Gratitude to a Multitude

It has been a long journey to achieving my Accreditation in Public Relations and I want to thank all those who have supported me along the way.

Cathy Morley Foster of PRSA-SF for organizing the first APR preparation course I took four years ago.

Elisabeth Handler, APR, for teaching the APR prep courses I attended in 2005 and 2009 and for her supportive emails.

Phyllis Goodman, APR, and Sarah Grolnic-McClurg, APR, for organizing the APR process in 2009 and for their constant support.

Mike Miller for providing great advice for my PRSA Bronze Award submission. Once I received that honor, I had the confidence to complete the APR process.

Kit Ratcliff, Liz O'Hara, Heidi Bilodeau, Chellene Wood, and the entire Ratcliff firm for supporting and participating in the successful Centennial public relations campaign that was the centerpiece of my APR portfolio and the winner of several industry awards.

Beverly Butler, APR, Gerard Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA, and Carol Crawford, APR, MBA, for their thorough review of my portfolio and the confidence they gave me as a result of the Readiness Review panel interview.

All my classmates in the APR Prep Courses. While I'm not allowed to name them due to PRSA's confidentiality guidelines, their input and feedback as I prepared for the panel interview and exam were invaluable.

Most importantly, my kids for their great advice on how to handle multiple-choice questions on a standardized exam and my husband for supporting and celebrating my professional development.

Now that I have achieved this professional development goal, I look forward to attaining my next goal: a full-time public relations or communications management position with a Bay Area organization. Please keep me in mind if you hear of local job openings.

Gratefully yours,
Mary

Breathing a Sigh of Relief and Sharing Study Tips

I'm so pleased to report that I passed the APR exam on Saturday. Here's a tip list of the areas that require your attention as you prepare for the exam:

1) Skip the History of Public Relations. While I can now list several early PR practitioners and their contributions to the industry, not one question on the exam addressed this area of study. It would be wise to spend your time elsewhere.

2) Business Literacy and Management Skills & Issues together comprise 20% of the exam. I suggest spending a good deal of time learning about organizational charts, employee communications, and line management.

3) Communication Models and Theories are a big part of the exam. However, you won't see any of the graphic charts of these models like the PR textbooks use. Instead, you will be asked how these models relate to current practice or a test case. Therefore, understanding the models and theories is much more important than memorizing them.

4) As every APR will tell you, the Researching, Planning, Implementing & Evaluating Programs portion is the heart of the exam. Memorize the ten-step process for developing a public relations program. Those steps will be useful to you in responding to several questions.

5) Most questions are asked in a case study/test case format. Therefore, textbook studying will only get you so far in preparation. In my opinion, on-the-job experience is the best preparation for the exam.

The night before the exam, I asked my children, all teenagers, for advice. They are professionals at taking multiple choice standarized exams after years in the public school system. They reminded me of the "process of elimination" technique whereby you immediately discount the answers that are wrong and then go back to the possible choices and select the best option. This was a comfort to me when I was confronted by a couple of tricky questions on the exam.

Best wishes as you continue your studies. I'm relieved to be through the process, but I really felt that the 8 months of preparation was time well spent on professional development. Next blog post will be a thank you note to my mentors.

James Grunig's Four Models of Public Relations

Another area to study for the APR exam: James Grunig's Four Models of Public Relations. Lengthy scholarly articles can be found on this topic. Here's a synopsis:

Model 1: Press Agentry/Publicity. A one-way communication method using persuasion to convince audience to behave according to the press agent's agenda (e.g. P.T. Barnum).

Model 2: Public Information. A "journalist in residence" distributes press releases in a one-way communication method. This model is focused on outputs, but does not concern itself with feedback from its audience.

Model 3: Two-Way Asymmetrical. The public relations pro incorporates feedback into efforts to manipulate the audience to behave according to his/her organization's agenda.

Model 4: Two-Way Symmetrical: This method uses communications and feedback as tools to promote mutual understanding and conflict resolution between the public and the organization.

It seems to me that for true health care reform to occur in the United States, we all need to focus on contributing to two-way symmetrical engagement. Otherwise, we'll end up with another Congressional circus--one that P.T. Barnum would appreciate.