The botched announcement of Philip Bonaventura as CFO of
PRSA is proof that PRSA should be put into ethical and professional
receivership.
PRSA has become too much of an embarrassment to its members,
the PR industry, and the people who join it such as Bonaventura
and COO Bill Murray.
Bonaventura has suffered embarrassment and will probably
be subject to a reprimand by New York State because of PRSAs
flawed press release on him.
False claims were made that he is a Certified Public
Accountant when he is forbidden to use that title
in public because he has dropped his registration.
He did not have current memberships in the national and
New York CPA societies as claimed. At the time of the release,
he had let his membership lapse in the New York Society
of Assn. Executives for a year and a half. He should have
studied the press release prepared by VP-PR Janet Troy.
She should have confirmed the memberships. Troy (or the
board) has yet to issue a correction when the PRSA Code
says errors by a member must be corrected promptly.
New COO Bill Murray is also responsible. He had almost
no background in PR. The news of his appointment by PRSA
was also botched. It was made in the week between Christmas
and New Years, a burial ground for unwanted
news.
PRSA first said he would be available for interviews, then
contradicted that and then reversed that. Murray had a disastrous
telephone interview with PR students at Auburn University.
They were shocked at his lack of knowledge of PR and unresponsive
answers. They raked him over the coals in the student e-group.
Murray had one lunch with us in which we told him what
we knew about PRSA and asked him to work towards better
financial reports and democratizing PRSA (removing the APR
rule for directors). He never spoke to us again nor answered
any of our e-mails.
Both Murray and Bonaventura have backgrounds with major
organizations as did Rob Levy, who was head of professional
development and No. 2 staffer at PRSA for one year. He suddenly
quit in June of 2004 after boosting PD income by 61% in
the first half. PRSA can recruit experienced executives
but how long do they stay?
Were disappointed
in Bonaventuras appointment because we wanted
a bona fide, registered CPA at PRSA in hopes that a CPA
would rid PRSA of its substandard financial reporting practices.
Either PRSA doesnt want a CPA on staff because a CPA
would clean house, or CPAs, aware of PRSAs
history and intrasigence, refuse to work for it.
Frustrated by the
stubbornness of PRSA on financial topics, and unable
to force it to change (like the FTC did in 1977 when it
made PRSA remove anti-competitive articles from its Code
after the Assembly refused to do so), we asked some of the
CPA societies whether they would look into this.
They told us we would have to file a formal complaint supported
by documentation. A staff member said it was a serious
matter to accuse a CPA of unethical behavior. We responded
we think its a serious matter that members
believe PRSA makes money on its national conference when
it doesnt; its a serious matter
when h.q. are moved downtown to 50% more space for 13 years
without the Assembly knowing about it or having a say in
it, and its serious when the beloved 1,000-page
members directory is cancelled without the knowledge
or approval of the Assembly.
Were CPA groups serious about ethical enforcement
and making CPAs live up to the highest standards
(as the CPA Code says), they would investigate misleading,
substandard audits on their own (once reports about this
hit the public prints) and not wait for a citizens
complaint or ask the citizen to compile evidence that is
already on the public record.
Police and firefighters, if they see a crime being committed
or a fire, dont wait for a complaint nor ask for documentation.
The intransigence
of PRSA is hurtful to the Society. Its one
reason it had to go to the West Coast to recruit a COO.
Its one reason none of the six new directors last
year had a major job at a blue chip and two blue chip directors
quit the board (Gary McCormick of Scripps and Ron Owens
of Kaiser Permanente). The six directors, who share blame
for PRSAs mismanagement by caving in to its culture
of silence, secrecy and inaction, are
Leslie Backus, solo practitioner, Davie, Fla.; Tom
Eppes, manager, Charlotte office of Eric Mower &
Assocs.; Dennis Gaschen,
PR prof at Cal State/Fullerton and solo practitioner; Francis
Onofrio, Mason Onofrio PR, Bethany, Conn., who represents
the Tri-State district including New York because no one
from New York will serve on the PRSA board; Dave
Rickey, Alfa Corp., Montgomery, Ala., and Christopher
Veronda, internal PR specialist, Eastman Kodak, Rochester,
N.Y. We doubt any blue chips will show up this year for
nominations. No one wants to run from some districts which
is why the board tried to eliminate five district directors
last year and replace them with five at-large directors.
The move was rejected by the Assembly.
The PRSA board continues
to withhold the transcript of the 2005 and 2006 Assemblies
from members and is refusing to release the 2006 IRS Form
990 report until the summer (thus blocking access to former
COO Catherine Boltons remuneration for 2006 and other
financial information). A member can get the full 2006 audit
by sending $3 to h.q. (a document that should be on the
PRSA website).
The sting
operation conducted by Harpers Ken Silverstein,
in which he lied about his identity in order to knock responses
out of APCO Worldwide and Cassidy staffers, is a violation
of journalistic ethics. Such tactics are unnecessary because
there is already plenty of information available about the
work of PR firms for foreign principals. Such filings are
required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Offensive policies of nations such as Turkmenistan, particularly
with regard to press and speech freedoms, are well documented
by organizations such as The Committee to Protect Journalists
(cpj.org)
the
CPJ also investigates cases of reporters being abused or
mistreated in the U.S. We have plenty of materials
we could supply to it documenting unfair treatment including
theft of our notes at the 2003 Assembly in New Orleans
the
New York Times is raising its price to $1.25 from
$1. The New York Post tried raising its price from
25 cents to 50 cents a few weeks ago but quickly went back
to 25 cents
families
of victims of the Virginia Tech massacre are incensed
at the stonewalling and lack of cooperation of VT officials,
who refuse to investigate the two-hour delay in announcing
the initial two murders. Family members are being barred
from the investigating committee. Families are saying images
of the victims are being used to raise money without the
permission of the families.
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