|
PR Society of America, in a move to boost new member sign-ups,
has suspended its $65 initiation fee for February and March.
Annual dues continue at $225..
Members cannot vote in the Assembly or hold national office
until they have taken and passed the accreditation exam, which
costs an additional $275. Many local chapters only allow APRs
to hold office or serve on the board. Members cannot even
address the Assembly, which has broad powers, unless they
are APR.
New members also get a $20 gift certificate that can be used
towards educational courses or for items in the new PRSA Store.
The initiation fee had been suspended indefinitely for the
1,559 associates.They paid $115 in their first year of membership
and $155 in their second year and were required to join as
full members in the third year.The fee was suspended because
a significant number were not joining at the full rate.
"We have a great deal of churn" (among members),
president Del Galloway told the leadership call on Feb. 3.
He called for "significant progress in membership retention,
particularly at the chapter level."
PRSA added 5,903 new members in 2002 but 5,769 left for a
renewal rate of 70.5%. In the previous year, 5,324 joined
while 5,273 left.
The totals for 2002-2001 were 11,227 new members and 11,042
departures. Total membership as of Dec. 31, 2002 was 19,755.
These figures were announced in the second week of January
2003 when Libby Roberge was PR director of PRSA. Cedric Bess,
interim press contact while a search is on for a new PR director,
has not provided the 2003 membership statistics.
PRSA director Tom Vitelli, of Intermountain Health Care,
Salt Lake City, who is board liaison to the membership committee,
told the teleconference that membership is "everyone's
responsibility and not just that of the membership chair or
the committee."
Members, he said, should focus on "bonding" with
new members "who are most at risk of dropping out."
"I cannot emphasize enough the importance of making new
members feel welcome," said Vitelli.
Membership total has been flat for the past couple of years,
he noted, adding PRSA has "done well" considering
the economic conditions.
The goal for this year is to cut the attrition rate by 2%
and add 1% in new members for a net gain of 600.
PRSA literature gives many reasons for joining but does not
point out that new members cannot hold national office or
vote in the Assembly without first paying $275 to take and
pass the Accreditation exam. Many chapters require APR status
for elected officers and board members.
An attempt to remove the APR rule from the Assembly was defeated
last October. The board has made no move to revive the issue.
Only 20% of PRSA members are APR, down from 35% in the 1970s.
Only 12 new APRs were created in the last half of 2003.
Group
Membership Discussed
One caller said PRSA allows "group memberships"
of 10 or more (in which the company pays for and keeps the
"memberships" even though the individual staffers
may change) but said very few companies have as many as ten
PR professionals. "They're few and far between,"
he said.
Hallmark Cards, Kansas City, has seven PR pros and is the
biggest corporate PR dept. in the state, said the caller,
who asked whether Hallmark could qualify for a group membership.
Jennifer Ian, member services director of PRSA, said something
might be arranged and asked the member to call her after the
teleconference.
PRSA members at Hallmark are Julie O'Dell, PR
director, Jacqueline Clark, manager of PA, and Linda ODell,
Eileen Gaffen, Deidre Parkes, Mollie Cage and Lydia Steinberg.
Calls were placed to several but had not been returned at
press time.
Huge
Classes at Conference Planned
Rob Levy, who joined PRSA as chief professional development
officer and assistant executive director in June, said he
is planning "master classes" of 400-500 people at
the conference in New York Oct. 24-26.
He said the "double sessions" would run for three
hours and would feature "industry leaders" who can
fill a room and command attention. A "hot topic"
or "pseudo celebrity," or a panel would be provided,
he said.
Co-chairs are Kathy Lewton and Grace Leong and honorary chair
is Howard Rubenstein.
Writing
Seminar Is in Las Vegas
One of PRSA's writing
seminars will be in Las Vegas. (Las
Vegas News Service) |
Levy, who has 15 years of experience in e-learning, was previously
senior product acquisitions manager for e-learning at McGraw-Hill
Lifetime Learning.
One of his seminars is on "Writing That Sells...Products,
Services, Ideas," which will take place Feb. 27 in Las
Vegas and April 30 in Washington, D.C.
Instructor for the writing seminars is Ann Wylie, who heads
her own consulting firm in Kansas City. Cost is $465 for members
and $565 for non-members.
Asked whether Las Vegas is the best place for a writing seminar
in view of all the distractions there, Bess responded that
"courses are offered all over the country to attract
all of our members." It's expected that 24-30 will register
for the Las Vegas seminar.
|
