G/H INT'L WINS $3M VISA USA BUSINESS

Golin/Harris International bested four contenders, including incumbent Ketchum, for Visa U.S.A.'s $3 million PR account. The extensive review began in late spring and was handled by Morgan Anderson Consulting. Ketchum had the work for six years.

"The payment industry is a dynamic industry," said Visa VP-corporate relations John Abrams when asked about the switch to G/H. He said: "There's always change going on. We're the leading payment company and we can't rest on our laurels."

Carl Pascarella, president/CEO of Visa U.S.A., said in a statement that G/H's research-based approachand thought process were key factors in the decision.

Visa EVP-communications Barie Carmichael said the move was a "tough choice" and a "difficult but critically important decision."

TRG CHASES TAX 'CHEATS'

The Rendon Group is helping the Massachusetts Department of Revenue pitch an amnesty plan to encourage tax cheats to change face and pay their dues to the state without penalty.

The "Find us before we find you" campaign is being rolled out by TRG in a $350K national media blitz which includes PR and ads.

The state is pitching the program nationally to track down out-of-state companies which do business in Massachusetts but haven't paid taxes.

TRG has previously handled work for various agencies in Massachusetts. The firm's Washington, D.C., office is advising the Pentagon on how to sharpen its message in the "war on terror."

MS&L IS 'SAFE' AT CAPITAL ONE

Credit services giant Capital One, which has reportedly talked to search firms after Publicis Groupe folded its ad agency, told this NL it is satisfied with its PR account at Manning, Selvage & Lee, the former Bcom3 unit acquired by Publicis earlier this year.

"We are thrilled with MS&L's work for us," said Pam Girardo, manager of consumer PR at Capital One, adding that the matter was separate from the "gossip" regarding its ad account.

Sources told Adweek that Capital One learned of Publicis Groupe's plans to fold the D'Arcy ad firm through press reports and the client was not given details of its transition to Publicis New York.

TENET TAPS H&K FOR MEDICARE CRISIS

Tenet Healthcare, which "faces a mounting crisis" over its Medicare billings, according to the Nov. 11 Wall Street Journal, uses Hill and Knowlton for PR strategy. The company has lashed out at some critics for spreading "misinformation" about it in the aftermath of charges that two surgeons at its Redding Medical Center performed unnecessary heart surgeries. Those charges have hammered TH's stock and resulted in shareholder lawsuits.

TH has made its CEO Jeffrey Barbakow available to the media for comment. He has been "cleaning house," after claiming he was unaware of the alleged aggressive pricing policies of Santa Barbara-based healthcare facility chain.

Gary Hopkins, TH's spokesperson, could not be reached for comment about H&K's work.

TOP 5 PRSA CHAPTERS FOR DECOUPLING

Georgia, third biggest PRSA chapter with 809 members, will support decoupling APR from Assembly membership. All of the five biggest chapters now support decoupling. The others are D.C., N.Y., L.A. and Chicago. Vote is Nov. 16.

The committed delegate vote is about 120-20 in favor of decoupling. A two-thirds vote of the 180 or so delegates is needed. About 22 of the 117 chapters will be unrepresented this year because no APR members are going to the meeting in San Francisco.

Among the next five biggest chapters, Minnesota and Colorado say they are against decoupling while Detroit, Houston and Puget Sound have not come to final decisions.

Mark Dvorak, Georgia president, said some of its best leaders are not APR. A Georgia chapter delegate in favor of decoupling is Nancy Wood, who will be 2003 chair of the APR board.

Gwin Johnston, 1995 chair of the Counselors Academy, is in favor of decoupling. She said the Academy board that year removed APR as a requirement for the spring conference because it was cutting into attendance.

There are pockets of strong resistence to decoupling by APRs who feel decoupling will be a severe blow to the 37-year-old APR program. They also note a new APR test is being prepared and that it can be taken throughout the year at various test centers.

Another controversy is a move to allow students to join PRSA directly (and not via a PRSSA chapter). Both professors and PRSSA members oppose this.

14 GROUPS TO WORK ON PR FOR PR

More than 14 PR groups have been meeting informally to coordinate a new plan in support of PR's role, David Drobis, chairman of Ketchum, told an audience of 250 on Nov. 7 in giving the 41st annual "Distinguished Lecture" to the Institute for PR at the Union League Club, New York.

"Early next year," he said, "they will come together in an effort to provide industry positioning on three critical topics: ethics, disclosure and transparency."

He said the Arthur Page Society (about 300 corporate PR executives from throughout the U.S.) has been the "driving force" behind the new industry coalition.

Members include PRSA, IABC, NIRI, The Institute for PR, PA Council and Women in PR, he said.

Drobis described great changes in the PR industry over the past 30 years.

"When I first came into the business, PR meant that you were writing a release after someone else told you what was happening. That was it. Today, 'publicity' is usually only one element in a PR program."

PR people are now "better paid, more experienced, and have much greater opportunitiess," he said.

They are often creating programs as well as communicating them, he added. Their value, he said, springs from the fact that they have "a total view of an organization - all its publics and how they interact."

Worried About 'Fractured' Relations

Drobis expressed concern about PR's "fractured" relationship with the media.

"Isn't media relations the one PR tool that makes us distinctive from other marketing disciplines? So why do we devalue this relationship so much that we do so little to bridge the gap between the two sides? he asked.

He finds there is too much "complaining about the profession," too much "dissension about what we do and what we call it"...too much "self-analysis, introspection and, perhaps even, a little self-absorption,"

He continued:

"Where have we been in the last 12 months of business turmoil as the lawyers, particularly, have taken over creating debacles out of Arthur Andersen, Enron, Martha Stewart, and WorldCom?

"Why haven't we worked to find a united voice to talk to the public, and frankly, help build public confidence? Isn't it time we take some responsibility here?"

More Research Needed

Drobis, a longtime supporter of research in PR, said PR pros should be working harder to convince clients to fund needed research. He called for "upfront research to better understand prevailing attitudes and opinions so we can test our messages and plans better."

"How come so many CEOs and government officials and marketing types say they don't know what PR is all about?" he asked. "Or when they do, it seems to be all about media management or, at worst, spin control."

Discussing PR's image in the media, TV shows and Broadway, he said that the Lizzie Grubman incident (the publicist was given a jail sentence after injuring 16 people with her SUV) did not reflect well on PR nor did the portrayal of PR person Sydney Falco in "The Sweet Smell of Success" on Broadway.

"I am not denigrating what Lizzie does in her business," said Drobis. "It's just not what most of us do. But, as you know, impressions are often created, especially by the media, using the lowest common denominator. And that's Lizzie and there are a lot of Lizzies out there."

On the positive side, he said, is C.J. Cregg, a press secretary on "The West Wing."

"She's bright, articulate-and most importantly-a real counselor to her fictional president Bartlet, who welcomes her advice and even takes some of it."

BORELLI KEEPS EYE ON DOONER AT IPG

The Interpublic Group, which last month slashed its 2002 profit forecast and said it will restate $120M in expenses, has moved to shore up corporate governance issues by appointing former Marsh & McLennan Cos. CFO Frank Borelli as presiding director, a new position. Borelli has served on IPS's board since 1995.

The post was set up to ensure "optimal communication between the board and management" and more participation by board members, IPG chairman John Dooner said in a statement. He said IPG will draw upon Borelli's experience as directors "forcefully address the challenges facing our company."

Borelli, who continues as a senior advisor at Marsh and the board of directors at Express Scripts, earlier was CFO and director for Airco, an industrial/medical product maker, and a senior partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche).

He has also served on the boards of United Water Resources and Mid Ocean Reinsurance.

Interpublic set up a corporate governance committee in July.

LERER 'JUGGLES' AT AOL TIME WARNER

Ken Lerer, executive VP at AOL Time Warner, may soon be leaving his post to launch a teaching career. He has told CEO Dick Parson that he hopes it's possible to do both, according to the Nov. 5 Wall Street Journal.

Lerer relinquished investor relations and press oversight in May when he becomes an advisor to Parsons. Ed Adler is AOLTW's senior VP-corporate communications.

The former COO of Robinson Lerer & Montgomery had been a confidante to former AOLTW president Bob Pittman, who was recently bounced. That exit was viewed as a sign that the AOL side is losing its power to Time Warner in the combined entity. Pittman was AOL's president. Lerer was a senior VP at AOL, and consulting to the company, while at RL&M. Prior to that, he was VP-corporate affairs at Warner Amex Cable communications.

Lerer chairs the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, and serves on the board of Bank Street College of Education.

PR PROS NEED NEWS WRITING SKILLS

Richard Truitt, who heads Truitt Ptrs., a Connecticut-based consulting firm, said PR professionals need to "reclaim our journalism foundation" to help business reestablish its reputation for trustworthy performance.

Truitt, who gave the 2002 James C. Bowling Lecture at the Univ. of Kentucky on Oct. 17, believes any PR pro who is going to help his company or his client recover their reputation has to know how to write.

"We need to get back in touch with the fundamental disciplines that were so critical to the PR process when its power was at its peak" in the '60s and '70s, said Truitt, who believes "good, thoughtful, well-founded writing is as critical to the PR craft as it is to news journalism."

Hammond's Rule

When he joined Carl Byoir & Assocs. in 1959, Truitt said he came up against a company rule that almost kept him out of the firm. It said that every new employee must have at least four years' professional experience working in the editorial department of a respected newspaper, magazine or radio station.

"I had three of these years, with the (Chicago) Tribune. What didn't count was my three months as the editor of a military newspaper, and, of course, my master's degree in journalism. I finally squeezed in the door by claiming my several years as a sports stringer for United Press while in college."

Truitt said he asked George Hammond, Byoir's chairman, why the firm was so stringent. "He was very direct," said Truitt. "He said that good writing depended almost entirely on organized thinking, and this was as good a test as he could find to weed out lazy thinkers."

Years later, when he was in the position to counsel executives of client companies, Truitt found that the "person who could write cogently was the person who carried the day.

"I learned that when I was in a meeting of executives who were trying to formulate an action plan or a response to a crisis, I was the one who could excuse myself and find a typewriter to bang out a draft statement.

"When I got back into the room, where the participants were still debating, I could present my version and then, like magic, it became the center of attention and often ended up as the guts of the response statement or policy paper."

When he was a speechwriter, he learned his own ideas found themselves lodged in the final presentation because "I was the one who had crystallized them and put them into type."

Truitt said today's PR firms pay little attention to the value of good writing.

He knows one firm that retains a single full time writer who handles the heavy stuff. "The rest of the staff muddles through with little journalism education and no experience in the news business," he said.

PLACEMENT TIPS

Fairchild Publications will start a twice-yearly magazine, called Women's Wear Daily Accessories, in February. It will be aimed at consumers and focus on bags, belts and shoes.

Staffers of WWD and Footwear News will work on the magazine, which will go to subscribers and be sold on newsstands.

MediaMap, Watertown, Mass., said more than 2,200 editorial calendars with over 95,000 story opportunities have been collected as of Nov. 1 for its online directory. It anticipates more than 4,500 calendars with 175,000 story opportunities by the first quarter of 2003.

The calendars list planned stories, issues and special sections for publications, allowing PR pros to identify key opportunities for publicity of their company and products.

Suzanne Levin is director of marketing for MediaMap. She can be reached at 617/393-3361; [email protected].

Indievision, a monthly magazine, has published its first issue. It will cover the world of independent filmmaking.

The premiere issue features a cover story on Robert DeNiro, who is called "The King of Tribeca."

Bruno Derlin is editor of the magazine, which is published by Gothamwood Entertainment Ltd. Editorial offices are located at 156 Bay 14th st., Brooklyn, NY 11214. 718/621-9797.

Hannah Deely has joined US Weekly to cover celebrity fashion for the "Style" section. 212/484-1616.

Robert Moritz, who writes the monthly "Gadget Guide" for Parade Magazine, plans to look at the latest in cell phones and mobile computing products in the coming months.

He wants to get only e-mail pitches and regular mail should be used to send him product samples.

His address: "Gadget Guide," Parade Magazine, 8212 Gould ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046. 323/650-3768; www.parade.com/current/columns/gadgetguide.html.

AMERICAN BABY GETS NEW PARENT

Meredith Corp. has reached an agreement with Primedia to buy American Baby magazine and its related properties for $115 million.

American Baby, which was started in 1938, is published monthly and has a circulation of two million.

Other properties include Childbirth magazine, First Year of Life magazine, several Hispanic titles, TV programs, websites, and custom publications for Procter & Gamble, Fisher Price and Mead Johnson, plus other companies.

Meredith plans to keep American Baby's operations based in New York.

(Media news continued on next page)

SEVENTEEN NAMES NEW EDITOR

Sabrina Weill, 32, is leaving CosmoGirl!, where she has been executive editor for the last three years, to become editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine.

Weill, who started her career as an editorial assistant at Seventeen, has been a senior editor at Redbook and editor of the Scholastic teen magazines Choices and Health Choices.

She will be responsible for overseeing the editorial direction of Seventeen, and shaping the content of the teen girl branded websites.
She also will be the spokesperson for Seventeen.

HEALTH REPORTER WEDS PFIZER PR PRO

Michael Waldholz, a senior science and health writer and a news editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Mariann Caprino were married on Oct. 1.

Caprino, who is keeping her name, is the senior director for corporate media relations at Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company.

Waldholz, who was a member of a group of Journal reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1997 for coverage of AIDS drug discoveries, is author of "Curing Cancer," published by Simon & Schuster in 1997.

LONDON PAPER GETS NEW BUSINESS ED

Will Lewis, who was news editor of The Financial Times, in London, has resigned to become business editor of The Sunday Times of London.

Lewis, 33, will replace Rory Godson, who is joining Goldman Sachs as its PR chief in London.
Tracy Corrigan, the FT's deputy news editor, will take over from Lewis on an interim basis until a full time successor is named.

FORMER PUBLISHER JOINS MAGAZINE

Former Boston Globe publisher Benjamin Taylor, 55, will join American Prospect magazine as executive editor. He replaces Harold Meyerson, who is now the magazine's editor-at-large.

Taylor will divide his time between Boston and the magazine's editorial office in Washington, D.C.

Taylor, who will work closely with magazine founder and co-editor Robert Kuttner, is one of a group of majority investors in the year-old newspaper Women's Business New York.

American Prospect, which made its debut in 1990, was the brainchild of Globe columnist Kuttner and Princeton Univ. professor Paul Starr.

Feature coverage will be expanded in the Prospect, which has an estimated circulation of about 45,000, and it will be published monthly.

Washington Hispanic, a Spanish-language weekly newspaper serving the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, now publishes articles, from The Wall Street Journal, on Fridays.

PEOPLE

Godfrey Deeny, who is editor-in-chief of Fashion Wire Daily, was named president of the New York-based news service, which was co-founded by fashion PR publicist Brandusa Niro.

Steven Reddicliffe has resigned as editor-in-chiefof TV Guide, a position he held for seven years.

Kelly Wallace has been transferred to CNN's Jerusalem bureau after three years at the White House.

TWO CARMAKERS START OWN MAGAZINES

DaimlerChrysler and Toyota are starting their own magazines.

Meredith Corp.'s custom publishing unit won a contract from DaimlerChrysler to produce three magazines for Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler brands, while Fluent Communications, in Seattle, will create a North American version of Lexus magazine, an 800,000-circulation title, for Toyota.

The carmakers are the latest marketers to start publications of their own that "look, feel and read like a typical magazine, rather than a mere catalog of praise for their own products," reports The New York Times.

The custom publishing market in 2001 is estimated to have reached $1.5 billion, and has been growing at 10% a year, according to the Custom Publishing Council.

STUDY SHOWS COMPANIES IGNORE E-MAIL

CustomerRespect.com, which spent four months e-mailing the 100 largest corporations, found 37% of them did not respond to their e-mails, and it took three days or more for an additional 22% to answer.

Researchers posed as customers, graded companies on the speed and quality of responses, site navigability, and ease in finding privacy policies.

The results of the consulting firm's study were published in Business Week's Nov. 11 issue. Here are the top 10 rankings:

Most responsive-Freddie Mac, Costco Wholesale, Dupont, Allstate, Lowe's, Verizon Communications, Intel, Sears Roebuck, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM.
Least responsive-Ingram Micro, Marathon Oil, Pepsico, Pfizer, United Technologies, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P. Morgan Chase.

DAVID LETTERMAN COMES TO RADIO

"Late Show with David Letterman" will be aired weeknights on radio stations in major markets across the country starting Nov. 11.

Fifteen of Infinity Broadcasting's largest stations, including WNEW-New York, KLSX-Los Angeles, and WCKG-Chicago, will broadcast the program each weeknight at the same time as the CBS TV show (11:35 p.m.-12:37 a.m.).

KILLEEN, EAGON SEE PR/IR LINKUP

Joann Killeen, president of PRSA, and Don Eagon, chair of NIRI, speaking Nov. 5 on a web panel hosted by OpenChannel.info, forecast a happy marriage for PR and IR.

Killeen, Eagon and two IR executives saw no great "cultural differences" between PR and IR.

One worry expressed was whether companies that unite PR/IR might use it as an excuse to downsize.

Eagon, referring only to his own company, Diebold, said this has not been the case.

He described an integrated department that includes both IR and PR people working closely together.

He said it was "extremely important" for all communications functions to use a "single voice in driving the same message at the same time."

Advertising, PR, IR, sales promotion, etc., must "work together with one big force" to get a company's message across, he added.

Killeen said her experience is that IR people do not tell PR people what to do nor vice versa. They're on the same "peer level," she added.

The main goal of each, she continued, is to present a "consistent, integrated message" for clients to target audiences. "We need to work together," she said.

NIRI Proposes Integration

Lou Thompson, president of NIRI, recently proposed a merger of the IR and PR departments, saying, "In many of the larger corporations, IR and PR operate in separate silos." There is "little difference between the role of analysts and reporters," he also said.

"Some IR pros are afraid of the media and prefer not to deal with reporters," he said "But this does not work in today's disclosure environment," he added.

Panelist Peter Hall, director of IR for BP, said "lots of people" pass through IR on their way to higher company jobs. He described IR as a "development post" through which "high-flyers" get exposure to the IR environment. Most of them have no trouble handling the IR assignment, he said.

Dianne Douglas, VP-IR, Mattel, described close coordination in her company between IR and PR.
Carol Metzker, contributing editor to IR Update, the monthly magazine of NIRI, was the moderator.

The discussion drew 250 participants, who were able to type their questions on the web and have them answered by the panelists.

OpenChannel helps companies to assemble panelists for any financial topic. Panelists are able to take part from their own offices.

ROBINSON JOINS H&K

Michael Robinson, who was Securities & Exchange Commission ex-chairman Harvey Pitt's spokesperson, has joined Hill and Knowlton as deputy director of its Washington, D.C., corporate practice.

He handled media inquiries involving Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Tyco and ImClone Sys.

SEIDEMAN, PRSA DEBATE NIKE ISSUE

Jeff Seideman, Boston counselor, and PR Society of America, gave opposing viewpoints on the Nike vs. Kasky lawsuit.

Seideman said PRSA and other PR groups should not be supporting Nike on this issue but should be demanding an investigation into the truthfulness of the issue. "The greatest problem facing our profession today is our lack of credibility," he said.

Nike, claiming in a letter-to-the-editor and elsewhere that its labor policies in the Far East are fair, was sued by California citizen Marc Kasky on charges that these statements were "commercial speech" (designed to sell products) and were false.

While private citizens have the right under the First Amendment to make false statements (as long as no malice can be proved), companies cannot do that when selling products. The California Supreme Court has ruled against Nike and the case may go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Nike claims it is exercising its right to free speech.

Supporting Nike via an amicus brief, in addition to PRSA, are the Council of PR Firms, the Arthur Page Society, the Institute for PR and the Public Affairs Council.

Seideman, president of the Boston chapter of PRSA and who has been nominated to the 2003 board of PRSA, said (in speaking for himself) that PRSA's position in this matter should be that it supports ethical practices by PR professionals.

The focus should be on whether or not Nike is the model of corporate responsibility that it claims to be, said Seideman, since Nike is promoting this image to help sales.

PRSA Rebuts Seideman

Answering the Seideman position, PRSA said that "The true issue of Nike vs. Kasky is the First Amendment, not any discrepancies in Nike's position statements...Kasky has appointed himself special prosecutor for the people, an unusual position allowed by California, and hopes to silence corporations from entering social debate."

PRSA said the First Amendment protects all citizens in expressing their views on social issues and this has been upheld many times by the courts and most specifically, by Sullivan v. New York Times (which said "malicious" inaccurate speech was not protected).

Ad adverse ruling in this case will "silence institutional America and...open the floodgates to costly litigation by special interests.

Threatened are news releases, position statements and remarks by corporate spokespeople.

By establishing three "standards" of what is commercial speech, "the Court has relied on interpretations already struck down by higher courts," said the PRSA statement, which was not attributed to any individual. PRSA said it "certainly supports the truth, but more importantly, it supports the First Amendment, the cornerstone of this nation's Bill of Rights."

PRSA president Joann Killeen was outgunned four to one in the web panel on IR/PR. Facing her were Don Eagon, NIRI president; Dianne Douglas, VP-IR, Mattel ($4.8 billion sales), and Peter Hall, IR director, BP ($148 billion).

The moderator was also from IR-Carol Metzker of NIRI's monthly IR Update magazine. Title of the panel was "IR/PR Convergence: Tearing Down the Silos." (Note IR was put ahead of PR.)

This would be bad for PR people not only in terms of lost jobs but loss of prestige and power.

IR people, many of them NIRI members, held many top positions at Worldcom, Enron and other companies that cost investors more than $100 billion. Many dot-coms also had IR people. Either they knew nothing of what was going on (which is bad) or kept it to themselves (which is worse).

Killeen thought a merger of the two functions quite desirable. If PR people don't know financial, there are plenty of courses to teach them, she noted. Both Eagon and Killeen repeated the current marketing mantra: hit target audiences from every direction with a single company message. Eagon used the word "drive" as in pound these messages into the brains of your targets as hard and often as possible.

As for PR people "learning IR," there's little to learn. Hall said IR is a training job at the giant BP through which many pass on their way to someplace else. Almost no one has any trouble with IR, he said. Of course not. IR in a blue chip is mainly deciding who will get to see the CEO/CFO or who gets on a conference call. Ornery analysts may get blackballed and their investment banking partners shut out of deals. IR people put out whatever is given them by the CFO. The companies of board members of NIRI ignore NIRI's own rules. Diebold, Eagon's company, does not supply a balance sheet with earnings as called for by NIRI.

We don't think PR should lie down with IR because IR has made such a mess of its own bed. Financial disclosure is a disaster area that continues to worsen. SEC chairman Harvey Pitt was bounced because he was perceived as being too pro-business. Oddly, the panelists did not discuss his departure even though it happened the day before. Reporters are barred from analyst teleconference calls. Analysts themselves are at a big disadvantage in trying to question CEOs and CFOs over the phone. Reg "Fair Disclosure," intended to give the press equal access to Wall St. info, was passed but never implemented. NIRI could easily publish a "shame" list of companies not living up to its earnings report disclosure rules. This would be quicker, cheaper and better enforcement than anything the SEC could do.

IR culture is different from PR. PRSA, for instance, this year gave the press more than 200 of its directories listing 19,000 members. NIRI won't even let a reporter buy its directory of 5,000 members. NIRI's expanded ethics code does not have the word "public" in it. It's concerned with members, clients, and investors. The mark of a profession is that it serves the public first and foremost and has a free library open to the public. NIRI has no such thing although with its $4.6M treasury it could well afford one on its website. PRSA once had a library and then an information center. It now has a "Professional Development Center" that is for members. NIRI, despite ample funds, has never had an on-staff PR person. PRSA usually has one although this is far from sufficient.

Before PRSA members can get into the financial disclosure game, they must do it themselves. Not one of the 117 PRSA chapters routinely provides finances to members. The best disclosure would be a report every quarter tracking the spending of every cent. Officers should prove to members that things are on the up and up. Members should not have to force financial info out of them. Federal law says any group handling $25,000+ must file a 990 tax return and must send it within 30 days to anyone who writes for it.

Financial disclosure at PRSA national remains spotty. For instance, $717,478 was spent on "travel" in 2000. But this also includes meals and hotels. PRSA refuses to break out spending on either. The APR board, which used to pay its own travel/meals, charged PRSA $30,212 for this in 2000. The national board, meanwhile, spent $88,748 on travel/meals in 1997 and $78,288 in 1998 but this soared to $138,654 in 1999, $143,061 in 2000, and $176,719 in 2001. Counselors Academy supposedly spent $165,954 on travel/meals in 1990 (vs. the usual $20K). Academy officers deny ever spending such a huge amount. Who did?!

PRSA Assembly delegates this year are getting a skimpy five-page financial report (vs. 10 pages in 1996). The nine-month report shows deferred dues of only $545,569 when this figure should be at least $2.1 million based on dues of $4.2M in 2002. Current liabilities exceed assets by about $200K, meaning PRSA is technically insolvent. IABC shows $1.2M in DD on $2.5M of dues revenue. PRSA had $904,000 in DD back in 1991 when it had 15,000 members and $175 dues. Dues income for the nine months is up only $29,843 to $3,500,061. Since dues were raised $10 in 2002, income would be up nearly $200K if membership remained the same. PRSA gained 4,000 new members in 2001 but 4,000 failed to renew.
-- Jack O'Dwyer