At the 55th Conference of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), a new Board of Directors took the significant responsibility of leading this organisation and creating a path towards sustainable reputation management and enhancing the profession that we are so passionate about.

We are pleased to welcome the following members on the PRISA Board:

• Vice president – Lungile Lose APR
• Advisor for legal matters – Mrs Rachel Sikwane
• Advisor for financial matters – Mrs Nadie Kater
• PRCC chairman – Gillian Findlay APR
• Accreditation chairman – Sylvia Collins APR

Serving on the PRISA Board means that we are accountable for the governance of PRISA and the strategic direction which the organisation takes during our tenure. We are more than confident that the current PRISA Board is up to the task ahead and will exceed the expectations of our stakeholders.In the last 42 days, including weekends and public holidays, we have done the following in terms of our responsibilities as the PRISA Board:

• Convened a special board meeting to prioritise initiatives for this financial year
• Scheduled a strategic planning session with all PRISA regions and committees to finalise tangible plans and tactics for the next two years
• Positioned our mandate and strategic intent in various trade and mainstream media
• Connect with our counterparts in the UK, The Chartered Institute of Public Relations, knowledge sharing on best practices in reputation management
• Reinforced our relations with the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA)

Join the PRISA expert panel
As part of our efforts to enhance member benefits and contribute to knowledge sharing and continuous professional development, we would like to invite all PRISA members to join our panel of experts. The panel members will act as anchors, analysts, opinion makers, and experts on the following communication disciplines in mainstream media (TV, radio, newspapers, business magazines, conferences):

• Reputation management
• Strategic corporate communication
• Media relations
• Stakeholder management
• Corporate social investment
• Employee engagement (internal communication)
• Investor relations
• Social media

Please send your brief biography indicating your experience and area of specialisation to adele@prisa.co.za

Engage in reputation management dialogue on digital platforms
Social media has become a non-negotiable business tool for organisations all over the world. As a social-media-centric organisation, PRISA has set up a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and will soon be launching a YouTube channel. In addition, there is a regular blog ‘Talk to Tshepo’ which is currently active on the PRISA website.

We urge all members to follow us on Twitter ‘@1PRISA’, like PRISA on Facebook, or comment on the PRISA blog.

Help grow our membership
We invite all members to join us on a drive to grow our membership by 50% by the end of 2012.
To achieve this, we have packaged an incentive for each and every member to at least refer one new PRISA member per month for a period of 5 months – August to December 2012.
On payment of the current fee of R980, you will receive a referral fee of R300 for each new member which translates to R1,500 during this period of five months.
You can use this to pay for the renewal of your membership or buy yourself a few public relations books on Amazon to contribute towards your continuous professional development points (CPD).

Communika
In the latest issue of Communika, PRISA’s in house publication, insights about key strategic issues and trends in corporate communication and reputation management will be shared. There will be detailed coverage of content from the various speakers who addressed the PRISA annual conference, industry views, global public relation trends, just to name a few topics. The Communika is due for release in early August 2012.