eChaser: June 2010 / p3

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GET A JOB

DFW International Airport seeks a senior graphic artist with strong experience in QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator for a contract assignment estimated at 90 days or more. Minimum requirements include a four-year degree and two years experience (additional experience may be substituted for degree), proficiency in Microsoft Office and ability to meet airport security standards. Send résumé to Gary Beggs, gary@abbastaffing.com

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NEW MEMBERS

PRSA ... Becky Adamietz, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History ... Alexandra Atkinson, Cash America International ... Sarina Klaver, Integrity Marketing Communications ... Katherine Kolstad, Billy Bob’s Texas ... Mary Jo Polidore, Lockheed Martin ... Megan Haggerton

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Tom Burke, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Knowledge and expertise are lifelong pursuits. Congratulations to Margaret Ritsch, Gigi Westerman and Sandra Brodnicki for recently taking gigantic steps on their journey.

Margaret, Gigi and Sandra have earned accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America. Unlike other workplace certifications, such as CPA, Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) is a voluntary demonstration of competency; as such, it reflects a strong commitment to the profession. Only about 20 percent of PRSA members are accredited. Margaret, Gigi and Sandra are among elite company.

Greater Fort Worth PRSA boasts 29 accredited members, four of whom also have attained the level of PRSA Fellow — Carolyn Bobo, Dr. Doug Newsom, Mary Dulle and Bill Lawrence. The College of Fellows is an honorary organization within PRSA composed of more than 400 senior practitioners and educators, each of whom is accredited, has a minimum of 20 years of public relations experience and has left a significant footprint on the profession.

While accreditation is a personal accomplishment, it is tied to membership. An accredited member who leaves PRSA may not use the APR identification. If an accredited member has his or her membership suspended, accredited status is suspended, too. If an accredited member is censured, accreditation is revoked during the period of censure. Also, an individual can have accreditation revoked for improper use of accreditation, per usage guidelines.

Perhaps most importantly, PRSA’s accreditation program promotes lifelong learning. All APRs are required to complete continuing education programs and pursue volunteer work or other professional development activities to keep their skills sharp and their accredited status active.

Lifelong learning and attaining Accreditation in Public Relations are indeed worthy goals for those in the public relations profession.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Cheryl Hart, IABC Fort Worth

Is it June already? Seems like I just started my term as chapter president. What a memorable and wonderful experience the past year has been.

The final event on this season’s IABC calendar is the Bronze Quill Awards luncheon Tuesday, June 22. Built around the theme “2010: The Year We Make Contact with Excellence,” the awards will spotlight the finest communications and marketing materials produced in 2009 in the Fort Worth-Dallas area. Make your reservations now, and check iabcfortworth.com for details. In addition to superlative work, exceptional networking and good company, the luncheon will offer an opportunity to hear NASA public affairs officer Josh Byerly detail the inner workings at the space agency. It should be quite a star trek!

I would like to thank our sponsor for the Bronze Quill ceremony, Studios 121, Fort Worth’s elite video production and broadcast center. Studios 121 serves national cable networks like PBS, the History Channel, TNT, Telemundo, DisneyXD, Direct TV and the Cartoon Network with broadcast production and transmission services. It also serves national, regional and local companies, ad agencies and nonprofits with broadcast services, graphic design, network origination, web design, animation, original television program production and intra-corporate training. We are proud to have Studios 121 as a long-term friend of IABC Fort Worth.

You can see how my IABC presidency has been such a rewarding and eye-opening experience. I worked with the best folks in the business! I’d like to thank my board — president-elect Laura Hanna, past president Betsy Deck, secretary Pam Fry, treasurer Tim Tune and vice presidents Sara Reynolds, membership; Lori De La Cruz, accreditation; Paul Sturiale, communications; Pam Huff, marketing; and Kay Colley, student relations — and all of the volunteers who gave their time, energy and talents to make this year so successful.

I happily turn the reins over to Laura, confident that she, her board and volunteers will keep IABC Fort Worth on the go and on the grow.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

New! Improved! And definitely worth a look. ...

The Optimist App is up and running on the iPad. See it in the Apple store, and here’s a link to videos about making it happen. Crisp thinkers, those Church of Christ students. ...

Gratitude from a good guy. Peter Gorman writes:

I just want to thank you for the effort you make to give us reporters a chance to feel good about our work. I appreciate it more than you know. For 15 years or so I toiled at High Times magazine — senior exec and ed in chief — working the hard news end of the drug war. The work was good, it was important, and we were the source of nearly every major national drug war story from the late 1980s through most of the 1990s. But while Peter Jensen’s people and The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker all came to us for info, background, sources, no one ever mentioned us publicly.

None of that mattered except to my kids, who always wondered why I didn’t have any awards if my work was so good.

We moved to Texas in 2002, and I started writing for Fort Worth Weekly in 2004. My first award came from SPJ in 2006. I was at the dinner with my daughter, Madeleina. When I was called up to accept a first prize she ran off to a corner of the restaurant and jumped up and down, shouting, “We won! We won!” to the window and the city below.

I’ve won several awards since, including one with SPJ again this year.

My daughter is a couple of years older now (my sons are too old to make a fuss) but she still jumped up and down when I brought the award home. “It never gets old being a winner!” she shouted over and over.

Just so you know, I appreciate your efforts on our behalf.

Peter won a First Amendment Award in the Green News division at the chapter’s SPJ banquet in April. He didn’t have to pen this note, but he did. And that’s why we do it. ...

Application deadline is June 13 for the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award, which recognizes outstanding service to the First Amendment through journalism. The recipient will receive one 2010 SPJ convention registration, two nights at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino and a ticket to the Mark of Excellence Awards luncheon. Contact Lauren Rochester at lrochester@spj.org or 317-927-8000 ext. 210. ...

FERPA, the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, has been scrutinized, criticized and left many journalists ostracized after being denied information. Now SPJ offers the Reporter’s Guide to FERPA to help newsgatherers navigate the act that has been used to seal off information from the media and the public. The SPJ freedom of information committee produced the guide for national Sunshine Week.

Closing words: “I guess I’m just an old mad scientist at bottom. Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care not who writes the nation’s laws.” — S.J. Perelman ... “There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.” — Anthony Trollope ... “Nothing recedes like success.” — Walter Winchell ... “I’m going to do what every San Franciscan does who goes to heaven. I’ll look around and say, ‘It’s not bad, but it ain’t San Francisco.’ ” — Herb Caen