President Sends: New PR Scholarship Honoring Fred Morgan
Exciting news! Very exciting news! Introducing the… Fred W. Morgan New PR Professional Scholarship! We have a first-ever new PR professional scholarship for a one-year PRSA membership for new PR professionals with up to five years of experience. This one-year membership will definitely be a career enhancer for a new professional who is starting their career out of college or transitioning from another career field. Along with the benefits of being a PRSA member, the recipient of this membership scholarship will also serve on our board, allowing him or her to work alongside seasoned PR professionals and receive valuable mentorship. Thanks to our board for their hard work towards this member scholarship! Visit www.prsacoloradosprings.org/ to apply for this scholarship. Deadline is Sept. 15. I am also thrilled to announce that our board decided to name this new scholarship after Air Force Col. (Retired) Fred Morgan, APR, Fellow PRSA in honor of his 19-plus years of dedication to PR practitioners in the Pikes Peak region. Fred has served on almost every board position including president and has held accreditation workshops as the accreditation chair since the 90s. Please take a look at his bio and his contributions to our chapter. I would like to recognize a colleague in our community for his initiative. Mark Murphy, APR approached me a few months ago and said we need to come up with a new professional scholarship to help those starting their PR journey. Thank you. Mark! We have more big news to announce - in the next few months, we will have a brand new website. I want to thank Infront Webworks for donating their time in upgrading our outdated site. A great salute to board member Joy Maples, APR who has been doing a incredible job of helping with our site design, content and preparing the paperwork for our Fred W. Morgan New PR Professional Scholarship! Concerning upcoming events, I hope to see you this next Monday, July 17, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at The Principal’s Office at Ivywild for Monday Fun-Day. This is a “no admittance fee” event with an on-your-own cash bar and menu. On August 9, we will have a Crisis Communications Panel featuring local School District PIOs at The Warehouse Restaurant. Our Oct. 25 Professional Development Workshop at The School District 11 Tesla Building will feature National PRSA President Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA and Diane Mulligan, APR of Denver. Please RSVP for these events at [email protected]. As you can tell, we have a lot of great things to bring value to your membership! I hope your summer is going well. As always, it’s a distinct honor to serve you. JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak PRSA
0 Comments
PR Disasters & Summer Fun!
“What a disaster!” Every PR Pro has said this at any given time in his or her career. Trust me. This has happened. A perfect plan gone awry! But, disasters can turn into daring PR rescues. How sweet this is! I can personally recount disasters-to-rescues from my PR travels in Australia, Japan, Iraq, Seattle, and New Orleans. There are some fundamental skills you need to avert disaster and look unfazed in the midst of mayhem. Wednesday, June 14 our PRSA Luncheon topic will be “PR Disasters & Daring Rescues!” A few of our board members and yours truly will discuss our experiences – in a few minutes per “incident” panel discussion. Attendees can also share their “Disaster & Rescue” stories. We hope to see you June 14th! You will learn invaluable lessons on how to mitigate these disasters or find a solution on-the-fly. Don’t miss it! Turn on the local news and you’ll see an extremely competent PR professional. At our June 14th Luncheon, we are going to present El Paso County Sheriff PIO Jacqueline Kirby our “Caught in the Act (of great PR)” Award for her tremendous, ongoing public relations with our community. She simply gets the job done. Timely and accurate! Congratulations Jacqueline! Next, I want to invite you to our PRSA Coffee and Breakfast Mixer to be held at “Peak Place Coffee” on North Academy Friday, June 23. The 7:30 to 9 a.m. event is designed to get to know each other in an informal way over great coffee and light foods. The fee for this event will be $5. Monday Funday Evening Mixer. For those who like to add a relaxed and fun book-end to their “Case of the Monday’s,” look for upcoming information on a July mixer on a Monday evening at IvyWild. This will be a casual sit-down that will allow you to relax and talk about PR or network. A cash-bar will be open. There will be no charge to attend the event. To RSVP for any of the above events, please send an email to [email protected]. A “Makeover” for our Pikes Peak PRSA Website! We are in the process of updating our website: www.prsacoloradosprings.org. We are working with Infront Webworks on the redesign and added website functionality! We look forward to showing you the new site later this year! Finally, I want to thank our wonderful board on the great work they have been doing this year for you. We enjoy hanging out with each other in our meetings and we genuinely are having fun. PR can be stressful at times. Public Relations seems to always make the Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs. Why not enjoy each other and celebrate the PR wins and life in general? I cannot say thanks enough to you for making our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter a success and enjoyable experience. We are always looking for new and innovative ways of making your membership exciting and worthwhile. Please email me [email protected] or let’s talk over coffee! Stay tuned in the next few months… some incredible announcements await! Save The Date! Pro Development 1-Day Workshop, Oct 25 Keynote: PRSA National Chair Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA Learn more about Chairperson Jane! Thank you again for the opportunity to serve our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter. Take care, JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter President Sends:
PR Disasters & Summer Fun! “What a disaster!” Every PR Pro has said this at any given time in his or her career. Trust me. This has happened. A perfect plan gone awry! But, disasters can turn into daring PR rescues. How sweet this is! I can personally recount disasters-to-rescues from my PR travels in Australia, Japan, Iraq, Seattle, and New Orleans. There are some fundamental skills you need to avert disaster and look unfazed in the midst of mayhem. Wednesday, June 14 our PRSA Luncheon topic will be “PR Disasters & Daring Rescues!” A few of our board members and yours truly will discuss our experiences – in a few minutes per “incident” panel discussion. Attendees can also share their “Disaster & Rescue” stories. We hope to see you June 14th! You will learn invaluable lessons on how to mitigate these disasters or find a solution on-the-fly. Don’t miss it! Turn on the local news and you’ll see an extremely competent PR professional. At our June 14th Luncheon, we are going to present El Paso County Sheriff PIO Jacqueline Kirby our “Caught in the Act (of great PR)” Award for her tremendous, ongoing public relations with our community. She simply gets the job done. Timely and accurate! Congratulations Jacqueline! Next, I want to invite you to our PRSA Coffee and Breakfast Mixer to be held at “Peak Place Coffee” on North Academy Friday, June 23. The 7:30 to 9 a.m. event is designed to get to know each other in an informal way over great coffee and light foods. The fee for this event will be $5. Monday Funday Evening Mixer. For those who like to add a relaxed and fun book-end to their “Case of the Monday’s,” look for upcoming information on a July mixer on a Monday evening at IvyWild. This will be a casual sit-down that will allow you to relax and talk about PR or network. A cash-bar will be open. There will be no charge to attend the event. To RSVP for any of the above events, please send an email to [email protected]. A “Makeover” for our Pikes Peak PRSA Website! We are in the process of updating our website: www.prsacoloradosprings.org. We are working with Infront Webworks on the redesign and added website functionality! We look forward to showing you the new site later this year! Finally, I want to thank our wonderful board on the great work they have been doing this year for you. We enjoy hanging out with each other in our meetings and we genuinely are having fun. PR can be stressful at times. Public Relations seems to always make the Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs. Why not enjoy each other and celebrate the PR wins and life in general? I cannot say thanks enough to you for making our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter a success and enjoyable experience. We are always looking for new and innovative ways of making your membership exciting and worthwhile. Please email me [email protected] or let’s talk over coffee! Stay tuned in the next few months… some incredible announcements await! Save The Date! Pro Development 1-Day Workshop, Oct 25 Keynote: PRSA National Chair Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA Learn more about Chairperson Jane! Thank you again for the opportunity to serve our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter. Take care, JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter President Sends: Memorable Events 101
Organizational events are arguably the most important public relations tactic used by companies …especially in Colorado Springs! Let’s be clear. Our CEOs/senior leaders, partners, advocates and donors are all gathered to see how magnificent you, the PR Pro, can impress them with a memorable event. There are lots of causes and companies for advocates to align their time and resources to in our city. Mistakes can be costly; yet, it’s fun, high-adrenaline and nerve-racking at the same time! Six months of planning for 60 minutes of time. Colorado Springs is the “Nonprofit Hub of the World” and has lots of defense, education, health care, tech, for-profit and local government entities. With finite resources and time and a lot of fantastic organizations, how is your company able to meet its fundraising, friendraising and financial goals? I forgot. And --- we have the “The Broadmoor.” 56 years of Forbes Five-Star rating and AAA Five-Diamond rating for a mere 41 years. More awards can be seen at https://www.broadmoor.com/awards/. What better way to learn about memorable events for any budget and company than to hear from The Broadmoor’s Public Relations Manager Krista Heinicke who will be sharing tips on how to plan and coordinate a strategic and impacting event that will gain respect, advocacy and just a fun-filled time for your audience. Krista’s insights will be scalable and “any budget” ready for anyone to use. Sure, The Broadmoor hosts very nice events for clients around the world – but you will learn how to utilize strategic planning and event tactics that will help you and your company. I want to personally thank Krista and her team for bettering our profession by sharing their knowledge and time. Thank you! I look forward to seeing you this upcoming Wednesday at The Warehouse as we learn about hosting memorable events! You can RSVP at [email protected]. See you there! An honor to serve! JP Arnold, APR President PRSA, Pikes Peak Chapter The President Sends:
Effective PR is an Art and Science One thing that I have learned from other PR Pros and my own personal experience is that Public Relations is both an Art and Science profession. Neglecting the science portion of PR can be catastrophic for you or your organization. When I mention science, I am referring to technology and metrics as well. Burying your head into simply the Art side of PR will yield mostly fluff that might help for a while. Today, we have several Science, Technology and Metric tools to assist our PR efforts. The days of content analysis only on news clippings are long gone. Google Analytics & Trends, Facebook Insights, Hootsuite, SEO and other technologies are available. I am a member of the DC Social Media Facebook Group and it seems a new technology comes up every other day. The good news is that our April 12 Luncheon will feature some phenomenal speakers who will share case studies, trends and tips on how to position your PR efforts into a relevant Art and Science platform. Matthew Palis of Infront Webworks and Laura Benjamin of Communicate Colorado will share their insight with us. We hope to see you Wednesday, April 12 at The Warehouse. RSVP at [email protected]. I also have some exciting news… National PRSA Chair Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA will keynote our Oct. 25 Professional Development Workshop. She is fantastic! If you recall, she spoke at our 2015 Workshop held at the Olympic Training Center. We are finalizing this year’s venue. Please save the date on this important day of learning and networking: Wed., October 25th! Finally, our Pikes Peak PRSA Board will be having a Leadership Retreat Saturday, April 29 at The U.S. Air Force Academy Eisenhower Golf Course. We hope to work on several items during this half day collaboration effort and have some fun as well! We have your feedback from this year’s survey. If you want to submit additional items, please send your comments to [email protected]. I want to personally thank our board members for using their personal time to help PR Professionals like you! Salute! Thank you for being part of our Pikes Peak PR family! Save The Date! Pro Development 1-Day Workshop, Oct 25 Keynote: PRSA National Chair Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow PRSA Learn more about Chairperson Jane! Thank you again for the opportunity to serve our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter. Take care, JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter The President Sends:
What a great start to 2017! Over 50 PR professionals were in attendance at our January Luncheon that featured the Gazette Editor Vince Bzdek discussing “The State of the Gazette.” And we presented our first 2 Pikes Peak PRSA “Caught in the Act” Awards to the City of Colorado Springs PIO Team Jamie Fabos and Kim Melchor. Feb. 8 Luncheon. Let’s continue this enthusiasm into February as we explore “Communications Lessons Learned from the 2016 Election.” You need to be a this luncheon… this will be an academic and critical look at communications. We will unpack how traditional media, social media and other PR activities created the environment for the unlikely outcome. ***Warning*** No politics. No “Facebook Fallouts.” This is a professional examination of “what in the world just happened?” Please join us! The panel will include: - Corey Hutchins, Reporter at The Independent (replacing Adrian Stanley) - Lauren Hug, LL.M., J.D. (Founder of HugSpeak): http://www.hugspeak.com/about-hugspeak/lauren-hug-founder/ - Dr. Elizabeth Viall (CSU-Pueblo Communications Professor) https://www.csupueblo.edu/mass-communications/contact-us/liz-viall.html Corey’s Bio: I cover state and national politics for The Colorado Independent and write about media at the local news level for Columbia Journalism Review's United States Project. March 3 Breakfast. Just $5.00 will create new experiences and conversations at our first-ever breakfast to be held at The Warehouse, Friday, March 3 from 7:30 – 9 a.m. There will also be a professional development component that will surely heat up your skill sets like a hot coffee! We hope to see you there! March APR Workshop. PRSA members interested in seeking accreditation in public relations will have another opportunity to participate in a Pikes Peak Chapter-sponsored preparation workshop in March. Taught by Chapter Accreditation Chair Fred Morgan, APR, Fellow PRSA, and other accredited chapter members, the workshop is normally offered after work for two to two and one-half hours for six consecutive weeks. But the workshop’s final design will depend upon the needs and desires of participants. A fee of $50, payable to the chapter, is charged those who participate in the APR workshop. Members interested in learning more about earning their APR should check out the Universal Accreditation Board website at www.praccreditation.org. Those interested should then contact Fred Morgan at 488-8352 or [email protected]. The deadline to sign up for the March workshop is February 15. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve our Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter. Take care, JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter Happy New Year! What wonderful opportunities we have before us. Before I begin, I want to thank the Immediate Past President Stacy Swanson and the 2016 board for their terrific work. We will build on their ongoing momentum. Thank you!
Let’s get personal. As I wrote in my military PR transition blog, I am deeply indebted to the PRSA and specifically to the local Pikes Peak Chapter. PRSA helped me to connect with Colorado Springs PR professionals, provide tangible advice for my Army retirement to civilian journey, connect with different stakeholders, gain a cultural understanding of the Springs’ and civilian landscape, and obtain my Accreditation in Public Relations (APR). Simply amazing! You, the Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter members, are truly my family. Besides my lovely wife’s family who has lived here over 100 years, you’re it! With public relations being a niche career field, we need to continue to learn, talk and share with one another. Communications can be quite the character. It’s fun, fast-paced and ever-changing! Teamwork is vital to any success or positive change. So – let me introduce our 2017 Pikes Peak PRSA Board Members: President-elect: Christy McGee, APR; Immediate Past President: Stacy Swanson; Vice President: Andrew Montgomery; Treasurer and Accreditation: Fred Morgan, APR, Fellow PRSA; Secretary: Samantha Briggs; Membership: Katherine Sartain; Community Outreach: Joy Maples, APR; Communications: Marjorie Noleen; Public Relations: Sarah Schaefer; Assembly Delegate: Patrice Lehermeier, APR, Ethics: Janet Stevens, APR; Advocacy: Catherine Creppon, APR; Awards: Paul Fanning, APR Please make sure you thank these wonderful PR leaders for their time and commitment to our chapter. Our board is excited as we began initial discussion into some different areas to assist our networking, professional development and learning. We have an open survey that we want your feedback on… more details below. But, let me go over a few topics that we discussed: 1. Make PRSA More Relevant to You. We have an open survey and currently only half of respondents believe that PRSA is beneficial to them. Topics will center on “how to’s”, communication strategy, reputation management, mentorships, crisis and digital communications. 2. Luncheons on Wednesdays! Based on our survey feedback to date, Wednesday is more accommodating to schedules. See you Jan. 11 and Feb. 8! 3. Take our online Survey – 3 minutes, 10 questions. Let us know what we are doing well and what we can improve on. Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MYJXK5N. 4. Workshop planning now. A significant majority of survey respondents said the professional development all day workshop is helpful. We are starting the planning now to ensure we continue this great tradition. We will seek speakers from the Denver area. 5. Shared event with Denver PRSA. A majority of surveyors said they want a Denver/Colorado Springs event – located in Castle Rock. I have started the discussion with the Colorado chapter. This might be a short professional development followed by networking. More to follow. 6. Breakfast on Friday Mornings. We will have several Friday morning breakfasts throughout this year. Look for one breakfast per quarter which will be an addition to the luncheon. Right now, we will probably have a 30-minute professional & 30-minute networking portions. Low cost. Low maintenance. High reward! 7. Mentorship makeover. Younger PR professionals are seeking advice on how to make their office or business more successful. We have several master practitioners that can provide insight and understanding. Again, PR is a niche area. It’s great to have a mentor at any age. 8. APR Workshop. I obtained my APR and it was worth it. Read my APR journey blog to get more detail. With this said, we have one of the best coaches in the nation. Please take advantage of our local accreditation chair’s (Fred Morgan, APR, Fellow PRSA) knowledge and teaching. 9. Awarding Excellence. We will be awarding two PR professionals this Wednesday with our new "Caught In The Act" award. And we want to recognize even more practitioners this year. The Lifetime Achievement Award - Pinnacle and Community Leader Award - The Vista Award need to be presented to deserving individuals. Let's find the best practitioners and recognize them! As you can see, we have a engaging agenda set with room to maneuver and adapt. Again, we need your specific feedback on the survey. Please email or call me if needed. My email is [email protected] and my number is 719-314-4312. I am available during the work day, evenings and weekends. Finally, I invite you to attend our Wednesday, Jan. 11 Luncheon with the new Gazette Editor Vince Bzdek as he talks about “The State of the Gazette” and pitching stories. The Wednesday, Feb. 8 luncheon will be about “Communication Lessons Learned from the 2016 Presidential Election” with Social Media Expert Lauren Hug and The Independent News Editor Adrian Stanley sharing their insights and takeaways. Thank you for being a member of the Pikes Peak PRSA Chapter. Our profession has never been more exciting or prominent in this non-stop, multi-channel, real-time communications age. Let’s make 2017 a fantastic PRSA year! A PR salute to you! JP Arnold, APR President, Pikes Peak Chapter PRSA Communications Manager, AspenPointe Adjunct Instructor, PPCC |