PRSA local update: Have a project? Need some help? Rent a TCU PRSSA student. He or she can stuff media kits, work special events, do research, write media releases, etc., in exchange for a donation to the TCU PRSSA chapter. E- chapter chief Kina Garrison at k.d.garrison@tcu.edu. ... Starting this month, PRSA is implementing Cvent, an online event management and registration program. It should simplify the process, even allowing members to pay online using a credit card.
PRSA local update II: Nancy Farrar, president of Farrar Public Relations and co-chair of the PRSA Independent Consultants Special Interest Group, spoke at a PRSA Arkansas professional development seminar Sept. 30 on "Going It Alone: Success Stories from PR Consultants." ... Postmark deadlines are Oct. 3 and 10 for the Spokesperson of the Year Awards, "honoring the masters in messaging," sponsored by PR News and CCG. More here.
PRSA local update III: Greater Fort Worth PRSA will hold its annual meeting during the November chapter meeting and luncheon. A vote will be taken on the 2005-06 slate of officers: president, Holly Ellman; president-elect, Marc Flake; vice president programs, Lyndsay Nantz; treasurer, Laura Van Hoosier; treasurer-elect, Krista Brown; and secretary, Chris Smith. June Norman, APR, is the 2007 assembly delegate and past-president Heather Senter, APR, the '08 delegate. Joining new director Carol Murray, APR, will be returning directors Tom Burke, APR, 2006, and Tracy Sturrock, 2007. Directors serve for three years and leave the board in the year indicated. Chair Susan Schoolfield, APR, Hope Caldwell, Joy Rich, Heather Senter and Holly Ellman served on the nominating committee.
PRSA local update IV: Renay San Miguel, weekend anchor for CNN Headline News, will keynote Dallas PRSA Media Day on Friday, Oct. 28, featuring issues-oriented strategy sessions, tactical updates from local and regional media panels, training time for APR candidates and an opportunity to meet the industry's leading resource companies. Reservations deadline is 5 p.m. Oct. 24. More here.
SPJ national update: End the world now, ask questions later; incompetence and deceit; and the killing of journalists. The Pentagon has drafted a doctrine that foresees commanders requesting presidential approval to use nuclear weapons to preempt an attack by weapons of mass destruction. The draft includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. More here. ... From U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.: "I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency. But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday (Sept. 2) with the president, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment." More here. ... Reuters in a letter Sept. 28 called on Virginia Sen. John Warner, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to raise widespread concern about the conduct of U.S. troops in Iraq. Reuters' David Schlesinger referred to "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by U.S. forces in Iraq." More here.
SPJ national update II: Ronnie Earle, God's prosecutor; and life on the edge at the Times-Precarious. A new film featuring Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle as he pursued the investigation that led to the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay portrays Earle less as a partisan figure than as a Bible-quoting crusader. "The root of the evil of the corporate and large-monied interest domination of politics is money," Earle says in the still-unfinished film, entitled "The Big Buy." "This is in the Bible. This isn't rocket science. The root of all evil truly is money, especially in politics. People talk about how money is the mother's milk of politics. Well, it's the devil's brew. And what we've got to do, we've got to turn off the tap." More here. ... The New Orleans paper went on an odyssey for a new home while still managing to publish, first online and eventually in print. The paper had to report the biggest story in its history with no electricity, no phone access and no place to work. More here.
