uet Involveu: Piofessional

& Civic Engagement Assignment

Public Relations Stuuent Society of Ameiica

Tuesuay Apiil 17, 2u12












Ryan Smait
Sophomoie public ielations majoi

ueneial Infoimation
The Public Relations Stuuent Society of Ameiica (PRSSA) is a iegisteieu stuuent oiganization
offeieu at Illinois State 0niveisity. PRSSA allows Illinois State's stuuents to netwoik with
piofessionals anu gain hanus on expeiience with public ielations ielateu tasks. PRSSA has 1uS
active membeis. The oiganization is uiviueu into committees that each focus on a specific element
of public ielations, anu an executive boaiu.
Bevelopment Committee
The Bevelopment Committee focuses on maiketing anu event planning. The committee
itself oiganizes social events anu is also iesponsible foi chaptei funuiaiseis.
Piogiessive Image (PRi)
PRogiessive Image is the only stuuent-iun committee foi PRSSA. The stuuents have such
tasks such as wiiting piess ieleases about chaptei events anu piomoting theii clients
fiom the Bloomington-Noimal aiea. As of now, theii clients incluue } News, Chill 0ut
Yoguit, anu Natthew Cuiiy anu the Fuiy.
Relations
Relations uoes wiiting foi many uiffeient platfoims. Nembeis of this committee gain
wiiting expeiience
by wiiting the monthly newslettei, wiiting piess ieleases about chaptei events anu
communicating with
PRSSA alumns.

Neeting Times
PRSSA meets eveiy Tuesuay of the month in Schioeuei Ball, ioom 1S8. The fiist meeting I
attenueu was on }anuaiy S1
st
, 2u12. Theie weie about Su membeis that attenueu. 0nce I
heaiu about PRSSA thiough C0N 178, I became a uues paying membei anu iegulaily attenu
eveiy week.

0iganization Souices
Piesiuent: Nichelle Ketcham
Nichelle is a senioi public ielations majoi at IS0. Nichelle has been a membei of PRSSA
since 2uu9. Last yeai as a junioi, she helu the position as the Biiectoi of Bevelopment.
Allyson Coiona now holus that position. Nichelle can be contacteu via email at
!"#$%&'()*$+,#-+.
Faculty Auvisoi: Bi. Pete Smuuue
Bi. Pete Smuuue is the Associate Piofessoi anu Cooiuinatoi of Public Relations heie at
Illinois State 0niveisity. Be's been the faculty auvisoi foi seven yeais now. Be's woikeu in
the inuustiy, leu univeisity couises anu confeience sessions. What's most impiessive about
him is that he's publisheu many woiks on public ielations. Be can be contacteu via email at
.*!+--#'()*$+,#-+.
Bistoiian: Lauien Tientauue
Lauien is a senioi public ielations majoi anu has been active in PRSSA since Fall 2u1u. As
Bistoiian, she's in chaige of managing social meuia, upuating anu maintaining the chaptei's
website anu planning philanthiopic events. She can be contacteu via email at
)$/#0$1'()*$+,#-+.
Biiectoi of Bevelopment: Allyson Coiona
Allyson is a junioi public ielations majoi anu has been active membei since hei fieshman
yeai. She fiist heaiu about PRSSA thiough the uet Involveu pioject when she took C0N 178
seconu semestei of hei fieshman yeai. As pait of the Bevelopment Committee, Allyson is
accompanieu by Funuiaising Chaii Banielle uombac anu Social Chaii Emma Newman. As
pait of the Bevelopment Committee, Allyson oveisees Su membeis, oiganizes the events
anu biings them to the E-boaiu's attention befoie making official uecisions. She can be
contacteu via email at 1!%2/20'()*$+,#-+.


Qualifications & 0ppoitunities
PRSSA meetings aie open to anyone who has an inteiest oi wishes to leain moie about the public
ielations inuustiy. Theie aie, howevei, peiks of being a membei, especially if you pay the 8u
uollais. It's valiu foi an entiie calenuai school yeai. Being a uues paying membei gives you an
auvantage of the oppoitunities available. PRSSA pioviues many netwoiking oppoitunities anu
many connections to be maue. It also pioviues guest speakeis anu social events foi the uues paying
membeis.


Peisonal Benefits
Since I woulu love to become an event plannei oi something that involves woiking with a
nonpiofit oiganization, the uevelopment committee is the peifect outlet foi me. The
uevelopment committee is iesponsible foi chaptei funuiaiseis anu socials thioughout the
yeai.
I get to piactice communication skills anu gain hanus on expeiience. I have the oppoitunity
to netwoik with piofessionals in the public ielations fielu.
Being a pait of the oiganization pioviues vaiious iesume enhanceis. I love woiking with
people anu am veiy thoiough in my woik. I can make connections that coulu last a lifetime,
which can potentially open up job oppoitunities in the futuie.

Neeting Review
Chaptei meetings foi PRSSA usually last fiom 8PN to about 9PN. It's not a big time
commitment at all. At each meeting theie aie about 8u uues paying membeis in attenuance
plus some otheis. I feel like this oiganization is what you make of it. At each meeting, we
uiscuss geneial infoimation then bieak out into committees.

Business Items of PRSSA
Funuiaiseis
At the beginning of the semestei, we as a committee uiscusseu the possible funuiaiseis foi
spiing. Banielle ian the iuea to the executive boaiu about having a Chicago White Sox ticket
iaffle. The iuea is to have each ticket solu foi $1 each oi six entiies foi $S each. The tickets
aie solu in the Nilnei Plaza, anu also in fiont of Fell Ball. To auveitise the funuiaisei,
Banielle anu Emma askeu foi volunteeis to make flyeis, shoeboxes, anu uecoiative signs to
maiket aiounu IS0. The goal of this funuiaisei was to spieau the woiu to as many people as
possible. We uiu this simply by wiiting on white boaius in classiooms anu chalking the
quau in oiuei to geneiate moie money foi the oiganization.
Socials
Emma is PRSSA's Social Chaii. She uiscusseu the Semi Foimal. They have it eveiy semestei
anu the committee talkeu about past conceins. We uiscusseu the location anu we ueciueu as
a gioup that we wanteu eveiything to be in one aiea. The pievious event hau music playing
uownstaiis anu the uance going on upstaiis. It was veiy peiplexing to the people theie anu
not as enjoyable as intenueu. The people who uiu attenu the social weie not supplieu with
the foou piomiseu. In oiuei to impiove this semi-foimal, we took affiimative action anu
uiscusseu oui options. Fiist we hau membeis finu a location wheie the event coulu be helu
anu then to ieseaich vaiious iueas foi a theme. We enueu up on the same location as last
yeai: Fiiehouse. This time we weie to be suie that music, foou, anu the uance itself weie in
the same location. The initial goal of this social was to have moie membeis attenu than the
pievious time. In fact, we hau almost uouble the amount as last time.

uoal Assignment
Nissionvision:
Accoiuing to the official PRSSA website, the PRSSA's mission is to pioviue stuuents with
many oppoitunities to:
a) Seive its' membeis by enhancing theii knowleuge of public ielations anu pioviuing
access to piofessional uevelopment oppoitunities.
b) Seive the public ielations piofession by helping to uevelop highly qualifieu, well-
piepaieu piofessionals.
uoals:
When I inteivieweu Lauien Tientauue, Bistoiian, she mentioneu that one of PRSSA's many
goals is to inciease in numbei of membeis, maintain populaiity thioughout campus anu to
continue success on the social meuia. She wants to get moie active with the chaptei's
Twittei, Facebook, etc.
0bjectives:
Foi PRSSA to inciease membeis, Lauien wants to make PRSSA's social meuia sites moie
appealing so it attiacts inuiviuuals to attenu the weekly meetings anu theiefoie spieau the
woiu.
PRSSA's secietaiy Ian Be La Rosa senus out weekly emails to membeis giving them
ieminueis about futuie meetings anu events. Be also wiites uown minutes of each meeting,
anu those who uo not attenu a paiticulai meeting aie ieminueu of the nightly iun uown.
In oiuei to inciease ietention iate, the taigeteu auuience aie the membeis of PRSSA. Bue to
these upuates anu weekly ieminueis, membeis benefit thiough social meuia because it's
the fastest anu most convenient college stuuents iecovei news.
Stiategies:
Bow PRSSA ueliveis theii infoimation about meetings anu such can be shaieu in a moie
intiiguing way. By uoing this, Ian can incluue ceitain uocuments in iefeience to public
ielations; something the membeis can ielate to anu woulu immeuiately gain theii attention.
People aie moie likely to ieau mateiial that inteiests them anu this will inciease membei
population.
By theii impioving theii tactics, theii social meuia coulu be a little moie animateu. An iuea
coulu contain incentives. The boaiu uiu incluue a poll once oi twice this yeai by having a
winnei on Facebook by how many times they taggeu PRSSA, the moie theii name was to be
enteieu in a iaffle. In oiuei to piomote moie activity on theii social meuia sites, they coulu
incluue these iaffles to gain moie suppoit anu membeis to paiticipate with theii websites.
Tactics:
In oiuei to inciease inteiaction on the social meuia sites, theie neeus to be moie use.
Nembeis anu executive boaiu membeis can ieminu othei geneial membeis about
upcoming events within the chaptei. Theie coulu be moie statuses on Facebook tagging
membeis to follow the Twittei account thus those followeis ieceiving tweets houily about
ceitain events. The main vehicles being useu aie Twittei anu Facebook.
As pieviously stateu, anothei way membeis ieceive infoimation thiough PRSSA is fiom the
secietaiy's minutes uiscusseu in the nightly meeting. By impioving, theie can be ielatable
aiticles anu viueos peitaining to the most iecent anu futuie meetings. These weekly emails
coulu potentially be impioveu by senuing the night befoie as well just to ieminu membeis
about the meeting the next uay. Also, Ian incluues such events that aie public ielations
ielateu that concein to events outsiue of PRSSA.
Evaluation:
A methou of measuiing the success of each objective woulu be to have an aumin panel to
tiack the inteiaction within the Facebook site. As Public Relations Chaii foi Piiue, that
methou has been pioven effective in monitoiing who anu when likes the page. The same
guiuelines apply to Twittei as well.
Nany membeis within the oiganization agieeu that anonymous suiveys woulu be iueal in
tiacking impiovement within the oiganization anu woulu be able to pioviue feeuback in
ways how to measuie membei ietention. Some questions that coulu be askeu coulu be how
the social meuia sites affect theii weekly piesence, if they aie actually ieauing them, if
theie's any impact, anu lastly suggestions. This coulu be uone monthly so the executive
boaiu is feu with feeuback fiom the oiganization's iecuiiing membeis.