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Oct. 29, 2002
APR COSTS 1982-2001
 

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Former member of PRSA National APR Board (10/29):
APR was and still is a well intentioned program to establish professional standards in our industry. However, the cost of maintaining said program and the presentation by this website clearly indicates a need to ask ourselves whether the PR profession is being served by us putting so much time and resources into a program that benefits less than 25% of our members?

Clearly, the greater good is to do what will benefit all our members. It is with great sadness, for I have always been a strong supporter of APR, that I admit that it is time for PRSA leadership "to put our money to work in serving the full membership" by better promoting PRSA and the profession. Such an obvious initiative benefits everyone. Maybe in the future we can revisit APR and give it the kind of promotion and $$$ it deserves. It would be irresponsible use of our treasury to keep funding a program that is not benefiting every single member, but clearly only a select few.

The bottom line does matter and I applaud this website for telling it like it is and those PRSA leaders who stand tall for being financially responsible. APR has grown to be too expensive on a per member basis...time for us to look for better uses of our funds.

PR Scrooge (10/29):
I seldomly see well-established, senior-level executives at the big firms with APR certification. It's time that PRSA quit wasting money on this and spent those resources on efforts that increase understanding of the profession and, in the process, hopefully give it some respectability.

Philadelphia Counselor (10/29):
Thanks for bringing these numbers to our attention.

Let's see... Approximately $8M annual budget for 20K members in PRSA professional society. Nearly 25% APR accredited, or nearly 5K members.

The responsibility of any professional society is promotion of the profession, as well as maintenance & growth of its status as a profession, which most professions do via accreditation (AMA Boards, AIA, CPA, PE, etc, etc).

Net cost to the profession according to this website's data for giving exam and promoting APR is $2.78M over 15 years, or approximately $185.9K annually, which prudent stewardship & economies of scale seem now to be reducing ($135.5K in 2001).

That's a lifetime operating subsidy of about $9.45 annually from each member's dues of about $225 currently, a subsidy that PRSA managed in 2001 to reduce to $6.45 per member.

It's a PRSA management and Board call (although each of us as members and even website editors love to look over their shoulders and second guess), but such a small net annual figure in an $8M budget seems like a great investment in promoting the profession by developing, growing and promoting the APR program.

I've only been a PRSA member about half my PR career, but as a member (and former non-member) it sounds like it makes sense to me!

Thanks for your service to the industry in bringing this data to our attention! My impression is that PRSA volunteer and staff leadership is continuing to work professionally in the leadership and management of its APR accreditation program.


 

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