President's Perspective: A Look Back At The Year

My favorite part of the 2011 PPRA Annual Meeting – besides our esteemed speakers – was the opportunity I had to look back and review the year.

We started a mentorship program that pairs professionals with less than 10 years in the profession with more experienced practioners that many of you are helping to make a success.

We continued to offer programming that meets the needs of our members. Feedback from events early in the year indicated you wanted to hear from experts on some of the trickier social media issues. So, we brought in experts from up and down the East Coast to share their insights. We also responded to your need for more information on crisis communications by stacking a panel of experts from around the city who have handled some of the region's major crises. In other events, we brought in editors from Time and People, leadership of the Inquirer and Fox-29, and the cities top non-profit leaders.

Part of the fun at PPRA is recognizing leaders who understand the value of public relations for their company or organization. This year we had the opportunity to honor Dr. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, with our Gold Medal award. Later in the year, we were honored to induct Matt Cabrey, senior director of communications at Shire Pharmaceuticals, into our Hall of Fame.

In order to recruit members, we launched a 'member-get-a-member' effort that has helped add new people to our group. We also added this blog – which if you don't know already, as a member, you can submit posts to add to your portfolio. We tweet on Twitter and post on Facebook daily, which takes a lot of effort by some of our most active members.

In conjunction with Temple University, we also officially launched the archives of PPRA, a multi-year effort to solidify the legacy of our organization and of our members.

Most importantly, we take time to give back to those who are in need of help. Our pro bono program, Philly Proactive, provided promotional services to Girls, Inc. and Rock to the Future. Members also participated in the annual Philly Clean-up Day.

Many thanks to the great members of the Board of Governors! Without them this hard work could not have been accomplished.

PPRA Board of Governors, 2011-2012

Kera L. Armstrong
Meredith Z. Avakian
Ashley Berke
Lisette Bralow
David W. Brown
Matthew Cabrey
Michael Cavacini
Danielle Cohn
Eric Cortes
Bill Cowen
Catherine Engel
Farrah Farnese
Sharla Feldscher
Jill Flanagan
Bonnie L. Grant
Sylvia Kauders
Jessica Lawlor
Christopher Lukach, APR
Melissa Marsili
Silvana Pop
Larry D. Rubin
Megan R. Smith
Bonnie Squires
Mark A. Tarasiewicz
Meredith Wertz
Caryn Williams

This blog post was written by PPRA President Beth Archer.  Beth is a Senior Account Manager at Anne Klein Communications Group in Mount Laurel, N.J., where she works with clients in the utility, healthcare and higher education industries.  She had her first internship when clips where still clipped out of a newspaper. Connect with Beth on Twitter or LinkedIn.