April 2000 NMPRSA Bulletin Online
Annual Public Relations Seminar to Concentrate on EthicsHow can the public relations profession deal with ethical questions that arise in the workplace? "Doing the Right Thing: Communication for the Wired Age" will bring together leading educators and professionals to address this relevant question. The New Mexico Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America will hold its annual professional development meeting, Friday, April 28 at the Albuquerque Wyndham Hotel, 2910 Yale Boulevard, SE.
Speakers include Donald Wright, Ph.D., APR, Fellow, PRSA; Carolyn Bobo, APR; and Jim Baca, mayor of Albuquerque. In addition to ethics presentations, seminar workshops will focus on technology applications, crisis communications, media training, measurement of outcomes and internal communications.
Wright will deliver the keynote presentation titled "Ethics and Public Relations: Struggling with Practical Applications." Wright is professor of Communication at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Ala. Recently he was selected by PR Week as one of the nation’s top ten public relations educators. Wright was a previous winner of the PRSA Outstanding Educator Award.
Bobo is a past president of New Mexico PRSA and has served as a member of the PRSA national accreditation board. She will present "Be a Sleuth, Be a Scholar, Be a Strategist: How to Plan Internal Communications to Support Organizational Goals." Bobo is assistant vice president for Public Relations and Marketing at Cook Children’s Hospital in Forth Worth.
Professor Robert Schwartz of the UNM Law School will moderate a professional ethics panel.
Panelists are Dede Feldman, state senator and president of Dede Feldman and Co. Public Relations; Debbie Johnson, President of Rick Johnson and Company and Sherry Robinson, business editor of the Albuquerque Tribune.
Mayor Baca will present the luncheon address titled "Ethics in City Hall." Afternoon workshop speakers are Crystal McClernon, APR, Director of Public Affairs at PNM; Julie Banta, VNR1 Communications Inc., Arlington, Texas; Phyllis Goodman, APR and Karen Gilliland, Sun Healthcare Group, Inc. and Jennifer Van Drunen, Interactive Solutions, Inc.
The full-day registration fee, which includes lunch, is $80 for PRSA members and $100 for non-members who register by April 14. After April 14, fees are $100 for members and $120 for non-members.
Lunch only is $25 for members and $35 for non-members. Students may attend for $40 for the full day or $15 for lunch only.
To make reservations call Sam Giammo at 272-3682 or e-mail to sgiammo@salud.unm.edu. For conference information call Greg Johnston at 272-0261 or e-mail to .
For Schedule and Speakers, click here.Nominate a deserving member
NMPRSA members are encouraged to nominate other chapter members for a new award that will be presented at the Cumbre Awards banquet in May 2000.As part of an effort to enhance the New Mexico chapter’s annual awards program, the board has developed a Presidents’ Citation for outstanding contributions to the public relations profession.
To be considered for this award, nominees must be members of PRSA, have contributed to the enhancing the practice of public relations in New Mexico and must have contributed to the advancement of NMPRSA.
A nomination form can be found online at the NMPRSA web site, www.nmprsa.org.
The form is easy to complete and can be submitted online.
For those members who do not have access to the web, please mail a short statement as to why you’re nominating your fellow chapter member and include your name and phone number.
Submissions must be received by close of business day, Monday, April 24, 2000.
Please send mailed submissions to:
Presidents’ Citation
NMPRSA
PO Box 30336
Albuquerque, NM 87190
The President's Column
By Tom Garrity
NMPRSA President
The annual Public Relation Society of America New Mexico Chapter full-day seminar will provide us some tremendous opportunities to sharpen our individual and collective public relations skills. Donald Wright, a national speaker on ethics in our profession, will provide a very thoughtful and thought provoking seminar on the ethic of ethics in public relations.
As PR News approached in its March 20th issue: "The PRSA is spending $100,000 to update its ancient ethics code, but will it matter? Most PR Pros believe their conscience can guide them through ethical and gray areas - and feel ethical codes are vague and toothless anyway." In the article Mr.
Wright is quoted "there's really no way of enforcing an ethical code. Ethics is more of a personal issue than a professional one." Fasten your seatbelts! This promises to be a great start to our daylong seminar.
In addition to a healthy discussion on ethics, we will also approach timeless tactics including research, media training and technology.
A number of NMPRSA members have donated their time and talents for the success of this conference. Greg Johnston's talented committee includes Kim Fischer, Chad Perry APR, Joe Healey, Robin Johnston, Mike Hurley APR and Laura Fereres. Thank you, in advance, for your time and contributions.
If you haven't had a chance, surf the web for the New Mexico Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America site, www.nmprsa.org. Past President Chad Perry, APR has done a tremendous job leading this effort. Thank you Chad for a website we can be proud of and direct people to for information. It is fresh and easy. A job well done!
Finally, by now, you should have received your NMPRSA Cumbre Awards
information. This year we will offer two Cumbre awards. One Cumbre will be
awarded to the best campaigns and the other for the best tactic. The Cumbre Awards committee includes DianeMontoya, Jennifer Kemp, Monique Uher, Arturo DelGado, TJ Knox, and Susan Wilson. The emcee for our evening is an old friend and former co-worker Cindy Hernandez of Eyewitness News 4 KOB-TV. Thank you for your assistance in making this a showcase event for the NMPRSA.