MEETINGS
Merely Good? You Can Do Better
Robert Morris, a management consultant and Amazon.com book reviewer, will detail how a company can go from "Good to Great" at the September meeting.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $20 members, $25 nonmembers
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Everyday Ethics -- Don't Leave Home Without Them
Although corporate scandals may dominate the headlines, it's the small daily choices that more often plague communicators and create a challenge for those determined to practice ethical public relations. Are you ready to make those tough choices to handle today's ethical dilemmas?
In observance of National Ethics Month, the September program will involve roundtable discussions that organizers promise will be insightful and thought-provoking. Small groups led by chapter members will tackle hypothetical scenarios and use PRSA's Code of Ethics and the new ethical decision-making guide to choose a course of action. A panel of senior practitioners will lead the discussion.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14; lunch at noon
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: $25 members, $30 nonmembers, $20 students
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Cold Reality
Best-selling author and Emmy Award-winning producer Stephen Cannell will discuss his newest suspense thriller, "Cold Hit," at a luncheon and book signing Sept. 8, at Rivercrest Country Club.
"Cold Hit" explores the threat to personal freedoms that Cannell asserts all Americans face from such entities as the Department of Homeland Security, the USA Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Services Act. These threats include wiretaps, miniature satellite tracking devices, roving bugs, secretive government hearings and potentially corrupt leaders unanswerable to any higher power, including the people who elected them.
How close to reality is this? Cannell's answer: very close. He will discuss how it is possible under the Patriot Act for federal bureaucrats to take murder cases away from local police and bury the cases so they're never investigated; how it is possible to bug every facet of your life with nothing more than spoken permission from a secret panel of federal judges; how the Patriot Act and FISA have unraveled major portions of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
Tickets will not be sold at the door. Contact SPJ's Kay Pirtle -- mkpirtle@yahoo.com, (817) 232-0625 -- for reservations.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 8
Place: Rivercrest Country Club, 1501 Western Ave.
Parking: free
Menu: three salads (not a choice of, but three salads) -- rustic chicken with red and yellow tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, Israeli couscous with roasted vegetables, and a Greek shrimp salad with cucumbers, olives and feta cheese; for dessert, tiramisu
Cost: $35
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STRAIGHT STUFF
"An Evening with Jim Wright" -- a wine and cheese reception for the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, featuring an interview with Star-Telegram books editor Jeff Guinn and a book signing of Wright's latest, "The Flying Circus," all sponsored by Friends of the TCU Library and the Star-Telegram -- will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Kelly Alumni Center on the TCU campus, 2820 Stadium Drive. The event is free, but a ticket is required. Call (817) 257-6109.
IABC local update: Organizers vow that the inaugural conference for the IABC Southern Region will not simply stir up a few good ideas. Rather, just as IABC has been shaken up with a realignment of the old districts into new regions, this conference may shake conventional ways of thinking about communications. Presentations from Rolando Santos with CNN Headline News, unlikely Notre Dame football hero Rudy Ruettiger and Jane Cook, U.S. presidential history specialist and former White House webmaster, will highlight Meet 005: Communication -- Shaken, Not Stirred, Oct. 16-18 at College Station. Register at iabc-bv.org/2005conference/index.html.
IABC local update II: IABC/Dallas will explore "Copyright in the Digital Age: Legal Issues Every Professional Communicator Should Understand" on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Crowne Plaza North Dallas Hotel in Addison. More at dallasiabc.com.
PRSA local update: Tony Katsulos of Jetstream Public Relations will discuss the intricacies of building a practice from the ground up at the PRSA Independent Practitioners SIG meeting Friday, Sept. 16, at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. Networking begins at 11:15 a.m. and the presentation at 11:45 in the upstairs community room. Katsulos founded Trinity PR in 2002 and recently changed the name to reflect the company's new direction and growth. ... More sig-nificance: An education media panel for members of PRSA, the PRSA Education SIG and media representatives covering education is slated for 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, in room 207 at the Texas Wesleyan School of Law, 1515 Commerce St. Parking is available in Lot A off Calhoun Street. Lunch will be provided. Lauren Burkett helped coordinate the event. RSVP to Chris Smith at chris.smith@tccd.edu.
PRSA local update II: Add a professional development seminar with Dan Keeney, APR, president of DPK Public Relations in Southlake, to an already above-average lunch menu -- speaker Daniel K. Carpenter, NASA deputy chief of staff -- at the monthly meeting Wednesday, Oct. 12. Details next month. ... Anyone who joins PRSA in September and October ($225, plus $65 initiation fee) will receive a free one-year chapter membership. Former members who have been inactive for at least a year may also participate, but the offer is not valid for associate membership. Applications are available through the chapter or by calling (212) 460-1400. Applicants may also apply online at prsa.org; mention promotion code CHAP2005 to receive the special rate.
PRSA local update III: James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, will lead a panel including David C. Rickey, APR, and Robert Frause, APR, Fellow PRSA, through the most visible ethical problems in the news today in the "Resolving Bad Ethical Practice Situations" teleseminar Tuesday, Sept. 6; Wednesday, Sept. 14; and Wednesday, Sept. 21. Same seminar, three days. Pick one. For registration questions call (800) 350-0111. More at prsa.org/_Advance/seminars/090605.pdf. ... Nick Dalley, president of Intentional Communication Inc. and an adjunct professor in SMU's Cox School of Business, will discuss "How to Tell the Whole Story, Not Just the Part Represented by Words" at the Dallas PRSA meeting Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Park City Club, 5956 Sherry Lane. More at prsadallas.com/sept05_lunch.html.
