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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