PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Heather Senter, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
It's that time again when we scramble to set New Year's resolutions, and as I can attest, most are short-lived. How much easier they would be to keep if 32 individuals were supporting us each month. Well, your PRSA chapter has developed goals for 2005 that I know we can keep because of the 32 talented and ambitious professionals on the board who will make sure they are all carried through. Here's a look at some of the things we will accomplish this year:
-- Establish the Masters special interest group for seasoned pros with 15-plus years experience or APR designation. Andra Bennett, APR, is chairing this SIG.
-- Focus on diversity. It's a national PRSA priority and one of ours, too. We'll devote an entire month, and a special program, to diversity issues.
-- Increase our number of APRs. With national making the APR exam more convenient to take, including eliminating the minimum five years work experience, we have no excuse. Two of our most distinguished members, Mary Dulle, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Carolyn Bobo, APR, Fellow PRSA, are leading the charge.
-- Provide more value to our members. Look for an improved job bank, with a new online intern section; more exceptional programs and professional development series; the continuation of free teleseminars; and additional networking events. Feel free to e-mail any board member with ideas.
To start off the year, we're turning the tables at our January program. So many times we ask what you can do for PRSA, but this month we answer the question, "What can PRSA do for you?" Think of your membership as a knowledge bank of 20,000 PR professionals. Kelly Albanese with national PRSA will preview what's on the horizon in 2005. She will also address how PRSA works with different member groups, including corporate practitioners, independent practitioners, nonprofits and agencies. Bring questions for a Q&A session.
And come early to meet your 2005 board and committee chairs. This is a great time to talk with colleagues about the APR examination or one of our special interest groups -- Health Care, Higher Education, Creative Consultants, NuPros or the Masters.
Here's to a successful and prosperous 2005. Happy New Year!
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Tim Tune, IABC/Fort Worth
When January rolls around, it's hard to avoid overloading our minds, daytimers and PDAs with all the things we want to accomplish over the next 12 months. Topping my goals for 2005 is to make sure that I take advantage of all of the resources offered by IABC: Communication World magazine; an international network of 15,000 communicators; iabc.com with its invaluable members-only area; the all-member monthly electronic newsletter; the Customer Service Centre; international conference; IABC seminar series; Gold Quill awards program; IABC Knowledge Centre, including manuals with exclusive original material; the Next Generation Fund (conference and seminar scholarships and membership assistance offered twice a year to members); accreditation (test offered in five languages); and the biennial profile salary survey.
Whew. And, of course, we're proud of how the Fort Worth chapter adds value by providing members with even more opportunities for professional development and networking through the monthly programs and special workshops.
On Tuesday, Jan. 4, at our networking luncheon we'll discuss just how you can take advantage of these resources. We will review upcoming programs, explain how you can become an accredited business communicator and win a Bronze Quill, and outline the online resources and services available to members.
We'd love to see you. Come join us. And don't forget to bring your to-do list.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
The Jan. 12 meeting promises to be enlightening, with investigative reporters Nanci Wilson and Scott Streater telling how they crowbar in-depth projects into their daily beat schedule and actually have a life, too. Successful reporters, proven techniques -- bring a notepad, you'll learn something. It's why we're here. And good job, revelers and revelees, as 65 of you hit the holiday party in December at Coors, and the JPS Health Network took home 275 books, four puzzles, one game, four stuffed animals and five multiple book sets -- $1,375 worth of Christmas cheer -- for its children's library. You loved the room so much, we've already reserved it for this year -- Dec. 8. ...
They're standing in line to make you look good at SPJ national. Postmark deadline is Feb. 7 for this year's Sigma Delta Chi Awards. Entries may be submitted in 49 print, magazine, radio, TV, newsletter, research and online categories. More at spj.org/awards_sdx.asp, or e- awards@spj.org. ...
Defrocked ministers for Bush. On Dec. 7, Des Moines, Iowa, TV station KCCI reported that the Rev. Mike Hintz, married father of four, was fired Oct. 30 as a First Assembly of God youth pastor after acknowledging to church officials that he started an affair with a 17-year-old woman in the church youth group last spring. He turned himself in to police and was charged with sexual exploitation by a counselor. This would be the same Mike Hintz who on Dec. 6 appeared in Des Moines with George W. Bush touting the administration's tax cuts. "The American people are starting to see what kind of leader President Bush is," Hintz said. And, he said, he supports Bush's values. ...
How better to start the New Year than with a definitive list of stripper names, courtesy of BONG Bull. As wordsmiths, we have much here to admire. BB editor and objets d'art marketeer Charley Stough of the San Antonio Express-News has friends and they have friends, and recalling the ecdysiast moniker is a thing they like to do, from Bang-Bang LaDesh and Virginia Hams and the Gaza Stripper to Melba, the Toast of the Town, and Freda Slaves (performing in Buffalo, N.Y., years ago on Abraham Lincoln's birthday) and Anna Cyn, Miss Painkiller of 1970. One fellow wrote stage names for the Trocadero, built in 1898 and once Philadelphia's premiere burlesque house. (A Troc ad touted "Russian" bombshell Takya Vestoff: "She's gone from Steppes to Stares!") By the late '70s the past-its-prime Troc was down to three dancers ("You can't say Zelda Schwartz is coming in next week!" reasoned the manager, "Slapsie" Maxie Furman), so they regularly got different names: Bea Cupp, Carlotta Tendant, Rhoda Rooter, Anne Chovy, Claire Voyant, Ophelia Pulse, Penny Saved, Helen Earth, Tess Tickle, Crystal Chandelier, Lena Genst, April Fifteenth, Rita Book, Della Catessen, Cora Nary (no pacemakers allowed), Ruth Less, Pat Pending, Ella Vator, Hedy Brew, Faith Healer, Alison Wonderland, Polly Ester and, at holiday time, Beth Le Hem, the new star in the East. Police raided the Troc on Dec. 7, 1971; local veterans reportedly were in arms over the headline act that day: Pearl Harbor.
Closing words: "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people." -- Bill Moyers, 70, who on Dec. 17 signed off from "Now," the weekly PBS newsmagazine he began in 2002, as he retired from television ... "At least I have been spared the sight of television." -- humorist James Thurber, who suffered from poor eyesight for most of his life and eventually went completely blind
Closing words II, world at war division: "I have a very strong sense that the mental health consequences are going to be the medical story of this war." -- Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, 1994-97 (through September, the Army had evacuated nearly 900 troops from Iraq for psychiatric reasons, including attempts or threatened attempts at suicide) ... "Iraq is heading for civil war and total chaos, and the Jan. 30 election is like putting a Flintstones Band-Aid on a gushing femoral artery." -- retired military intelligence Sgt. Maj. J. David Gallant, an instructor at the Army Military Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. ... "Iraq is just three people away from democratic success. Unfortunately, the three are George Washington, James Madison and John Marshall." -- columnist George Will
