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Lois Marsh

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Call for Nominations for 2013-2014 Board
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CPRS Toronto members interested in serving on the board for the 2013-14 term should contact Lois Marsh at 416-360-1988 or marshl@marsh-executive.com.

Participating on the board enables you to enhance your corporate governance skills, contribute to our profession in a meaningful way, and interact with and learn from your industry peers.   

The term starts after the Annual General Meeting in May. All members are invited to apply. Having an APR, more than five years of communications experience or being an active volunteer are assets. 

The deadline is February 17.

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CPRS Toronto immediate opening for board position – ACE Chair
150 150 Lois Marsh

One of the CPRS Toronto Board positions, the ACE Chair, is currently vacant and the Board is looking for a candidate to immediately fill the position.

ACE (Achievement in Communication Excellence) is a celebration of the highest calibre of communication programs in the Toronto area.  The awards are decided based upon submissions from the organizations that produced the original work following a stringent judging process and are distributed at a gala event held around the end of April every year.  The Chair of the ACE committee oversees and guides the team of dedicated individuals who conduct the submission and judging processes, as well as the preparation and execution of the gala.

CPRS Toronto members interested should provide their resume to Lois Marsh at marshl@marsh-executive.com

Participating on the board enables you to enhance your corporate governance skills, contribute to our profession in a meaningful way, and interact with and learn from your industry peers.

All members are invited to apply. Having an APR, more than five years of communications experience or being an active volunteer are assets.

Please reply by November 30th.

ACE Summary

The ACE chair position requires a firm commitment until May and involves the following key tasks:

  • Coordinating a team of volunteers, coordinating roles and overseeing event progress including everything from judging to logistics
  • Attending regular board meetings, facilitating necessary approvals and updating other board members of the progress of the event
  • Managing the ACE Awards budget and volunteer team meetings

The time estimates provided below are estimates and may increase if issues arise. While there are lots of team meetings, the new chair should be aware that this role involves a lot of email correspondence, most of which takes place throughout the work day. Because of this, being accessible throughout the day is an asset.

September (~5 hours for the month)

  • Book venue
  • Begin recruiting volunteers

October (10 hours for the month)

  • Finalize team and begin monthly meetings
  • Finalize critical path with dates from committee
  • Start working on contracts for the program, trophies and AV requirements
  • Find judges to act as judging chairs
  • Marketing plan completed and approved by ACE chair
  • Approved updates made to entries package

November (10 hours for the month)

  • Begin recruiting for MC
  • Marketing for entries/event begins, continues until April
  • Theme selection
  • Ensure all sponsor requirements are in hand – ongoing management of sponsor’s needs

December (10 hours for the month)

  • Judging panel finalized (with 50 per cent APR)
  • Staging plan from AV company, theme for PowerPoint presentation

January (5-10 hours per week)

  • Entries deadline – deal with escalations from entries and judging team
  • First draft of program complete
  • PD event on how to write a good submission (if doing again this year)
  • Menus finalized for venue

February (5-10 hours per week)

  • Executive summary judging and related issues
  • Begin working on script and PowerPoint presentation
  • Event survey approvals

March (~10 hours per week)

  • Increase meeting frequency to every other week
  • Full submission and best of show judging takes place, must be on site for both events to deal with related issues
  • Media materials approved by board
  • Florist finalized
  • Media list complete
  • Trophies ordered
  • Finalize music selection

 April (~10 hours per week)

  • Program approved by board members
  • Script approved
  • Event takes place – day of issues management
  • Lots of last minute emails!May (~5 hours for the month)
  • Follow up media requests and photos
  • Regroup with team to determine what worked, what didn’t
  •  Reconcile budget and create wrap report for AGM
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President’s message: Make your choice
150 150 Lois Marsh

What is it about that 11th hole on our PR golf course!  It’s a long Par 5, and it’s straight.  From the teebox, it looks like there’s nothing to worry about so you just swing your best straight shot off the tee.  As you walk towards the spot where your ball landed, you can now see that just before the green, there’s a creek that runs across the fairway bounded by tall reeds.  

This is decision time. 

There are two basic choices to consider as you take your second shot.  You can go for the green in two shots if you feel like you can clear the creek.  This will allow you to get on or near the hole in two shots (your original tee shot and the one you are about to make).  This means that you have the potential to take just two more strokes including your putts to get the ball into the hole.  If successful, you could score a 4 and birdie the hole.  Even a par score of 5 would be a good result.  Of course if you don’t clear the creek and land in it, then you have to take a penalty stroke and that’s not good.  This will mean extra strokes (bad in golf) plus…you likely lost a ball in the process.

Alternatively, rather than going for the green in two shots, you can “lay up”, which means that instead of taking your second shot over the creek, you can make a shorter shot and land just before the creek. Now you avoid trouble altogether. You can follow that up with a short shot that will easily clear the creek and land on the green. You may not make a birdie, but you could still make par, and, in the process, you removed the risk of losing your ball in the creek and really adding to your stroke count. 

Two choices that allow you to weigh risk vs. reward.    

We all face decisions like this in our day to day work. The important thing is this: once you’ve made a decision on an action, commit to it and execute it to the best of your ability. 

I hope our experienced practitioners will make the decision to volunteer as a mentor for someone new to the profession. Having been a mentor myself a couple of times, I found it to be a worthwhile experience for myself.  I learned from the protégé assigned to me, and I hope the feeling was mutual. 

I think sometimes mentoring can be viewed as one-way…mentor imparting information to protégé. Certainly, that is the purest intent of the relationship.  Experienced practitioners have so much to offer…insight, guidance, connecting, listening, reassurance, encouragement, feedback…the list goes on.  That said, it’s fascinating how much experienced practitioners can gain from the relationship.  

Another bonus about the mentorship program is how flexible it is from a scheduling and timing point of view. So many of our time commitments in our roles in public relations are determined by someone else. Finally!…we can make a schedule that suits both mentor and protégé and we get to determine the timing. How cool is that! 

I hope you will make a decision today to give some of your time and expertise to make a meaningful difference in the career development of our young professionals or those new to public relations.  

Believe me, it’s a much easier decision than determining whether you should go for the green in two or lay up. It’s also more fruitful and a lot less frustrating!  

For more information, please email: mentorship@cprstoronto.com

Vincent Power, APR

 

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Immediate opening for Volunteer Chair
150 150 Lois Marsh

One of the CPRS Toronto Board positions, the Volunteer Chair, is currently vacant and the Board is looking for a candidate to immediately fill the position.

CPRS Toronto members interested should contact Lois Marsh at 416-360-1988 or marshl@marsh-executive.com

Participating on the board enables you to enhance your corporate governance skills, contribute to our profession in a meaningful way, and interact with and learn from your industry peers.

All members are invited to apply. Having an APR, more than five years of communications experience or being an active volunteer are assets.

Please reply by August 31.

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