Eight possible candidates for a record 11 board and officer posts at the PR Society posed nine questions yesterday at hour-long sessions in the morning and afternoon conducted by nominating chair Cheryl Procter-Rogers, 2006 president.
This was an improvement over similar calls April 8 [link to 4/8 teleconference] when only two questioners showed up.
Procter-Rogers |
The Society’s shortage of candidates for national positions is so severe that Blake Lewis of Richardson, Texas, and 49 other senior members last year created a task force to attract candidates from the chapter level on up.
No candidates at all filed by the deadline from the Southeast district last year and only one candidate filed from the Southwest. The candidate was rejected for unstated reasons and a special search was made after the deadline for nominations.
Because of the many requirements for national board and officer service, it’s estimated that more than 95% of members are ineligible.
The rules have been in effect since the 1970s and resulted in former president Jack Felton saying in 2000 that an inner “elite” had taken control of the Society.
He headed a special committee studying the nominating process.
The accreditation requirement eliminates more than 80% of members and in addition, a candidate must have headed a district, chapter, section or national committee or voted in an Assembly.
Long Presentations, Few Questions
The two sessions yesterday started with 35-40 minute presentations by leaders including nomcom chair Cheryl Procter-Rogers; chair and CEO Jeff Julin; chair-elect Mike Cherenson; immediate past chair Rhoda Weiss, and COO Bill Murray.
They again told what board service entails including the number of required meetings and the benefits of board service. Cherenson described it as the best possible “professional development” and an opportunity to greatly increase one’s circle of contacts. Noting that he is only 40 years old but is chair-elect, he said there are “lots of opportunity in the Society for young people.”
Eppes Asks if Letters Can Be Re-used
Tom Eppes of the Charlotte, N.C., office of Eric Mower and Assocs., a member of the national board, posed the first question at the afternoon session after about 15 seconds of silence greeted the request of Procter-Rogers for questions.
Tom Eppes |
He said he had asked “quite a number” of people to write letters for him when he ran for the 2006 board in 2005 and said he now “feels a little bit uncomfortable going back and asking the same people to write letters again.”
He wondered if it is possible to use the letters “that were used previously.”
Procter-Rogers urged the use of “fresh letters” with “fresh dates.” She also said it was up to him to use “letters from the past” if he wished to do so.
The question by Eppes indicates he is seeking one of the three open officer posts—chair-elect, treasurer or secretary.
Also open are seven district directorships (East Central, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, Sunshine, Tri-State and Western) and one at-large board seat.
Three-Year Terms Were Tried
Up until two years ago, the board had experimented with three-year terms as a means of solving the shortage of candidates. However, it found that not enough members were willing to make three-year commitments.
In another move to drum up more candidates, the board last year proposed that the ten districts be reduced to five with the eventual aim of eliminating district representation altogether.
Directors serve the entire Society and not their districts, Weiss had said.
The measure, which might have allowed members from one or several geographical areas to dominate the board, was defeated at the 2007 Assembly. A vote of approximately 50-50 was far from the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
Leaders have shown no interest in removing the APR or other requirements for national office.
The main point, said the Felton committee, was that the board was not to elect its own officers. Felton noted that the immediate past president sits on the nomcom but has no vote and therefore should not take part in the nomcom’s deliberations.
Weiss sits on the current nomcom and is able to voice her opinions while the other 16 directors are not allowed to voice theirs.
An attempt to change this at the Jan. 25, 2008 board meeting failed.
Directors rebelling against the leadership of Weiss were defeated twice—first when they moved to let the entire board, and not just the immediate past chair, give opinions on candidates, and second when they made a specific motion to bar Weiss from the nomination process.
Christopher Veronda of Kodak and Prof. Dennis Gaschen of California State (Fullerton) motioned that all directors could join the past chair in commenting on candidates. This was defeated.
Eppes and Dave Imre of Imre Communications then moved that the immediate past chair (Weiss) be “prohibited from actively campaigning for or against any candidate and may not participate in the deliberations for any candidate.”
A heated, lengthy debate reportedly took place but this was not reflected in “minutes” that were published on the PRS website. It was only reported that the motion lost. Not vote total was given.
Insurance, Number of Letters Discussed
One questioner want to know if the board had liability insurance for the directors (yes) while another asked how many board meetings there were, a topic that had already been covered (four).
An unidentified male asked what are the duties of an at-large Assembly delegate and was told that this required being aware of the “business coming before the Assembly.”
Mark Bettor, a director of PRS/Detroit, asked the morning session what a typical national board meeting was like and received extensive answers from Julin, Cherenson, Murray, Weiss and Procter-Rogers.
Cherenson said meetings are “collegial” and members think of themselves not as PR people (although they still retain all their PR skills) but as managers of a large non-profit association.
Weiss said that new directors are required to spend a day at h.q. receiving indoctrination by elected leaders and staff.
The afternoon teleconference, scheduled to last an hour, was concluded at 3:47 p.m. after no further questions were received from participants.
Candidates seeking office have to submit materials by June 9 both via e-mail and written copies delivered to h.q.
As usual, there was no discussion of issues facing the Society such as asking members if they wished to have PRS again publish a printed record of members; whether PRS should move its charter to Delaware which allows electronic meetings of members or their representatives, and whether APR should be removed from the bylaws.
Murray said the 2007 audit has been completed.
Portions may be made available on the PRS website but past practice is to supply the complete printed audit only to members who send in $3 for postage and handling.
Murray at one point said that there are “dozens and dozens of things happening.” Staff now totals nearly 60 persons, he said. Silver Anvil entries totaled 875, which he said was a record.
The national conference in Detroit Oct. 23-25 will feature “a couple of hundred speakers” in more than 100 sessions, he said. |