Northeast Region Chapter Reports November 2014 Prepared by: Vicki Presser, NSPRA Northeast Region Vice President Public Information Officer Scarsdale (N.Y.) Union Free School District vpresser@scarsdaleschools.org VP s General Overview New York and Pennsylvania continue to be quite active, and with good membership numbers. Pennsylvania is particularly impressive with their total numbers and their ability to do programming in three regions. New Jersey has been making significant strides in its organization and engagement levels, both within the state and in its relationship with NSPRA. Connecticut is slowly making its way back to the light. I plan to have a conversation with Nancy Vaughan, APR, about possible approaches to getting membership turnout at an event. VP s Environmental Scan Public education continues to be under siege, with a governor in New York who seems to be enamored of charter schools and teacher evaluations tied to testing, and a governor in New Jersey who just disdains lots of stuff. High-Stakes testing is of concern in New York and Pennsylvania. Not hearing as much about Common Core in this region. VP s Outreach and Travel Your fearless hobbit has not been able to venture out much this fall, between a shiny, brand-new superintendent (who I am recruiting for NSPRA membership!) and a bond referendum coming up in December. I did manage to get to a regional school PR meeting: the Hudson Valley SPRA, an informal subset of NYSPRA, met in Rockland County in October. I did a show-and-tell of recent NSPRA publications, and pitched NSPRA membership. They were pleased to hear that NSPRA has membership options (i.e. subscriptions, and monthly or quarterly payments). I have stayed in touch with chapter presidents, offering advice and encouragement, and had a pleasant email exchange with an NSPRA member in Massachusetts who has dreams of starting a chapter there. Suggestions for Improving Regional Relationships/Increasing NSPRA s Influence I would like to see us expand our speakers list, keeping in mind affordability and geographic diversity.
Connecticut School Public Relations Association (ConnSPRA) Submitted by: Nancy Vaughan, APR, chapter president Chapter well-being ConnSPRA is in the process of trying to reinvent itself. An August planning meeting resulted in renewed commitment to keeping the chapter moving forward. Nancy Vaughan agreed to stay on as president until the new Vice President is able to take over. She volunteered to serve as Treasurer until someone else steps forward as she is currently the only signatory on the account. Webster Bank is charging monthly service fees on the account, and it may be possible to switch to another bank when a new treasurer is named. Kim Eves is the new Vice President/President-Elect. She is completing a Master s degree program now but is willing to take over the position of president when she is finished with the program. Vicki Cram was named to the new position of Membership Chair, a position that is not named in the bylaws but which might be a key to growing membership. Jessica Warrender was re-elected Secretary. Jessica will be taking over the newly redesigned ConnSPRA website (Nancy had redesigned the website over the summer as a project for one of her graduate degree classes). The members present agreed to conduct two meetings in the coming months: a September conference call and an October social media workshop, which, unfortunately, had to be postponed due to low registrations. Chapter projects/collaboration efforts The major chapter project is to build membership and interest in ConnSPRA. This may include reaching out to other professional organizations within Connecticut to build awareness. Professional development programs/activities An October 24 th social media workshop featuring Evelyn McCormack was planned as a major professional development offering. Unfortunately, chapter marketing efforts fell short, and the event was postponed due to low registration. A stronger marketing effort could have led to possible success, but no one in the chapter had the time to make this happen between August and October. Major chapter issues or concerns Almost all (if not all) members represent single-person offices, and in many instances, the person has more than one job responsibility in addition to communications. The busy schedule makes it extremely difficult to stay connected with one another and the chapter. Most members felt they could not afford the time to travel to a meeting in a physical location but hoped that a virtual meeting might work. Issues or areas that could use NSPRA regional or national support Membership growth and retention. New Jersey School Public Relations Association (NJSPRA) Submitted by: Laura Bishop, chapter president Chapter Well-being The 2014/2015 school year looks particularly bright for NJSPRA. Membership retention and growth is strong and we look forward to a well-attended quarterly workshop on Tuesday, November 18 th, the first of the new school year.
In addition to new and renewing members, our work to foster connections and collaborations with our colleagues in the education field is beginning to show results. We have met with or made presentations to members of NJ School Boards Association, NJ Association of School Business Officials, NJ Education Association and the Rowan College of Communications and Creative Arts. I m particularly pleased to report that, for the first time since I ve been involved with NJSPRA and NSPRA, our chapter was well represented at the NSPRA Annual Seminar, with at least six of us in attendance. We were thrilled, learned a lot and had a wonderful time. Nashville here we come! Projects/Collaborations NJSPRA has traditionally hosted four workshops each school year, typically from 9:30 am 12:30 pm. The executive committee is thinking outside of the box and continues to explore new approaches to our workshops to better meet the needs of our members. We have maintained the quarterly schedule, but have moved to new venues to better reflect our mission. Last year we moved our meetings to Mercer County Technical Schools, which is centrally located near Trenton. Full gourmet breakfasts (omelet station, waffles, fresh pastries) and lunches (out of this world soups and entrees) are prepared and served by the students. Two years ago, we moved one of our meetings (December) to Mt. Laurel in an attempt to attract current and prospective members from South Jersey. Next spring, we ll host our South Jersey workshop and awards ceremony at Rowan University. Deans and professors at the College of Communications and Creative Arts will be among the judges in the awards competition. Rowan s campus is thriving and the college hosts one of the most active PRSSA Chapters in the nation. Professional Development/Activities Several of our members presented at this year s NJ School Boards Association Workshop held in Atlantic City last month, the largest training and information conference for the state s public school officials. Maren Smagala and I presented a one hour session, Yes, You Can Have School PR and Liz Scott and her district Business Administrator, Crisis Communication Best Practices. Additionally, I was recently asked to serve on the Advisory Board to the Rowan College of Communications and Creative Arts, which held its first meeting in October. Raising awareness of and support for school public relations was among the goals discussed at the meeting. Stay tuned Major Chapter issues/concerns The major chapter issue/concern as we begin the new school year is chapter administration, bookkeeping and finances. Our administrator, who had handled our meetings and finances since before any of our current executive board came into office, resigned effective June 30, 2014. We recently switched banks and will be working with an accountant to be sure our books and finances are in order to provide a solid foundation for our growth.
NSPRA National/Regional Support We continue to need guidance and support as we strive to raise the stature of school PR in New Jersey, which will provide us with a seat at the education table at the local, state and national levels. Advice on perhaps pursuing a state approved credentials or licensing program for school PR. Guidance on fostering stronger legislative ties and support. New York School Public Relations Association (NYSPRA) Submitted by: Jessica Scheckton, chapter president Chapter well-being The New York chapter is active, with 104 members currently. This is about how many members we had at the end of last year, so this is a positive sign, given that we have just begun reaching out to last year s members who may have forgotten to renew. With no awards luncheon this year (see below), we did not have a fall business meeting but will hold our annual business meeting during our spring conference, tentatively scheduled for March. Chapter projects/collaboration efforts Our annual communications contest was completed in September. The state school boards association, which typically sponsored our awards luncheon at its annual convention each October, did not sponsor any luncheons this year. But we still attended the convention to have a display representing our awards winners and our organization. For the first time this fall, we also manned a display at the state school superintendents association. In return for the support that members of CalSPRA gave us by judging our annual contest, more than a dozen of our members have volunteered to serve as judges for California's contest. We ll be doing that in November. Professional development programs/activities The executive board has begun discussing dates and ideas for our annual spring conference, which is our biggest professional development activity each year. In addition, we continue to maintain a closed group on Facebook, where members can ask for advice and share ideas. Issues or areas that could use NSPRA regional or national support Our board has been discussing John Draper as a keynote speaker for our spring conference, but he may be a bit too expensive for us, even with the discount offered to SPRA chapters. Has NSPRA ever created a list of recommended speakers/presenters to share with chapters? State or local issues that NSPRA should keep an eye on In these final days of New York's gubernatorial election, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for an end to the last public monopoly, i.e., public schools. Essentially he is calling for greater investment in charter schools (without any accountability) and a renewed effort to establish a tough evaluation system for teachers (even though he just finished calling a temporary halt to using new Common Core tests in evaluating students and teachers). While I know this is nothing new and is not unique to New York, his use of the term monopoly is concerning especially coming from a Democratic politician who is almost certainly about to be reelected to another four years.
Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association (PenSPRA) Submitted by: Vicki Flotta, chapter president Chapter Well Being PenSPRA held its Fall Executive Board Meeting on Friday, October 17 to review the 2013-2014 school year and to discuss our plans for 2014-2015. PenSPRA is an active chapter. We are in the process of getting current members to renew their PenSPRA membership and to encourage districts who have either discontinued their PenSPRA membership in recent years or who have never joined PenSPRA to join. Currently, our membership renewals are on par with where we were at this time last year and we anticipate having around 170 members this year. Our finances show a balance of almost $52,000. Chapter Projects/Collaboration Efforts We recently partnered with NYSPRA to provide judging for their Communications Contest and we re happy to announce that NYSPRA members will also help us judge our 2015 Communications Contest. We were impressed with their Pitchburner online judging system and are moving in that direction as well. Thank you, NYSPRA! We will begin our Communications Contest in early 2015 and will continue our Scholarship Program, this year awarding three $1,000 scholarships to deserving high school seniors who are interested in pursuing PR/Communications-related careers. We had a booth at the Pennsylvania School Boards Association s annual fall conference and created a brochure explaining how PenSPRA can help school districts with their communications issues. Our interactions there were positive, with a couple of other state-wide organizations asking us to prepare presentations for their upcoming conferences. We would like to establish a partnership with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association to create a PenSPRA Communications Partner of the Year Award, to recognize a non-school PR person (perhaps a school board member or superintendent) who has either been a great communicator for public education or a supporter of the school communications function. Professional Development Programs/Activities We continue to have regional programming throughout the year in our three geographic regions: East, Central and West. The West Region has already had one meeting with the topic focused on how to better pitch your district s stories to the media and how to use social media to engage your community. The December meeting will be a roundtable discussion using our veteran members to address the needs/issues of our many newer school PR professionals. Our East and Central regions are still planning their programming for this year but anticipate offering at least two programs. We are planning our 2015 Symposium, tentatively scheduled for March 19-20 at the Bedford Springs Resort. Our Spring Board Meeting will be held on March 19, but we are starting the symposium a little early, having a networking event on Thursday night for attendees and their spouses who want to arrive early to take advantage of the resort location. Topics have not been finalized, but we should be ready to share that information with our membership by December. We extend an invitation to any of our Northeast Region PR Professionals who are in the area to join us!
Major Chapter Issue More of the same making sure that districts see the value of having a dedicated communications person on staff and making sure there is money in their budgets for PenSPRA and NSPRA memberships. To that end, we are revising a publication we had for sale in 2008 A School Communicators Job Description Handbook and will post it electronically on our web page and share for free with districts who are looking to hire/replace a communications position. Issues or areas that could use NSPRA Regional or National Support NSPRA has been doing a good job of sharing information about Common Core. Some of our members are also interested in receiving tips about how to communicate the Ebola crisis, should it impact their districts. State or Local Issues that NSPRA Should Keep an Eye on With the election in November, Pennsylvania could see a new governor and districts will be watching to see how education is funded on the state level, depending on the winner. This has been one of the hot-button campaign issues. The other issue is the increasing rigor of the PSSA Tests for students and how parents will deal with their right to have their child opt out of the tests. Additional Items of Note None at this time PenSPRA hopes everybody has a great school year!