2023-24 Year in Review: Focus Forward by Taking Action Today
On the last day of our FPRA year, I wanted to share with our full membership some of the information I presented at this year’s Annual Business Meeting, held during the PR & Comms Summit.
It has been a busy year for FPRA! As I stood before you a year ago and laid out our strategy and four pillars, it was like a starting gun went off for our executive committee, our management team and our chapter leadership statewide.
This year we have Focused Forward with a keen eye to what we need to do over the next three to five years to ensure our Association continues to thrive. At our strategic planning retreat, we discussed the importance of critically evaluating all of the services and programs we provide to our members – what’s still resonating? What needs a refresh? Are there things we need to pause or sunset to make room for new things? There is a very long list of things we want to accomplish, but we know we can’t do everything at once.
Our leadership team ensured our goals aligned with the strategic pillars, and we voted on the highest priority actions that we knew we needed to concentrate on first. Once we had alignment as a team, we went to work. And let me tell you, this team Got. Stuff. Done.
I’d like to give just a few, brief highlights:
Expanding Membership
Our VP of Membership, Amanda Handley, APR, CPRC, her committee and all of our chapters worked very hard this year. We launched a comprehensive “Choose FPRA” campaign with video testimonials from dozens of members and exceeded all goals for renewals. We engaged members with regular new member orientations, virtual member mixers and even formed a card committee to send handwritten notes to members. In all, we retained 76% of our members from last year and welcomed nearly 250 new members to the Association this year.
Further, our VP of DE&I Melissa DiMaria and her committee, as well as our chapters, worked diligently this year to further our DE&I initiatives. We published a DE&I resource list available on our website, and we promoted DE&I topics by featuring industry professionals who exemplify those themes. We’ve also made strides in facilitating connections with the Hispanic PR Association and the HBCUs in the state of Florida to share topics and resources that will benefit professional development for all.
Elevating Technology
The second pillar is elevating technology – and I will go in a little more depth with this topic to share some major changes that are coming for our Association.
We kicked off the year with a Tech Task Force with the purpose of evaluating the Association’s technological needs, assessing costs and vendors and creating a plan.
I’d like to express my sincere appreciation to that Tech Task Force, chaired by Tina Banner, APR, CPRC, for the important work they did as they took our Association’s future into their hands. Thank you so much for your leadership and being Focused Forward for our Association!
I’d also like to thank those who have contributed to the initial costs of implementing a new platform, including some significant individual sponsorships and a contribution from the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation.
As the result of this work and support, I’m thrilled to say the Association is now launching a new website and association management software, provided by GlueUp. Attendees at the PR & Comms Summit saw a sneak preview of what’s coming.
Starting in September, current FPRA members will receive their invitations to create their login to our new platform, and our website will switch over. This is an important point: our renewals this year will be going through our new platform and be completely digital. You will not be receiving a letter and paper renewal form in the mail as in years past.
As always, there will be a transitional period with new technology. If something doesn’t work right for you, please reach out to our State Office to notify us. We appreciate your help and your patience in making sure we have the best platform that works for members and future members alike.
This launch represents only the first phase of implementation for our new website and software. This new platform will change many aspects of the ways we do business as we move forward. Please keep an eye on your emails and our eNewsletter for more information and instructions as we make the switch to this exciting new platform and usher in the future of our Association!
Diversifying Revenue
This year we expanded the Revenue Task Force and, under the leadership of VP of Finance April Salter, APR, CPRC, scored and created a priority list for all of our ideas to enhance programs, services and opportunities for new revenue streams that will increase value of our membership.
Our executive committee took a strategic look at all of our current offerings and evaluated them on the value they bring to our members. Under the leadership of Lindsay Hudock, APR, CPRC, and her committee, we leveraged data-based analysis to make the decision to pause the local Image Awards program. This allowed us to free up local and statewide resources to not only add award categories, but also to introduce a much more streamlined entry and judging process for Golden Image Awards – which led to us significantly surpassing our goals for entries this year.
Also, with the help of our Past Presidents’ Council, we were able to introduce the inaugural Pinnacle Awards, which garnered an amazing 26 entries in its first year. We plan to expand this program even more in the coming years.
With a goal to enhance awareness and increase attendance for FPRA’s annual conference, VP of Annual Conference Elise Ramer, APR, CPRC conducted some informal, qualitative research with target audiences. Based on the findings, Elise and her committee went to work in rebranding our signature annual event to the PR & Comms Summit. This rebrand, the promotions and putting together a stellar line-up of presenters and topics resulted in us exceeding our goals for attendance at this year’s Summit.
Lastly, under the leadership of VP of Sponsorship Heidi Otway, APR, CPRC, and her committee, we further enhanced our sponsorship offerings and exceeded our sponsorship goals for this year.
As you know, the support of our sponsors is critical for us to deliver top-notch professional development and networking opportunities while keeping fees as low as we can. Please join me in thanking all of our sponsors for their support by using their services whenever you are able.
Working Efficiently
On our last pillar, working efficiently, there were a number of behind-the-scenes updates we did to improve data sharing and organization. There was a lot of work done to improve onboarding and information sharing. We made several updates to our policies and our bylaws, and we created a Dropbox system to start gathering historic files from our leadership. But our most important update in efficiency this year is coming from our new association management software.
The benefits of this new platform will allow us to deliver programs and services more effectively to our members, especially those who are not geographically close to the activities of a local chapter. It will create efficiencies in managing your membership and billing with the Association as well as supporting the Florida Public Relations Education Foundation. It will allow us to be more efficient in enabling filesharing important information and resources for our leadership teams. And much more. We are truly making strides in being “easy to work with.”
Being your FPRA President has truly been a great honor. I got an opportunity to work with an amazing board and an incredible management team. I was able to visit all 16 chapters and expand my network by meeting so many members. I’d like to thank many of you who have supported us on committees, task forces or otherwise stepped up to the plate when called. Moving an Association like this forward is definitely a team sport.
I am very excited to hand over the reins to Julie Frey, APR, CPRC and her incoming leadership team. Julie has been very involved in the creation of our strategy and will continue to run with the long list of opportunities that await our Association. We spent the past year Focusing Forward and laying a foundation for growth and success of FPRA. The Time Is Now to build on our successes, go after new opportunities and help PR & communications professionals do their jobs better!
This is definitely an exciting time to be a part of FPRA!
With many thanks,
Wendy Crites Wacker, APR, CPRC
Outgoing FPRA President