APR: “The most divisive issue in the PR industry”
Master PR practitioners shed light on the APR in a very dark bar
Six of the “master PR practitioners” from the local PRSA chapter met recently at Morton’s to discuss the current APR requirement for national PRSA leadership. As the only one of the six who does not currently have accreditation, I felt a little outnumbered. Kudos to George Couch APR, however, who is a delegate to the national assembly and wanted to get a read on how the local chapter feels about the requirement.
The APR has become, as he put it, the most divisive issue in the industry. To summarize the controversy for those of you who haven’t followed it, there are two broad camps:
- (mostly) those without accreditation who have been in PR for 20 years or more and feel no need to take the time or money to earn it, and who have never been asked about it by clients or employers yet still want to contribute to national leadership with their expertise
- (mostly) those with accreditation who have pride in the effort they put forth to earn the designation, and feel that PRSA should “walk the walk” if it wants to promote the value of the APR by requiring its national leaders to have it
Art Stevens, APR of StevensGouldPincus wrote an article in Bulldog Reporter July 6, 2010, “One More Plea to the PRSA Assembly: Abandon the APR Credential.” A petition was started to remove the requirement for governance. Here is part of the petition text, and you can sign it here if you are a member of PRSA.
We, the undersigned, hereby petition PRSA to abandon the decades old requirement that its national officers and board members be accredited (APR). Less than 20% of PRSA members are accredited meaning that 80% of the 21,000 members cannot become PRSA leaders unless they choose to become APR.
We do not believe that democracy is being served in PRSA so long as only a small minority of its members can hold elective office. We believe that many worthy members of PRSA who meet national leadership criteria in many other ways are being deprived of the opportunity to serve the organization.
We petition PRSA to remove this impediment and barrier to national leadership as soon as possible. The undersigned are dedicated to a PRSA that allows all of its members to serve the organization.
We believe that many worthy members of PRSA who meet national leadership criteria in many other ways are being deprived of the opportunity to serve the organization. We petition PRSA to remove this impediment and barrier to national leadership as soon as possible. The undersigned are dedicated to a PRSA that allows all of its members to serve the organization.
We believe that accreditation is an earmark for professional improvement but not for governance. At its November 2009 annual meeting, the PRSA Assembly voted to continue the APR requirement for national leadership. We consider this vote to be shortsighted and not consistent of what the vast majority of PRSA members want.
*********
The argument in favor of accreditation is strong, and I have to admit that the discussion that night (especially from Peter Faur APR!) moved the dial on my personal meter a little closer to supporting the notion of APR. If we’re not licensed and don’t have a set of standards, as apparently Edward Bernays used to say, anyone can do PR and call themselves a PR person. On the other hand, as Joanie Flatt APR pointed out, the only people who really understand or about APR are the people who have it, and PRSA. That said, she felt that the APR increases her respect for a PR professional, because having gone through it she knows what dedication it involves.
Ray Artigue APR also agreed with the value of the APR, but conceded to my point that there is a huge percentage of PR professionals who are extremely talented but do not have an APR. Preventing them from national leadership seems a pity. But, he said, it does send the right signal that all of your leaders are accredited.
Best line of the evening – “No wonder we’re not credible. Other professions can trace their roots back to admirable beginnings. PR, on the other hand, traces its roots back to PT Barnum.”
Some of those who have the APR don’t even mention it on their credentials. They feel it is enough that they personally took the time to earn it, and have found that to the outside world, it doesn’t have much meaning.
Paula Pedene APR felt that earning the APR had improved the way she practices PR, helping her become more strategic, in addition to providing credibility in a workplace that is rife with degrees.
George asked me directly, “are you better because of it?” I immediately said yes. I enjoyed reading the books and learning about the history of the profession. His question made me realize that my real contention is not so much with the APR as a concept, but with the format of the APR process as it currently stands. I wasn’t bowled over by the Readiness Review portion of it, which I passed, and especially not impressed with the online multiple choice exam, which I had to take at a testing center in Tempe.
I have some background to back up my discontent – for my graduate degree in communications at Boston University, we were required to take several courses in quantitative and qualitative research, which included questionnaire design. As I took the accreditation test online, I was very disgruntled with how the questions were worded. I went to the national leadership with my concern, and ran into a brick wall.
There was agreement by the end of the night that it really boils down to whether or not PRSA believes in accreditation. If yes, they should market it more actively and fix the exam. And as Ray put it, “Let’s leverage real-world experience versus theory.”
Something tells me this issue won’t be resolved… and something tells me the assembly will vote it down this fall.
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Comments
July 19th, 2010 at 11:43 am
I have commented on this at many websites. I do not have an APR. Not even a PRSA member. Yet I fully support the concept and think PRSA should require ALL members to be APR’d within five years of membership. Think if only 20 percent of lawyers were bar members or 20 percent of accountants CPAs.
This is why I became a Marketing Sociologist; distancing myself from public relations.
As I write this, there are three Phoenix employers choosing (interviewing) heads of their public relations programs. These positions pay from $60,000 to $96,000.
Not a one of the candidates has an APR. Not a one has more than five years communications experience. Not a one has ever worked on a newspaper (a couple have done television internships).
Public relations societies should pressure employers to raise their standards. Employers have brought the field low in the past quarter century by their hiring practices.
These three employers are not hiring the creme of Phoenix’s communications community. They have pigeon-holed it into females under 35 who have college degrees, not necessarily journalism. Watch who these three employers hire today and you’ll see employers are hiring quota, not quality.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
I believe the APR is a great resource for practitioners and anything we can offer to help advance the profession I support. Here is another blog from PRSA President Gary McCormack on the APR requirement…http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2010/05/10/to-remove-or-not-to-remove-the-apr-requirement-for-board-service/
July 19th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
And here’s another good article on why it helps to support the APR…
http://prsay.prsa.org/index.php/2009/07/31/apr-critics-down-with-education/
July 19th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
One of my favorite bloggers, RepMan (Steve Cody) blogged about the APR today as well:
http://www.repmanblog.com/repman/2010/07/repman-apr.html
July 19th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
As the chair of the APR program for the local chapter, I have an opinion on this matter! While I agree that there are those in the profession who do not have their APR and are outstanding practitioners and counselors, the APR provides a confirmed foundation of understanding of the practice of public relations (although The Repman does not agree with me there). While graduate degrees and the education base may vary depending upon the school/professors – the PR accreditation board gives us a benchmark for which all PR professionals can be measured.
The exam assesses two things that I think are critical in a leader within PRSA:
1. The career background that confirms that a PR practitioner is at a point where they are a counselor/master practitioner (Readiness Review)
2. The knowledge, skills and assets of a PR counselor/master practitioner, as well as the ability to apply that knowledge in real-world situations (Computer-Based Exam)
Having an APR provides an objective measure that a leadership candidate has the solid practical foundation in the practice of public relations to adequately represent this profession. It is a nationally-standardized measure. PRSA is an organization that advances the profession and the professional, and I believe that maintaining the requirement of an APR for a leadership position does just that.
July 20th, 2010 at 7:28 am
Some valid points are made in favor of the APR, but the numbers have it. Less than 20% have the APR? Puhlease. All the while, the PRSA would likely want us to think that our industry can’t advance without it! I would contend that the industry progressed even with such a low number of accredited folks. And this is likely because the 80% without (myself included) are too busy appeasing clients, reporters, analysts, producers, etc.
While this silly debate continues, I will be busy fulfilling the campaign plans my clients and I agreed to.
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:28 am
Perhaps one of the greatest favors the recent petition to remove Accreditation as a requirement for PRSA national service has been that professionals from all backgrounds in PRSA are talking about Accreditation. Throughout my affiliation with the APR as both a board member of the Universal Accreditation Board and now chair of PRSA’s Accreditation Marketing Committee, I and my colleagues have always contended that professionals seek out the APR for different reasons. Some see it as increasing their credibility in their respective organizations, others as means of increasing their job-search marketability, others as a means of increasing their compensation, and finally, those who earn their APR for the same reasons people skydive and bungee jump — the feeling of personal satisfaction having achieved a goal. In this case, Accreditation in Public Relations offers some significant, tangible benefits to a professional in demonstrating their mastery of the knowledge, skills and abilities proven to be necessary traits of a strategic and ethical practitioner.
I recently read a LinkedIn discussion posing the question if one even needed academic training in public relations or communications to do the job. With lapses in judgment seen every day from businesses that comprise Corporate America to those on America’s Main Streets, isn’t our profession best served by a process that offers a focus on strategy, structure and ethics? With so many individuals looking at the public relations profession as “fresh start” to their careers, are those of us who have spent 10, 20, 30 or more years dedicated to public relations practice best served by being able to offer a set of operating standards to a job that someone with a degree in biology thinks he or she can easily master?
Now, to dispel a few myths.
Can you be strategic and ethical and not be Accredited? The answer is yes. I know many of those who have distinguished careers in our profession, and because of their knowledge and skill-set, they should be successful in the Accreditation process. My question back is why not pursue the credential of a profession in which you’ve dedicated your life’s work to?
Can you be qualified to lead in a national PRSA position and not be Accredited? Again, the answer is yes. However, we look to the leaders of any business, profession or organization to represent the best of what that group has to offer. If we’re about advocating for the professional and the profession, shouldn’t our top leadership adopt a mindset that is about fostering a shared understanding of and practice within our profession? I would also argue that most professionals earning Accreditation don’t do so with the aspiration of being the PRSA chair and CEO when they grow up.
Roughly five years ago, PRSA and the other organizations that comprise the Universal Accreditation Board relaxed the long-standing requirement that a professional have five years of full-time public relations experience before pursuing the APR. While the Committee for a Democratic PRSA’s petition notes that “only a small minority of its members can hold elective office” because of the APR requirement, it’s important to note that no impediments or barriers — except for those of a personal nature — exist for a professional to pursue Accreditation.
July 22nd, 2010 at 9:56 am
Michael, how can we effectively push for a change in the nature and scope of the APR online test as it currently stands? There are a number of us who are not happy with its format. Trying to talk to the national leadership about this was fruitless. I believe that the testing process could be improved significantly, but the committees seem impervious to suggestions that they change their approach.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:49 am
Linda,
First, congratulations to your chapter for hosting an evening where the important topic of Accreditation was openly discussed.
You and your colleagues have made excellent points about the value of Accreditation, the personal achievement Accreditation brings to the profession and the professional, and the many reasons Accreditation should be the gold standard in the public relations industry.
One part of your post and comment back to Michael refers to the computer-based Examination (CBE). As a member of the Universal Accreditation Board for several years and now serving as chair, I can tell you that the content of the CBE is guided by a very formal, evidence-based process overseen by a psychometrician with years of experience in developing testing instruments. Each item on the CBE is developed by a subject matter expert (a PR professional in the field) and is vetted by 3-4 other public relations professionals. Once the content of a question is agreed upon, the psychometrician ensures that the stem and multiple choice responses are correctly worded and have properties in accord with testing constructs. When the item passes these two steps, it enters a beta phase where it is tested on the live exam for 100 candidates (these items do not count toward the candidate’s overall score). Results of the beta test are analyzed by the psychometrician to determine the reliability and validity of each item. Questions that do not pass statistical scores for reliability and validity are discarded or sometimes modified and returned to this development cycle. With these steps in place, we are confident that the multiple choice items are fair and representative of the knowledge, skills and abilities that guide the content areas of the exams.
From your post, it sounds as though you may have some other ideas for the CBE and I would welcome a direct conversation with you. Please send me your phone and I’ll be happy to call you. We at national UAB are open to rich dialog to ensure each of our products is the best it can be.
Thanks so much for your continued interest and support in Accreditation!
July 23rd, 2010 at 8:39 am
No matter the context, APR always sparks such lively debate.
It is important to remember that the petition being circulated is simply an attempt to add the topic of APR as a requirement for national board service to the assembly agenda at the annual meeting in October. If there are not enough signatures on the ballot, then the item will not be added to the agenda.
This topic has been on the agenda many times over the years and the change has always been defeated.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Based on this latest news, it seems PRSA has its work cut out for it in terms of more aggressively promoting the value of the APR – “you don’t need a specialized skill set for PR”:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-28/sumner-redstone-hires-another-friend-rohini-singh/