The PR Society candidate drought in the Tri-State district
(New York, New Jersey and Conn.) is continuing, with the
nominating committee forced to push back the deadline for
candidates a second time to Friday, July 18.
Initial deadline was June 9. This was extended to June
30. Cheryl Procter-Rogers, 2006 chair, took over as chair
of the nomcom on Jan. 1 this year.
Veteran Tri-State members say the failure of any of the
hundreds of APR members to show up for the open board seat
for the district is becoming an embarrassment to national
leaders.
Current occupant of the district seat is Francis Onofrio,
a counselor based in Bethany, Conn. He did not appear before
the New York chapter during his term nor issue any public
reports about PRS to members. There is no public record
of his appearing before any of the other chapters including
Westchester/Fairfield, Southern Conn. and Conn. Valley.
Calls and e-mails to Onofrio by this website were unanswered.
Some Tri-State members who are APR and could run for the
board say they would not subject themselves to the strict
silence imposed by leadership on directors.
New directors are "required" to sign an oath
at the first meeting forbidding them from making any comments
to the press about the Society or PR. They promise to keep
all Society matters confidential.
PRS policy is that the elected CEO is the only person who
can speak in behalf of the Society or about PR subjects
in general. Directors mostly remain silent even after they
leave the board.
Stevens,
Ryan, Seideman Dropped
No one has run for the board from New York since Art Stevens,
who as secretary in 2003 was in line to be treasurer and
then chair-elect, was passed over by the nominating committee.
The nomcom that year picked as treasurer Maria Russell
of Syracuse University, who was not on the board. She was
elected but failed to move up to chair-elect. That post
went in 2005 to Cheryl Procter-Rogers.
Phil Ryan of New York and Jeff Seideman of Newton, Mass.,
who had accommodated the board by agreeing to one-year terms
that were needed because of a switch from two-year to three-year
terms, were rejected as candidates for three-year terms
by the 2003 nomcom. They ran unsuccessfully from the floor.
Seideman had been an open critic of board policies, especially
its public backing of Nike in the Nike-Kasky legal battle
over the type of claims that can be made in corporate ads.
PRS, without approval by the board, had filed an amicus
brief with the court backing Nike. The company eventually
withdrew its legal claims.
Hostile Attitude
to Press Also Cited
PRS/NY members also say they don't want to become identified
with press avoidance policies of the national leadership.
They note that PRS did not seek publicity for its 60th
anniversary that was being celebrated from July 1, 2007
to June 30, 2008. The anniversary committee, headed by Joe
Trahan of Covington, La., was removed from the Society website
in January.
PRS has been looking for several months for a PR director
to replace Janet Troy, who resigned in May after a four-year
term.
Sharpe, Barbour
Running from Florida
Counselor Cynthia Sharpe of Thonotosassa, Fla., and Kathy
Barbour, of the Mayo Clinic, Fla., are running for Sunshine
district director after no one showed up by the initial
deadline.
Sunshine chapters include Gulfcoast, Gulfstream, Miami,
North Florida, Orlando Regional, Palm Beach and Tampa Bay.
Miami chapter leaders had blasted the national board in
2005 for proposing that the executive committee be empowered
to "serve as an efficient and flexible extension of
the full board."
Miami president Mark Sell said the new bylaw (which passed)
would turn the rest of the board into "eunuchs."
"The cumulative effect of these changes would be to
consolidate power and control in the hands of a few while
diminishing the opportunity for members and their elected
representatives to participate in Society governance,"
he said.
When the board met in New York on Jan. 25 this year, the
EC met during the morning by itself.
At about 1 p.m., EC members joined the rest of the board
for an afternoon meeting at which ten staff members were
also present.
Most of Jan. 26 was spent listening to an "expert"
on boardroom behavior tell directors how to behave as directors.
Board members were "required" to sign "disclosure,
confidentiality and conflict of interest statements."
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