crisis Management Group.
–Sue
Bostrom, senior VP, Internet Business Solutions Group,
Cisco Systems.
–Clotaire
Rapaille, Archetype Discoveries Worldwide.
–Dean
Kamen, president, Deka Research & Development Corp.
Rituals
Abound
The
over-riding secrecy in which the meetings are cloaked is a
"bonding technique," according to Dr. Caroline Hodges
Persell, chair of the Dept. of Sociology, New York University,
who analyzed the group for the O'Dwyer Co. in 1990.
Seminarians
were practically ordered to bring their spouses for many years,
when most of the members were men. This gave PRS further "control"
over the members, said Dr. Persell. Wives were barred from
the sessions for the first few decades of the group and then
were allowed to sit in the back of the room. Now, they can
sit anywhere.
Members
wear a name tag with different colors to signify whether they
are "freshman," regular members, or governing committee
members.
Rituals
include the ringing of a bell before each session. A "bell-ringer"
is appointed each year and this is a position of high prestige.
The symbol of PRS, in fact, is a bell. It is used on programs
and other literature.
"By
meeting at elegant resort hotels, holding black tie dinner
parties and having numerous other social events, Seminar participants
mimic the social lives of the corporate elite whom they serve,"
said Dr. Persell.
"In
the temporarily self-contained world of the secret Seminar,"
she said, "the PR executives have a higher status than
they do in their occupational worlds. By excluding some members
of their own occupation, all members may enhance their status
in their own eyes, and perhaps in the eyes of others aware
of the group.
An open society has less capacity to enhance social status,"
she said.
A
secret society prompts reactions, she warned.
"Those
excluded react by poking fun at it or by overestimating its
importance. The fact of secrecy suggests the idea that a special
association might one day use its energies for undesirable
purposes," said Dr. Pursell.
Networking
and jobseeking are prime activities of members. A book devoting
one page to the biography of each member is circulated, which
is ideal source material for executive recruiters.
|
