eChaser: May 2012 / p2

IABC and PRSA local update: What metrics really matter? How can metrics drive strategy? Register by May 28 to join IABC, PRSA and NIRI for the annual joint communicators lunch three days later, this year with Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners. Info here.

PRSA national update: For your enlightenment and elucidation, selected webinars, free for PRSA members. “B2B to B2E: Leveraging Employees as Social Media Brand Ambassadors.” June 5. A decentralized communications model can enhance an organization’s reach and engagement with its audiences. Explore a case study that demonstrates how a global, decentralized company led an internal shift to maximize social and digital media. • “APR+M — the Military Public Relations Credential.” Sept. 27 with Barbara Burfeind, APR+M. The Accreditation in Public Relations + Military Communication (APR+M) is an enhanced certification from the established Accreditation in Public Relations. It signifies that an individual meets all APR qualifications, as well as possesses a rigorous knowledge surrounding military public affairs.

PRSA local update: Starting this month, the DFW Communicators Job Bank will sport an easier-to-navigate look and more job seeker and employer-friendly features, but they come with a slight price boost. Some of the changes should help job seekers by listing all postings on the home page, plus letting people sign up for e-mail alerts. On the employer side, job openings will get increased exposure — one month (previously three weeks) — and job information may be entered directly, which will result in listings going live faster. Employers will have page view counts, and each posting will go to the DFW Communicators’ Twitter feed. After no price increase for more than a decade, the participating organization member rate is now $75 (formerly $50), nonmember rate $100 (from $75) and nonprofit rate $50 (from $37.50). Greater Fort Worth PRSA receives a portion of the proceeds when a member marks his or her membership status on the submission form. More from Jerrod Resweber, Greater Fort Worth PRSA job bank chair, at 469-375-0216 or jresweber@webershandwick.com.

PRSA local update II: This month in PR history. 1977: The Sex Pistols release the controversial "God Save the Queen." With lyrics like “God save the queen/She ain’t no human being,” the song was targeted to provoke outrage, and it succeeded wildly: On May 31 the BBC banned the song — exactly as Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren had hoped. By early June, record stores were selling up to 150,000 copies a day. The song remains the monarchy’s most successful single. • May 22, 1958: Jerry Lee Lewis arrives at London’s Heathrow Airport with his 13-year-old bride. Lewis and his management insisted she was 15. Lewis was 22. The publicity caused an uproar, and the tour was canceled after only three concerts. This was Lewis’ third marriage, and, as would soon be reported, the pair had married five months before his divorce from his second wife was made official. Oh, and the girl was his first cousin (once removed). “The Killer” has been married seven times, the most recent ceremony March 9 of this year to his caregiver, Judith Brown, 62; upholding tradition, the latest Mrs. Lewis is the ex-wife of a cousin whose sister, Myra Gale Brown, was the girl Lewis wed when she was 13. • May 2, 1933: The Inverness Courier reports that a couple living near Loch Ness observed "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface." The story of the "monster" became a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a 20,000-pound sterling reward for capture of the beast. Speculation years later that continued sightings were actually Orson Welles on vacation proved false.

PRSA local update III: Standing reminders. Have something to say? Be a speaker at a North Texas PRSSA chapter meeting. E- Kevin Williams at kw757@yahoo.com. ... Stay on top of emerging trends and industry news, extend your network while increasing your knowledge, and keep learning and stay competitive. Any practitioner with at least two years in the field is eligible for membership in the world’s leading organization for PR professionals. Those with fewer than two years experience or who recently graduated from college and were active in PRSSA may join as an associate member. More from chapter president-elect Chris Smith at csmith501@charter.net.

Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas update: The El Paso Times tried for months to obtain public information correspondence between the El Paso ISD and the U.S. Department of Education involving a federal school audit. The school district appealed to Attorney General Greg Abbott to keep the information confidential, but Abbott ordered that it be released. By law, that means the school district should hand over the information and may not make a second request to stay. But that didn’t stop EPISD attorneys from launching the “typo defense,” an attempt to skirt Abbott’s ruling by arguing that the word between in crucial documents was spelled bewteen. FOIFT attorney Charles Daughtry told the newspaper that he hopes “the AG will find that laughable” and added, “I’m hoping they get mad about it. They ought to.”

Can you can look at Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s calendar and know how he spends his day? Or with whom? Or what he might be discussing? His record says the answer is no. Can you look at internal memoranda, e-mails, notes or briefing papers to see what facts he was given to review before deciding whether more than 200 executions should go forward? His record says no. (At least his office announced that it temporarily discontinued deleting e-mail correspondence every seven days, which it has been doing since 2007.) The answer is also no to specific information about some recipients of multimillion-dollar economic development grants, who often turn out to be large donors, and what tax money is being spent on Perry’s $10,000/a month + rental estate home that taxpayers have been paying for since June 2008. “The governor believes that we need to strike the right balance of transparency and accountability to taxpayers while maintaining a priority on security,” spokeswoman Catherine Frazier says. Translated, that means Texans have no idea what they’re paying for, and Perry thinks they have no right to it. Even a member of Perry’s own party, state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview,, believes that’s a disservice to Texans. The Longview Republican, who was elected with Tea Party backing, says, “The money belongs to the people of Texas and they need to have an account of it. You can do this without jeopardizing security.”

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