PR Society chair Mike Cherenson and parliamentarian Colette Trohan spoke at length yesterday against any form of audio recording of the Assembly Nov. 7 in San Diego. The Assembly will vote on a new set of bylaws.
Cherenson told the a.m. teleconference on the bylaws that audiocasting was "near impossible, technologically chall
enging."
Click for audio of conference call
Trohan said she "strongly recommended" against audiotaping because it would distract the delegates if they were "very aware that there are cameras, some kind of audio feed."
She said "This is a working session for you to deal with the business of the Assembly; it's not entertainment for anyone else."
Bylaws Objections Sent to 109 Chapters
Colette Trohan
A group of senior members, calling themselves "The True Friends of PRSA," have e-mailed to the 109 chapter presidents a list of the "Top 11 PRSA Bylaws Contradictions" such as the use of proxies in the Assembly while also claiming guidance by Robert's Rules which specifically forbids them, and letting the executive committee act in place of the full board when the full board is easily reachable by teleconference. [see sidebar below].
None of the ten biggest chapters has any discussion of the bylaws on its website nor has any chapter conducted a poll of members on what they think about the dozen or so major bylaws changes.
The subject of audiotaping was brought up by Sally Evans, Houston delegate.
Cherenson said voting multiple devices would be like playing 'a bingo game in the retirement community—you'll have a series of machines.'
Senior members said putting an audiotape on the PRS website, perhaps with an hour delay, would not only be easy but almost cost free since the Assembly is already being recorded and numerous mikes are available to the directors on the stage and delegates in the audience.
"Live audiostreaming" would be more difficult and expensive, said the seniors, who noted that PRS has said it will audiostream parts of the speeches of the three main speakers at the conference later on the days that they speak.
"If they can do that for the keynote speakers they can do it for the Assembly," said the critics.
They charged that PRS has chronically turned its back on technological advances in communications. After about a dozen years, the PRS website is still not searchable they noted. A search for "Cherenson" on the PRS website today turned up the following: http://www.prsa.org/searchResults.html?c=1&id=128879&qr=cherenson
Trohan Apologizes for Proxy Remarks
The subject of proxies became the butt of several jokes when a delegate wondered if there was enough room on tables to accommodate a delegate who had a number of proxies to vote.
Delegates will get one extra electronic voting device for each proxy held.
“Top 11 PRSA Bylaws Contradictions”
Below is the text of “Top 11 PRSA Bylaws Contradictions” sent to 109 chapter presidents this week by a group of senior members.
The group sent 30 objections to the bylaws re-write to the same chapter presidents about two months ago but the objections were not carried by any of the chapter websites.
Whether the e-mails were passed on to boards or members is not known.
11. If PRSA is about best practices and Roberts Rules of Order (ROR) is it's parliamentary authority, how
can they use proxies which ROR is strictly against?
10. If the goal of all the new bylaws is to promote member engagement, why would we want a system that says “phone it in” (by proxy)?
If the goal of a true Leadership Assembly of our best leaders is collaborating on what PRSA's
positions should be on key issues, why would we want to say “stay home and just send your vote”?
If the new bylaws is about empowering more leaders, why promote non-participation? Or, even allow it?
9. How is member voting is OK on directors and officers but not on Bylaws a positive change – even though 90% of the members surveyed said yes to both?
Is letting the Assembly continue to have the “right” to approve Bylaws just a SOP so the Board can say the Assembly still has power?
8. How can the Board say they want to open up access to national leadership by removing APR as a qualification for Board service – but then add another barrier to being an officer by requiring Board service?
7. How can a member of PRSA be expected to “abide by the Society's Bylaws, applicable policies and procedures and the PRSA Code of Ethics” when policies and procedures are not made available to members? During discussion of the need for details on the all-member voting issue, the chair of Bylaws Task Force promised that P&P would be shared with delegates – yet it never happened. They remain top secret.
6. How can the board attorney say that the new provision on expulsion of members is to protect members from being arbitrarily expelled – when the Bylaws provision says “grounds constituting ‘cause' shall be
determined by the board in its sole discretion . . .” ?
5. How can 500 voting members in person or by proxy (about 2.2 percent) constitute a quorum for member business but one-third of Leadership Assembly delegates in person or proxy (33.33 percent) constitute a quorum for all other Society business under the purview of the Assembly?
4. If the Bylaws are, as stated by the Task Force, the ultimate rules of the Society, how can the Board be given the power to establish criteria for delegates to the Leadership Assembly that go beyond that in the
Bylaws?
3. Why should the executive committee of four officers be able to act unilaterally with no checks and balances, when remote communications (such as conference calls, email, SKYPE, etc.) are a basic part of “modern” life so that all directors can easily be involved in discussion and voting?
2. How can the Task Force say there should be more Board involvement in nominating – when only the Nominating Committee chair (immediate past president) has any access to the committee AND the other 16 Board members are still prohibited by Policies and Procedures from having any contact with or input to the Nominating Committee?
1. How can the Board of Ethics and Professional Standards – which manages the CODE which ALL PRSA members sign and must adhere to – be comprised solely of Accredited members, who constitute a small minority (20 percent) of PRSA's membership?
Cherenson said voting multiple devices would be like playing "a bingo game in the retirement community—you'll have a series of machines."
When laughter greeted that remark, a delegate commented: "You guys are going to look silly there with all your extra keypads."
Trohan chimed in by saying, "Well, you can give them some lanyards so they can wear them around their necks" (36 minutes on tape).
Trohan apologized for the remarks a couple of minutes later, saying "Every once in a while you wish you could take something back and then I realized this was being taped."
She said she was "feeling terrible" about the remark especially since there is "an awful lot of feeling about proxies."
"I was not thinking of anything other than being funny, I'm sorry," she said.
Trohan has been working for months with PRS on the bylaws revision, helping delegates with different views on the bylaws to arrive at some sort of accommodation. She said she is "concentrating full time" on the re-write for the next couple of weeks.
Senior members said Trohan should not be the parliamentarian since she is so intimately connected with PRS leaders and staff on the bylaws changes and is no doubt being paid tens of thousands of dollars.
Parliamentarians should remain aloof from any particular faction in a governing body and there are certainly many different points of view among PRS and its members on the re-write, said the seniors.
Cherenson Promises Financials
Cherenson said first half and third quarter financials will be released next week.
Members have been asking for the first half financials for more than a month. Also missing is IRS Form 990 that has the compensation and expenses of COO Bill Murray, occupancy costs ($802,000 in 2007) and legal costs.
PRS leaders have refused to disclose details of a new contract with Murray that was approved by the July 24 board meeting. Also missing are minutes of that meeting.
PRS leaders have refused to provide this website with a list of the 2009 Assembly delegates. Murray said in a governance e-group posting that some of the delegates have forbidden PRS to reveal their names.
Only delegates can obtain the delegates' list by e-mailing a PRS staffer. The list is not on the PRS website.
Cherenson "Protests Too Much"
Senior members who listened to the call yesterday said it was a case of Cherenson "protesting too much" about the alleged impossibility of audiocasting the Assembly.
They called his objections to audiocasting "hogwash" and said they showed ignorance of web technology.
Cherenson at first told Evans that, "Obviously the minutes are the legal representation of what happened."
Evans retorted: "We never get the minutes on time or posted out where they are supposed to be."
PRS staffer Christina Darnowski then said the minutes went out "very quickly" last year and Evans replied that was because the Assembly protested the late delivery of the 2007 minutes (they were given to the 2008 Assembly on the day of that Assembly). Evans noted she herself had complained about the late minutes last year.
Continued Cherenson: "But in terms of audiocasting, certainly it's something that popped up and we inquired about. The challenge is providing a live feed, an audio feed of an eight-hour event with 400 people and multiple microphones in a hotel.
"Obviously we all have done events at hotels with technology, costs and requirements and so people say why don't we just put it on Skype…one-on-one conversations can often be cumbersome. But an eight-hour conversation with 400 people is near impossible, technologically challenging to say the least. And it's really not done by many organizations. We've researched it."
He added that he also thinks that this is a "job for the Assembly, it's what their job is."
Evans said, "So's Congress," a reference to sessions of Congress being video-taped on a daily basis.
Trohan interjected that "Congress has unlimited funding."
Cherenson then askedTrohan for her opinion, saying she would know better than him that it's "not done really by many organizations."
Trohan Backs Cherenson
Said Trohan: "The real thing is you should put out a synopsis of the actions that would not take as much time as minutes to put together and pretty much say here's what happened.
Lance Ito
"But I strongly recommend against getting involved in the "Judge Ito effect" (O.J. Simpson trial judge) where all of a sudden, instead of having your meeting and dealing with what you have to deal with, people are very aware that there are cameras, whatever, some kind of audio feed."
"This is a working session for you to deal with the business of the Assembly. It's not entertainment for anyone else."
Darnowski said the Society's communications department puts out a release of what happened and that goes out almost immediately after the Assembly.
Cherenson Sees "Tweeting"
Continuing on the subject, Cherenson said there will probably be "a lot of Tweeting" and people updating their Facebooks and "obviously people can text and communicate extensively as this is going on as well." But he said the "eight-hour event with all sorts of buffering issues" presented problems.
Trohan noted that some companies produce devices that have a "multiplier" option so that only one device is needed to cast many votes.
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