eChaser: January 2009 / p3

GET A JOB

Cancer Care Services seeks a full-time development coordinator. Send cover letter, salary range and résumé to development director Jennifer Hawthorne, jennifer@cancercareservices.org or fax 817-921-1701. ...

Camp Fire USA First Texas Council seeks a vice president of marketing and public relations to succeed Angela Downes, who’s getting married this spring and moving away from Fort Worth. Send résumé to Zem Neill at zem@campfirefw.org.

===========================================================

NEW MEMBERS

PRSA ... Laurie Quincy, Lockheed Martin

===========================================================

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Andra Bennett House, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

I had a column all prepared as my first of the year, about PRSA relationships and how honored and intimidated I am to be chapter president, throwing in a little promo for the January luncheon and other pabulum. I scrapped it.

You see, while writing that I received news that my co-worker of seven years, Lisa Dodson, had suffered a stroke and died that morning. As this is our CEO’s executive assistant, highly visible in the community, I knew we would need to put out an announcement soon. So I immediately began to write that while other members of our stunned staff talked and cried quietly in the hallway.

How old was Lisa? 48. How long had she worked here? 16 years. Should I wait until we have permission from the family? Andra, please script a new voice mail message and auto-e-mail message for Lisa’s desk.

As communicators we are called upon to write words that sell, persuade, explain, motivate, mitigate. This day my assignment was to inform and comfort. Quickly. Grieving my friend would have to wait until later in the evening.

As we begin a new year with many changes and uncertainties, I am reminded of the value of relationships I’ve built with many of you through my years with PRSA. Sure, I’ve picked up some useful information at luncheons and in the Tactics newsletter and the Strategist magazine. But it’s the relationships a person builds through an organization that pay the largest dividends.

I hope to continue to develop those relationships with you this year. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been given my next writing assignment ... a happy holidays message for last-minute gift bags.

-----

INTERIM PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Cheryl Hart, IABC Fort Worth

2009 brings with it all sorts of change — a new economic horizon with its fresh challenges and opportunities; an historic start for President-elect Barack Obama as he begins his term later this month; and here locally, my filling in as president of IABC Fort Worth until our fearless leader, Betsy Deck, returns from maternity leave. The newest change in Betsy’s life is the Dec. 23 birth of Lawson Davis Deck. Congratulations, Betsy and Stuart; get in as much sleep as you can!

I found a quote from author Brian Tracy the other day that sums up what IABC strives to provide its members and visitors: “The people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.”

If you’re wondering how to be a mover and shaker in 2009, be sure to attend our meeting Tuesday, Jan. 27. Kathy Wolfe from Global Mail has the latest information on postal regulations and postal discounts and postal pitfalls. If you haven’t been to an IABC meeting in a while, make a New Year’s resolution to attend. You won’t want to miss this!

-----

OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

They stuffed me with Petroleum Club food and said I was special at the last PRSA meeting of 2008, and if public relations people tell you something’s true, then it is! I am gratified and honored by the Greater Fort Worth chapter’s Team Spirit Award, a lovely lucite star that sits just below my computer screen as a reminder, when the eChaser becomes a (seeking the right delicate term) drag, to quit whining and go format another picture. And while we’re lolling about in a field of strewn bouquets, how about that Betsy Deck and Amy Yancey and Betsy Black (IABC) and Kay Pirtle (SPJ) and Carol Murray and Mary Dulle (PRSA), and the holiday party they threw for the readers library at the county hospital? Go back a page for details. What a wonderful evening. ...

This from Kristin Sullivan, the new UTA media relations assistant VP, to you and you and you: “I am joining a wonderful team led by the university’s new vice president of communications, Jerry Lewis. This is a tremendous opportunity at a time when the University of Texas at Arlington is growing and expanding many of its programs. I appreciate your support throughout my 18-year career at the Star-Telegram and am leaving many wonderful colleagues who are dedicated to providing you the mose important news from your community, region and state.” The S-T loses another really good one. ...

As the Bush administration lurches to an end, the Center for Public Integrity brings us “Broken Government,” an examination of the worst systemic failures of the executive branch over the past eight years. “Broken Government” documents more than 125 examples of breakdown in areas as diverse as education, energy, the environment, justice and security, the military and veterans affairs, health care, transportation, financial management, consumer and worker safety. Reports like this are why anything that weakens a free press in America — corporate greed, mismanagement, politics over common sense — weakens America. ...

Thanks, Lloyd Goodman, for this. Scroll down to Correction of the Year and chuckle uncontrollably. ... Sleaze knows no party. ... Are they onto something at the Christian Science Monitor? ... Some great writing is being perpetrated at Mayborn: Where Real Stories Come Alive. ... Do we really need editors? ...

Lawrence Lessig of the Stanford University Law School often speaks about issues surrounding the internet and the First Amendment. Richard Clarke tells him that just as a version of the USA Patriot Act was prepared and awaiting an event that would “justify” its use, so an i-Patriot Act, or internet version, already exists and is ready to restrict the internet as soon as some event of apparent cyberterrorism occurs. More here. Sleep tight.

This is so good, it could be satire. Just days after the news broke that former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman had released a song parody entitled “Barack the Magic Negro,” the Republican National Committee issued what it called “an official apology to America’s negroes.” Just hours after releasing the official apology, the RNC issued an apology apologizing for the apology. “It has come to our attention that we misused a word in our first apology,” the RNC statement read. “We should have capitalized ‘Negro.’ ” And in the inclusive, thoughtful spirit of the aforementioned parody, this surfaces from Sarasota, Fla., penned by UTA Shorthorn ex Debra Morrow and sung to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman.”

Georgie the Slowman
Was a jolly, happy soul.
But a constant gripe
With his lack of sight
Made him tumble in the polls.

Georgie the Slowman
Loved a fairy tale, they say.
’Cause when we said no-o-o, he said go,
And more troops were sent away.

There must have been some food a-cookin’
At the Crawford ranch that day,
For when Katrina hit the ground
He was in a bacon trance. (Hey!!)

Georgie the Slowman
Was alive as he could be.
But our homes foreclosed
And our prices rose,
And the rest is history.

Slumpety slump slump
Slumpety slump slump
No one said don’t go.

Slumpety slump slump
Slumpety slump slump
Look at Georgie go!

Closing words: “An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.” — Dylan Thomas ... “When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what’s wrong. But when you are through with the blues, you’ve got nothing to rest on.” — Mahalia Jackson ... “I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.” — Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams

Closing words II, the first day of 2009 edition (thanks for these and many snippets in this section to Garrison Keillor): “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” — T.S. Eliot ... “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.” — Oscar Wilde ... “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” — Rudyard Kipling

First page