Starkville's Public Relations Association of Mississippi kicked off its 25th year at Harvey's with guest speaker Lorri Freeman.
Chapter President John Forde opened the meeting and welcomed guests. An award program followed, and Sasha Steinberg introduced Freeman as the guest speaker.
Freeman is the manager of public relations for Singing River Electric Power Association in Lucedale.
Freeman has an accreditation in public relations, and she spoke on how the members of Starkville's PRAM chapter can achieve accreditation and further themselves as individuals and a group, as well as help the chapter win in the Prism Awards, an award ceremony held for PRAM members.
The main tool that Freeman used in the past as a guideline for judging PRAM groups at conferences and awards ceremonies is the book "Effective Public Relations" by Allen H. Center and Scott Cutlip.
The guidelines toward success that are set up by the book are "goals, objectives, strategies, and subjectives."
These guidelines are key in receiving the accreditation in public relations, Freeman said, but it is of the utmost importance is to have a plan in place for whatever your goal is.
"If you write down a plan…you are going to find that it will be easier later on down your path," Freeman said. "A good plan requires research, planning, implementation, and evaluation."
Freeman applied these strategies to achieving goals. She pointed out that a guideline would help someone determine a timeline, and will also determine whether steps to reaching the goals involve clear, measurable objectives.
"Goals are to objectives as strategies are to tactics," Freeman said. "Objectives are milestones that measure progress toward goals."
Freeman emphasized the need to set goals, strategies, objectives, and subjectives, and she expressed the value of earning accreditation.
"When you go through accreditation, you will have clear understanding," Freeman said. "It definitely gives you better respect. Accreditation can help you with people, planning, and productivity in your job."
Signing up for the APR is simple and flexible, Forde said.
"The accreditation in public relations test can be taken whenever you want," Forde said. "Whenever you think you are ready to do it, you can do it. Just go to aprassociation.org."
Freeman compared a professional in public relations having an accreditation to an accountant having a certification in accounting.
"It lets people know you are serious about your career," Freeman said.
There are online classes and quizzes that can help one prepare for the APR, and a free study guide can be found on praccredidation.org. Applicants have one year after applying to take the accreditation test.
"Involvement lets you meet new people, and you never know when you're going to need friends," Freeman said.
The group also talked about upcoming conferences and award ceremonies.
"The Facebook page has a plethora of information on the conference and awards," Freeman said.
Upcoming events for PRAM include the state conference from April 23 to April 25 in Hattiesburg. The Regional Southern Public Relations Federation conference will be in Tupelo from Sept. 4 to Sept. 27.
"There will be great speakers that are worth the money," Freeman said. "Both national and local speakers."
Discounts are available to students who wish to attend the conferences. Tickets are discounted for all attendees until Feb 18, at which time admission prices will rise.
Starkville hopes to possibly host the state conference in April of 2018.
Starkville's PRAM has a guest speaker each month, and it meets on the third Wednesday of the month. Door prizes are passed out at every meeting. This week's door prizes were a Bagley School of Engineering t-shirt, a "We Ring True" gift bag, and a painting of people tailgating before a sports event.
The next PRAM meeting will be Feb. 15 at 11:45 a.m. at Harvey's. The speaker will be John Cohen, and Forde encouraged visitors and members to return, and to bring a friend along to participate.