Articles

Thank You for a GREAT 2017!

Wow this year has gone by too fast! It seems like just yesterday we were planning the events for January and February. I want to give a BIG Shout Out to the board members of PRSA SA who volunteer their time to organize, coordinate and strategize to bring you monthly events that help our members professionally. It has been a pleasure to lead a group of hard-working PR professionals who find snippets of time here and there to volunteer because they believe in the organization.

It’s not easy to think of engaging programming for our members, who have to do the same thing in their own jobs. While we know some events are more interesting to attend than others, our ultimate goal is to give you professional development that will make you a better PR professional.

I’m proud of the different actions the board took in the beginning of the year to sustain the financial health of the organization from raising luncheon prices to reducing the number of luncheons we provide in the year. Decisions like this are not easy because we have to take into account our PR colleagues who are running small businesses or who are working solo.

A big thanks also goes to the Holiday Inn Market Square for working with our budget and never saying it can’t be done. Making these bold moves will allow us to contribute 50 percent of our net income to our Marilyn Potts scholarship fund. If you don’t know, in the last several years, PRSA SA’s scholarship fund has provided nearly $10,000 to communication students at UTSA. And all those raffles we have at out luncheons – you know the one where we make about a dozen announcements to buy tickets to win half of the money collected - also go to the Marilyn Potts fund to help the future of PR.  

I have served in different capacities with PRSA over the last several years, and I have enjoyed my different roles. While I have enjoyed my current role and learned a lot, I look forward in handing the presidential baton to Joel Williams, a long-time PR professional and former journalist. 

Another big thank you also goes to my employer, Northwest Vista College and its Public Relations team, who gave me the freedom to serve in this role. I work with an awesome team and belong to an awesome organization. I look forward to seeing you all in 2018, but this time as your past president :-)

Melissa Monroe-Young, APR
PRSA SA 2017 President