PR Society staff has declared an 11-day holiday starting today and lasting until Jan. 4, 2010.
None of the 55 or so staffers will be reachable until Jan. 4. Members are advised to "leave a message for our Member Services Dept. and your call will be returned promptly in the New Year."
The Society's daily information e-mail, "Issues and Trends," will not be sent out and no new materials will be posted on the PRSAY and ComPrehension blogs until Jan. 4.
"If the staff of an association can close for 11 days and not be missed it raises the question of how important can they be to the membership," said a member.
The American Society of Assn. Executives, Washington, D.C., is also closed starting at noon today until Jan. 4. No staffers will be on hand.
Offices of the National Investor Relation Institute, Vienna, Va., will be open with many of the staff present, except for the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
PR Society CEO Bill Murray, who sent the e-mail notification to members, posted a blog saying the Society "Thrived, Not Just Survived, in 2009." He wished members a "happy, healthy and prosperous New Year in 2010."
Society staff costs rose 6% in 2008 to $5,463,473 from $5,135,245 in 2007 or an average of nearly $100,000 per staffer. Staff costs/fringes for the nine months to Sept. 30 rose $57,708 to $4,037,309, one of the few categories to show an increase.
IRS Form 990 Withheld from Assembly
IRS Form 990 for 2008, which was not revealed to Assembly delegates at the Nov. 7 meeting and which is not on the PRS website, showed the salaries of the six highest paid executives including Murray, who got a 19% pay raise to $312,779 (also receiving $30,500 in retirement pay and $16,587 in non-taxable expense benefits for a total of $359,866).
CFO Phil Bonaventura received a salary of $178,030, plus $30,300 retirement; VP Karla Voth, $135,056 salary; VP Jennifer Ian, $133,676; VP Barbara McDonald, $127,023, and director Judith Voss, $115,803.
Still not posted on the PRS website are the minutes for the 2009 Assembly. The 2008 Assembly had passed a resolution demanding early posting of Assembly minutes after it took a year for posting of the 2007 minutes.
The 2009 minutes, under Robert's Rules, which are the "official" parliamentary rules of the Assembly, should include all the dozens of keypad votes that were taken Nov. 7. Under Robert's, minutes of a meeting are a record of anything that was done rather than a record of what was said.
PRS has taken the tack that New York State law only requires publication of the minutes.
Murray was given a new two-year contract starting in January 2010 but PRS has said that legally it is only required to provide details of his compensation in Form 990 which can be filed as late as Nov. 15 of the following year. Neither Murray, the board nor the PR staff of PRS will answer any questions about his compensation in 2009, 2010 or 2011.
Only Seven Staffers Now Listed
Before a web redesign several months ago, the PRS website listed all 55 or so staff members by name, phone number and e-mail.
With the redesign, only seven staffers are listed by name: Murray; Bonaventura; McDonald; John Robinson, VP corporate development; Voth; Melissa Yahre, AVP, member services, and Arthur Yann, VP-PR.
PRS earlier this year opposed the Federal Trade Commission's new guidelines calling for bloggers and others using "social media" to state whether they are being paid in any form for any communication they make.
PRS said that existing rules, "coupled with vigorous self-regulation," should be "sufficient to meet FTC goals.
The PRS statement mentioned the Society's Code of Ethics more than a dozen times, emphasizing that members believe in the "free flow of accurate and truthful information" and that this is "critical to decision making in a democratic society."
PRS has withheld from Assembly delegates, members, and the press transcripts and audiotapes of the last five Assemblies.
Several members earlier this year petitioned the New York County Supreme Court for access to the transcripts, which were provided until the 2005 Assembly, but have not yet heard back from the Court.
The new FTC guidelines went into effect Dec. 3. An item on the Daily Finance website (picked up by the Dec. 20 New York Post), questioned whether Gwyneth Paltrow may have violated the rules when her Goop online newsletter "heaped praise" on the La Mamounia Hotel in Morocco which she visited Thanksgiving as part of a VIP junket.
The "Media Room" on the PRS website does not provide any PRS financial reports. |