None of the 17 directors, including 2010 chair Gary McCormick of Scripps, has time to meet with O'Dwyer's editors so we have e-mailed McCormick and the other directors as follows:
Hi Gary:
I've tried to get you to meet with O'Dwyer's editor Kevin McCauley and me with no success. It looks like another year of Society leaders running from the press and members.
I think this sets a very bad example for the PR industry at a time when America needs an increased flow of information.
The Society should be setting new records in providing information rather than withholding it. Lack of information is at the root of the current economic malaise.
PRSA board (L-R from top row): Gary McCormick, chair; Rosanna Fiske, chair-elect; Philip Tate, treasurer; Gerard Corbett, secretary; Michael Cherenson, immediate past-chair; directors Lynn Appelbaum, Kathy Nelson Barbour, Robert Frause, Steven Lewis Grant, Donald Krichoffner, Blake Lewis, Gail Liebl, Mickey Nall, Deborah Silverman, Barbara Whitman, Gail Winslow-Pine ...
... and non-voting "senior counsels" Ofield Dukes and Wynonna Redmond.
Members Are Passive
It seems that as long as few or even no members complain about your "not available" policies you're not going to meet with us, let me or an O'Dwyer staffer join, release financials now or at least in Feb. (as 1997 president Debra Miller did), and your going to continue to withhold the minutes of the 2009 Assembly which was almost three months ago, refuse to make any written arrangements to accommodate my hearing problem at the next Assembly, and refuse to provide a list of 2009 Assembly delegates to the general membership, among other undemocratic and anti-information practices.
As long as no one but me complains you feel it's o.k. and you can get away with it.
Where Is Assembly on Website?
Members tell me they can't find anything about the Assembly on the website. Apparently it's been designed out unless you’re a member of the Assembly.
You refuse to answer any of my questions such as what was the paid membership as of Dec. 31, 2009?
I would also like the list of chapter member counts that the Society used to give me.
Just confirming--you are not going to make a transcript of the Assembly for the first time in many years. If it's not necessary for creating the minutes, why did the Society prepare transcripts all those years?
The minutes, according to Robert's, are supposed to provide a tally of every single vote that was taken in the Assembly since minutes are a record of actions taken and votes are actions take (that's what Robert's experts tell me).
I understand that only 30 showed up for the social media conference today and yesterday in D.C.
There are numerous other conferences on social media that are in competition with yours, which cost $899 for members and $999 for non-members.
I don't think you should be competing with private companies at all since you're playing with tax-free dollars.
If you want to ignore all of the above, that's up to you. It is not a pretty picture--Society leaders not only evading me but members.
Not once in 2009 did the bylaws committee face a chapter in person about the bylaws. If you think you're setting a good example for the industry, I'd sure like to know the reasoning.
Cordially,
Jack
