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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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PRSA’s advocacy in face of Senate investigation of PR is a good reason to pay association dues

PRSA’s advocacy in face of Senate investigation of PR is a good reason to pay association dues

PRSA's Murray and CorbettBack in 2007, I wrote a post speculating about the future of professional associations. Digital and social media have made it easy for professionals to tap into an abundance of professional development and networking opportunities that don’t require annual dues. Facebook and LinkedIn groups provide a forum for in-depth discussion with professional peers, for example. Both of these channels, along with Twitter and Quora, make it easy to find subject matter experts. Countless agencies and individuals offer free webinars, white papers and ebooks. In-person gatherings like Podcamp, Third Thursday and the like provide opportunities for face-to-face networking.

As the need for a fee-based association to sastisfy these professional needs diminishes, associations need to focus on other ways of delivering value that makes people want to be a part of the group. (They also need to continue providing networking and education—once people join they find that the quality of programming is likely to exceed what they can get online for free—but marketing these alone will inspire fewer and fewer people to join.)

Advocacy is one important option for associations to consider. Associations bring the strength of their thousands of members, the focus of a staff that can research and strategize an approach to an issue, and the resources to make sure they’re heard by policy makers. Associations that can represent their members’ interests in the development of public policy offer a compelling reason for peoplpe in the audience served by the association to support it with their dues dollars.

I remember, during my stint as an executive board member of IABC (the International Association of Business Communicators) back in the early 1990s, I met a board member of another association that represented audio and video producers. He told me the group was lobbying Washington over proposed legislation that would change the definition of a contract employee. Since video producers often hire contractors on a long-term basis, suddenly they would find themselves responsible for benefits and taxes under the new rules. Since the legislation would hurt its members, the association had decided to do something about it.

Today, PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America) is offering a lesson in advocacy. As the U.S. senate launches an investation into government use of public relations, both PRSA Chairman/CEO Gerard Corbett and President William Murray have taken to public forums to address the issue and represent their members.

The bipartisan investigation is designed to determine whether the use of taxpayer funds for PR activities under the Obama Administration has been appropriate. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) launched the investigation in the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, noting that the Governmenet Accountabiilty Office (GAO) reviewed PR contracts and concluded that the largest federal departments had signed 343 media contracts at a cost of $1.62 billion.

They sent letters to 11 federal agencies, seeking details about their PR, publicity, advertising and communication contracts. “The subcommittee investigation will dig deeper and fulfill our responsibility to police waste and abuse in the federal government.”

Public relations practitioners who work hard and ethically to produce meaningful outcomes for their clients must find it discouraging to know that a government inquiry starts out from the premise that their work as wasteful when they know the value of helping a client (like a federal agency) that doesn’t have the skills required to help convey its messages to its publics.

The risk that the investigation will add to the already inaccurate and damaging public perception of PR led to a series of public messages from Corbett and Murray. Writing an opinion piece in Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, Corbett said:

I share the Senators’ concern that the government prudently spends taxpayer dollars. What I question, however, is their motivation and seeming interest in using the PR industry as a punching bag for America’s dysfunctional political system. In an era of disastrously low trust in government and politicians, McCaskill and Portman’s investigation may be missing the proverbial boat. It disregards public relations’ central value to government: its ability to engender a more informed society through ethical, transparent and honest communications between the government and its citizens.

Consequently, he said, any investigation needs to include a critical look at the government’s communication practices and “how it can better use innovative PR forms and professionals to best reach and inform citizens. Killing the messenger won’t make the government’s public trust and transparency issues disappear.”

Murray, meanwhile, has published an item to the Institute for Public Relations blog and worked to have it cross-posted to other highly visible sites, like Ragan’s PR Daily. Taking a different approach from Corbett (the two angles on the issue were clearly coordinated at PRSA), Murray argues that the inquiry, “if conducted fairly and objectively, may prove valuable for public relations.”

That’s because an objective review will reveal that PR has been put to excellent use on behalf of the taxpayers who paid for it. For example, he says, “It is well known that better prenatal care reduces adverse post-birth health problems—and that communicating the availability and importance of care is crucial to good outcomes and lower costs for society.”

(On a personal note, I was involved a few years back in an assignment for Fleishman Hillard to help the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy figure out how it could make its web presence more interactive with its teen audience and stay within the boundaries of what the government was permitted to do on the web. Few would argue the benefit of engaging teens to stay “above the influence,” as the ONDCP puts it.)

At the same time, Murray writes:

The federal government is massive. Just as there can be no doubt that public relations does good for both business and society, there is also no denying that at any point in time there’s likely to be a government program somewhere that could be administered more effectively, that should be reassessed, or that has outlived its usefulness. The challenge is that such inquiries need to be undertaken in a balanced and objective manner—and this is where the concerns emerge.

As an investigation proceeds that, if conducted in a biased and subjective manner, could cast a harsh and unfair light on the profession, most PRSA members must be grateful that their dues dollars are being used to represent their interests and protect their reputation. Those of us who aren’t members are also happy there’s an association out there willing to proactively serve the profession’s interests in the face of what could easily devolve into a politically-motivated witch hunt.

Advocacy isn’t the only benefit of membership a professional association can promote as a rationale for joining. But it’s a damned compelling one—compelling enough that I’m considering, for the first time, adding a PRSA membership to my 35-year membership in IABC. I’m willing to pony up the dollars to support PRSA’s advocacy efforts.

Comments
  • 1.Shel – Thank you for your kind words about PRSA’s advocacy efforts and our latest lobbying campaign with the U.S. Senate. You rightly note that as a PR practitioner, and as an organization that represents 32,000 professional and student PR professionals, it is discouraging to see that a Senate investigation into the government’s use of public relations services starts with the premise that our work is somehow wasteful or dishonest. As we all know, that couldn’t be further from the truth, which is precisely why PRSA launched this lobbying campaign and why we will continue to educate the public, media and legislators about public relations’ role and value to business and society.

    This latest initiative is part of PRSA’s broad advocacy program, which was revamped in 2010 to focus on three core areas: the business value of public relations, ethical standards in the profession and increasing diversity within public relations. It’s a program we have been building out ever since and it is one that our members rate as one of the highest value points about their PRSA membership.

    We’d love to have you as a member and to tap into your insight and perspective on how PRSA can help grow the profession, uphold its ethical standards and deliver better value to our members and all PR professionals. Let me know if you have any questions about joining, and thanks again for sharing your thoughts on our advocacy campaign.

    Keith Trivitt
    Associate Director
    Public Relations Society of America

    Keith Trivitt | March 2012 | New York, NY

  • 2.Shel:

    Thank you for your cogent remarks and the rationale for belonging to associations.

    As I read your piece, I am reminded that associations really are the precursors to platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Associations exist to serve members and the industry at large in advocating for the profession and professional. At the end of the day, it is all about producing value for the industry and getting beyond the noise and bravado.

    The more voices the better.

    Thanks for yours and pointing out the essense of why associations exist.

    All the best,

    Gerry

    Gerry Corbett | March 2012 | San Bruno, CA

  • 3.Right on target.

    Vince Hazleton | March 2012 | Radford, Virginia

  • 4.Shel:

    As a member of both associations sometimes there is a feeling of competition rather than collaboration. Both organizations do a fantastic job for the profession. I am especially pleased to see that PRSA is advocating on behalf of the profession. There is too much badgering of pr and to have it done at the level of the American government needed a similar high-level intervention.

    It would be great if IABC joins this campaign officially.

    Pamala Proverbs, APR, ABC | March 2012 | Barbados

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