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Cheryl Procter-Rogers doesn't realize it but her term as
president of PRSA is about over. She only has a brief period
in which to make her mark and so far she looks like a continuation
of Judith Phair, the worst president in PRSA's history from
a communications standpoint.
Procter-Rogers |
Blockage of information flow and failure to make needed reforms
marked the presidency of Phair last year. Thus far Procter-Rogers,
who is meeting this weekend in New York with the new board,
has yet to distance herself from Phair and her policies.
Worst move of all of the Phair board was killing the nearly
1,000-page directory of members, boards, committees, bylaws,
etc. This will make member interaction much tougher and make
belonging to PRSA significantly less attractive.
Second worst was depriving the membership of arguments over
the use of proxies at an Assembly.
For the first time in history, PRSA is refusing to make a
transcript of an Assembly available.
No. 3 is keeping the identity of the 300 members of the Assembly
secret until one month before the Assembly. Even then, the
list was hard to find on the PRSA website. This cut down on
delegate interaction and member attempts to reach delegates.
PRSA
Said to be "Private"
No. 4 was Phair arguing throughout the year, with the help
of lawyer Jeff Tenenbaum, that PRSA is a "private"
society and answerable to no one but itself.
No. 5 was failure to communicate properly with members and
registrants when Hurricane Wilma threatened the 2005 conference
in Miami. Phair and COO Catherine Bolton blamed an antiquated
website that only one PRSA staffer knew how to operate.
No. 6 was the removal of $2.2 million in administrative expenses
from 13 categories in the PRSA financial report. It's hard
to tell any more what any of these programs cost.
No. 7 is the false bookkeeping on the annual
conference to which only 4-5% of the members go (Phair's own
estimate). Staff reports only about $100K in staff time when
the figure is close to $2 million, ex-officers of PRSA say.
Staff loves the conference, which provides all-expense paid
trips to a distant city for more than 30 of them each year
(not to mention advance trips). They don't like doing the
directory. It's easy to see what gets done and what doesn't
get done.
Bookkeeping
Is False
No. 8 is the continued false accounting on PRSA dues, which
are booked immediately as cash and called "reserves"
when they are a liability for future services owed to members.
PRSA actually doesn't have a nickel of "unrestricted
net assets." Almost nothing has been told to members
about the financial impact of the cancelled 2005 conference.
No. 9 is the continuing dysfunctional nominating process
which bars non-APRs from membership on the 20-person nominating
committee. Office-seekers are not required to air their views
to members.
No. 10 is the undemocratic policy, in force since 1973, that
bars non-APRs from running for national office. Neither Phair
nor Procter-Rogers has made any move to change this. The bylaws
should be tightened to block any director from returning to
the board years later.
Chapters
Get "Weekend in New York"
No. 11 is the blatant bribery of 110 chapter presidents-elect
with a "weekend in June in New York" so they can
learn how to be presidents (they're given with $500 each in
walking around money). Total cost to PRSA is $100K. This meeting
should be the spring Assembly. The laugher on this one is
that few of these presidents-elect show up for the Saturday
morning session. They no doubt had a wild time in the city
the night before.
No. 12 is failure to act on the recommendation of the Rhoda
Weiss committee that PRSA explore letting the Assembly meet
all year long by teleconference. This would be easy to do.
Chapters should show some gumption and stop letting national
limit Assembly service to three years, which guarantees a
naive, submissive Assembly.
No. 13 is the refusal of PRSA leadership, including Procter-Rogers,
to use the Society's blast e-mail function to sample opinion
of Assembly delegates, chapter presidents and/or the members
themselves. Blast e-mail is used only to sell things to members.
No. 14 is the refusal of the current board and its ethics
board headed by David Rickey to take up the complaint of the
American Society of Newspaper Editors that the NewUSA program
of giving rewards to editors who return clips of NewsUSA articles
is a violation of newspapers' ethical codes. Rickey ducked
making a PRSA announcement on this that NewsUSA does not disseminate
information.
At-Large
Student Membership Ducked
No. 15 is failure of Procter-Rogers and the board to take
up the subject of at-large student membership, first proposed
in 2002 and savaged by 21 ex-presidents of PRSA (who get lifetime
free dues and conference registration) and the Educators Academy.
Students at 3,700 of the 4,000 colleges can't join either
PRSA or PRSSA because their schools don't have five PR courses
approved by PRSA. The students also need approval from five
local PRSA chapter members and two PRSA professors.
This roadblock to student membership appears to be a violation
of PRSA's promise in 1977 to the FTC to cease and desist from
any "unfair" or "anti-competitive" practices.
PRSA was warned in 1976 by the FTC to amend its code but
the 1976 Assembly stubbornly refused to do so.
PRSA got hit with a formal order the next year that PRSA
had to send to all members and that was publicized nationwide
by the FTC.
The problem with PRSA boards is that they wait for the roof
to cave in before they do anything.
Everything
Delayed Until October
The usual practice of a PRSA board is to delay action on
anything until the Assembly meets in October. This is a well-worn
excuse for inaction and avoiding difficult decisions.
The new president usually sets his or her agenda in the first
couple of months and the rest of the time is spent waiting
for the Assembly
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