Yesterday, our Style and Design class enjoyed a telephone interview with Mr. William Murray, the new COO / President of PRSA, the Public Relations Society of America.

The experience was enjoyed by the students very much. Mr. Murray was very kind and more than willing to take all of our questions. It lasted approximately fifty minutes. I want to thank Mr. Murray and Mr. Cedric Bess, who set up the interview, for making this possible for the students. We are very grateful.

I will wait to post about the interview until after my students have made their posts. I’ll be sharing the URLs of their blogs after the first posts. I don’t want to influence their opinions any more than I may already have done in our lead up to the interview and the follow up discussion after it concluded. You may view a list of the questions we pre-submitted for the interview. Not all were addressed, but the majority were covered.

Below is a letter I sent to Mr. Murray today. It outlines some suggestions for PRSA. As I said in the letter, unsolicited advice is cheap. I don’t know if any of it will be accepted, but I hope it is at least discussed among the PRSA staff.

Your comments, criticisms and suggestions will be appreciated.

Dear Mr. Murray,

Thank you very much for interviewing with my students yesterday.

The students deeply appreciate your time and support. They enjoyed the opportunity very much. We talked about the interview for 30 minutes after saying goodbye. Actually, they are still talking about it today and emailing me with comments.

I particularly want to thank you for accepting the questions about PRSA’s past. Realizing that the questions we posed predate your tenure with PRSA, it was refreshing for the students to hear a new voice on these issues. They are, however, issues you will likely have to address frequently in the months to come.

Unsolicited advice is cheap. Here is mine. There are many suggestions I can offer you, but there is only one that I think is the most crucial for your (and PRSA’s) future.

Open discussion. Embrace it and make sure it happens. As you suggested in the interview, it is the listening that will make a difference. You have demonstrated that you are willing to listen. Thank you.

PRSA does not engage in conversations with membership as often and effectively as it can. PRSA leadership and staff does not engage the media in a significant and effective manner.

First, something must be done to keep PRSA from being discussed in the media without significant response from the society. Too much criticism goes unanswered. Please let not one “no comment” be uttered (or occur by ignoring inquiries) by any PRSA staff or leadership member. Become the model for media and customer relations.

Second, some compromise needs to be found that provides for a feeling of empowerment by members with regard to leadership positions and key issues of PRSA policy.

In both instances, please engage them – the media and the membership. Talk with them.

It isn’t the only option, but online social media certainly is the least expensive and easiest to implement (if only with regard to technology). Also, PRSA will be viewed as a leader in the most revolutionary form of communication available today. Look at all of the corporations and traditional news outlets that are folding this strategy into their media mix. It has a place. It can serve a positive purpose. It can work.

Utilize it all. Text, audio, video and more. Aside from the cost of staff time, this could (be) initiated for less than $1,000. Seriously.

There are risks, to be sure. But, a leadership confident in sound principles will prevail. Most important of all, this form of engagement with PRSA members and the media may be accomplished with the personal voices of PRSA staff and leadership. And, you can accomplish this without losing the overall organization’s voice.

The commitment of staff time and the focus of communication strategies are under your purview. So, I hope you consider it as a possible project for PRSA.

Whatever the solutions, these two areas – if addressed – can free you and the other leaders of PRSA to focus on the important issues by being strong and vocal advocates for all PR practitioners.

I wish you the best. I sincerely believe that you may well be the best thing that has happened to PRSA in a long time.

Take care and thank you, again.

Robert French

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UPDATE: Mr. Murray responded to my email. I won’t quote it all here, but there are a few points I’d like to share.First, Murray stated that he is interested in discussing the social media possibilities available to PRSA. He invited me to engage with him in a discussion about these possibilities, and I will.Second, Murray seemed to enjoy the experience. He has done this before with students at many universities, like “USC, UCLA, Thunderbird, Pepperidge” and many others.Finally, he closed his email with this offer, “And, if you would find it useful, I’d be happy to do this every semester; next time, I will have absorbed much more, and so we could dig deeper!”

Now that’s very nice. I deeply appreciate his willingness to continue the conversation with our students in the future. Thank you, Mr. Murray.

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A postscript for this post. Above, where it reads “this could be initiated for less than…”, the version I sent him actually reads “this could initiated for less than”. Darnit. I proofread this thing 5 times. I kid you not. I am, without a doubt, the worst proofreader of my own writing. There you have it. Transparent self-abuse. I hate it when I have errors in my writing. Think Charlie Brown. Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!

You know what? If this were one of my student’s final projects, I’d lose a letter grade right there. I give them a month to get it right. I figure they can get the typos in a month. If they don’t? From A to B, B to C, etc… in a blink of the eye. Perhaps I should have waited a month before posting. Ack!