Name: The name of this organization shall be the Baltimore Public Relations Council, Inc., and its principal office shall be the City of Baltimore, Maryland.
Principles and Objectives: The Council is an organization comprised of men and women who derive the major portion of their earned income from recognized service in the field of public relations.
These public relations people are concerned with keeping the public informed about the policies and activities of their respective organizations. They are concerned with transmitting public attitudes and actions to their management. In order to make it possible to promote good public relations, it is essential that they help mold the characters of the organizations they represent in such a way that these organizations will be good corporate citizens of the community, contributing to its prosperity and to its cultural and economic development.
The Council provides public relations practitioners with the opportunity to interchange ideas and to mold ethical standards for their work, thereby improving their effectiveness. The Council stands ready to advise on community endeavors for the general welfare (and will serve in an advisory capacity to community groups planning projects of service or interest to the total community).
Membership Qualifications: Full Membership - Admission to voting membership shall be limited to the following: persons devoting the majority of time in the paid professional practice of public relations; news media (editors, reporters, commentators); related public service personnel, and those engaged in the practice of public relations on a voluntary basis.
Emeritus Membership - Granted to any member, upon the member’s request, who is fully retired. Receives full voting rights. Dues are one-half those of full members.
Student Membership – Available to students in their junior or senior years at a Maryland college or university, who display an interest in public relations. Dues are one-half those of full members; non-voting status. Upon graduation, eligible for full membership.
Organization: The officers of the Council shall include a President, Vice President, (who shall be the president-elect), Recording Secretary, and Treasurer. The President and Vice President shall be elected for one-year terms and all other officers shall be elected for two-year terms. The Board of Directors, which shall be composed of the elected officers, the immediate Past President, and three Directors-at-Large, who shall be the chairpersons of the Program Committee, Marketing and Membership Committee, and Professional Development Committee, shall pass on proposed major expenditures and other matters of policy. The Council shall have the following standing committees or appointed persons:
- Program, appointed annually by the President, which shall plan and supervise programs for the monthly meetings.
- Marketing and Membership, appointed annually by the President, to disseminate information about the Council and its activities and to encourage new membership.
- Professional Development, appointed annually by the President, to arrange all the details of the annual professional development seminar. The seminar may be conducted in conjunction with other professional organizations.
- Special committees or individuals may be appointed by the President on an as-needed basis.
Quorum: A quorum for any membership meeting shall be one-fourth of the total membership; a quorum for a Board of Directors meeting shall be two-thirds of the members of the Board, i.e. six persons.
Elections: Election of the officers and Directors-at-Large of the Council shall be held in May of each year. At a meeting of the Board of Directors held at least thirty (30) days prior to the May membership meeting, the Board of Directors shall appoint a Nominating Committee which shall nominate officers and three Directors-at-Large for the ensuing one (1) year, or until their successors are fully qualified. Additional nominations will be accepted from the May meeting. If more than one candidate is nominated for any office, a secret ballot shall be conducted, with the candidate receiving the highest number of votes being elected. Results of the election shall be announced immediately, and those elected shall assume their duties on July 1 of the same year. Should any officer of Director-at-Large not be able to continue in the office, the Board of Directors may appoint an interim officer to fill out the unexpired term.
Dues and Fees: A change in the amount of annual dues may be recommended by the Board of Directors, and shall be determined by membership vote, following written notification of such recommendation. A full year’s dues shall be due on June 30 of the subject year. New members joining the Council between July 1 and December 30 shall be liable for a full year’s dues, and for one-half year’s dues if they join between January 1 and May 31. Any members who shall fail to pay the dues with sixty (60) days of receiving the dues notice shall be sent a second reminder invoice. If at the end of thirty (30) days thereafter the member is still delinquent, he/she shall be sent a written notice of delinquency with warning loss of membership. If the full dues amount is not received by the Treasurer within ten (10) days following such notice, the membership shall be declared forfeit.
Fiscal Year: The fiscal year of the Council shall be July 1 through June 30.
Meetings: Meetings of the Council shall be held in the evening of the third Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise determined by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors shall meet at least six (6) times during the year.
Any part of the Bylaws may be eliminated or amended by a three-quarters affirmative vote of those members in good standing at any membership meeting provided ten (10) days’ prior notice, with full wording of the proposed change has been mailed to all members in good standing.
Note: The Bylaws were adopted October 31, 1951, and include revisions:
November 4, 1952
January 24, 1956
February 1, 1971
January 18, 1972
September 19, 1972
April 16, 1974
September 21,1976
January 15, 1984
July 1, 1990
March, 1995
When I first saw this story the other day I decided to follow Gregory’s tweets – turns out it’s all pretty dull.
Mr Stepp’s concerns about competition are misplaced. Competition DOES exist for newspapers. However, newspapers are no longer competing against one another, they are competing against new digital forms of communication. With a new business and journalistic model newspapers can remain competitive – and the public will benefit. But this is not 1972 when newspapers competed against one anthr. It is a whole new world that requires all new thinking.
This IS great! Thanks for sending it along Michael.
Thanks you are always “in the know”! Amy
I am new to BPRC. Hello everyone!
Welcome to BPRC Alicia. Where do you work? How did you find out about BPRC? Are you attending tomorrow’s program?
Paul Richard, an art critic at The Washington Post for many, many years, is out of a job after this week.
yikes!
no names, but a rough sketch of the damage
BALTIMORE, Md., April 29, 2009 – Members of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild said yesterday that Tribune Co. is bent on gutting what was once one of America’s great newspapers after 40 newsroom employees, or 20 percent of the staff, received layoff notices yesterday.
The move comes a day after Tribune fired 18 senior editors and newsroom managers on Tuesday and Wednesday without warning. Many of the editors and managers, who are not members of the newspaper guild, were ushered out of the newsroom by security guards.
“Tribune, through careless management practices, has saddled itself under $13 billion in debt and now Baltimore is paying a price,” said Cet Parks, Executive Director of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. “Tribune is siphoning good jobs from Baltimore and sending work that talented editors, reporters, photographers, copy editors and designers have done here to its home base in Chicago. That is not right.”
Tribune plans to lay off the 40 newsroom employees by May 27. Targeted employees, who include four columnists, photographers, critics and copy editors, received hand delivered letters Wednesday afternoon signed by Monty Cook, senior vice president and editor. Also, in the last two weeks The Sun has laid off seven employees in other departments including advertising and customer service.
Since Tribune acquired The Sun in 1999, the newsroom staff has been cut by more than 60 percent to currently 148 employees from roughly 420.
“While we understand that media companies, especially newspapers, are reeling from declining advertising revenue, shrinking circulation and a year-and-a-half of recession, we believe Baltimore needs a metropolitan paper that covers the important events in the region,” said Angela Kuhl, Guild Unit Chair who works at The Sun. “It is imperative that Baltimore maintains a newspaper that brings people news, exciting and provocative stories and enriches the lives of all who live here.”
From Editor & Publisher:
“They (Sun) are clearly trying to move to be an information producer, not a newspaper publisher,” said Angie Kuhl, Guild unit chair at the Sun. “It is a flattening of the newsroom.”
From Photo District News:
Four photographers, two photo techs and one picture editor were let go, according to Angie Kuhl, unit chair of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.
Burrelle’s now offers a “one stop shop” where I can can download e-clips of print coverage and access electronic clips for TV coverage, I still get monitoring thru VMS and through Google News Alerts also. Any TV coverage I need copies of I buy through our local friends @ TV News Recordings, $45/DVD. I don’t pay anyone for media database service since 99% of what I do is local media.
We just switched to Vocus. Really liked the one-stop shop offered by Burrelle’s, who we contracted previously. Great customer service to request electronic television clips, and newspaper clips were available on demand.
From today’s Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/bal-md.ae.groft28may28,0,6686100.story
Groft named WMAR news director
By Chris Kaltenbach
May 28, 2009
Longtime WMAR staffer Kelly Groft has been named the station’s news director, giving her the chance to head a struggling news operation she joined a decade ago.
“I’m thrilled, it’s something I’ve wanted for a very long time,” said Groft, who officially takes the job Monday. “I’ve never shied away from a challenge.”
Groft, a Harford County native who grew up near Bel Air, came to work at WMAR, Channel 2, in 1998 as a producer for the 6 p.m. news. She and her husband, Jay, a news photographer for WPMT, Channel 43, the Fox affiliate in York, live in southern Pennsylvania with their two children, Hannah, 7, and Camden, 4.
Groft replaces Peggy Phillip, who spent a little less than a year as WMAR’s news director after coming to Baltimore from Syracuse, N.Y. Phillip has been named news director of NBC affiliate KSHB in Kansas City, Mo. Both WMAR and KSHB are affiliates of Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps.
WMAR’s news operation has spent much of the past 15 years mired in Baltimore’s ratings basement. For May, the station’s 11 p.m. weekday news had just over one-third as many viewers as top-rated WBAL, Channel 11. Its evening news fared even worse, garnering less than one-third the audience of top-rated WBAL.
Groft, however, remains optimistic. “I can say, for the first time in a long time, that we really, truly do have momentum,” she said. “We are growing, we’re seeing little bright spots, more than we’ve seen before.
“We are ‘The station that works for you,’ and we’ve stuck to that brand, we’ve embraced that brand. People are learning it, people are reaching out more than they ever have. We’re being noticed by more and more people in the community.”
this is great!
Here’s one source:
http://niagara.cioc.ca/record/NIA2707
Thanks, Michael. I’ll give it a try.
This is too hilarious!
We have used The Communications Center (Nan Tolbert in particular) for media training in the past and have been very pleased with their work. They are in DC but travel up to Baltimore area is not a problem.
Thanks Courtney, this is a good contact to have.
WBAL-TV staffers provided insight and feedback into their newsroom and general station management for more than one hour at the October program hosted by the Baltimore Public Relations Council. Jordan Wertlieb, president and general manager, along with Michelle Butt, news director; Jessica Rahn, assignment editor; and, Wanda Draper, director of programming and public affairs, spoke to more than 30 event attendees about the station’s programming, advertising trends, social media use, and newsroom workings.
“Television viewership is up. The average person watches television four hours and 15 minutes each day, up two minutes from last year,” said Wertlieb. “When television is relevant to the local community, viewership is up. Broadcasts of weather, football and local news keep our viewers watching.”
As Wertlieb spoke to the group, he acknowledged the Internet’s power.
“The [world wide] web is discussed all the time. We can’t hold stories anymore. Stories must get on the web all the time to keep up,” said Wertlieb.
The discussion continued as Butt and Rahn shared their perspectives on news stories, pitches from public relations staff, and the realities of a shrinking workforce.
Butt described an ideal news story as one that has “good stuff, great characters, an interesting story, and a call to action.” “If I find a good story and put it on television, the web, a podcast, people will watch it,” said Butt. “That will never change.”
Rahn agreed, and she shared insight into grabbing her attention at the newsdesk. “Some stories may be great on paper, but not on television,” she said. “Send me interesting visual stories.”
Looking forward to it! BPRC rocks.
Laura Smitherman to be named new business editor?
Does anyone know if AP’s Ben Nuckols was also let go?
I’m a little late getting back to you on this, but I believe he is still there.
Bill, for those of us not on Facebook, does Liz indicate when this is effective?
Yes I can confirm Ben Nuckols is still with AP as I was at a regional PIO meeting the other day where he was speaking on a panel.
FYI, here’s my latest list of contacts @ the Baltimore AP bureau. If anything is outdated, changes are welcomed!
1. Ben Nuckols – bnuckols@ap.org
2. Alex Dominguez – adominguez@ap.org
3. Brian Witte – bwitte@ap.org
4. Kasey Jones – kjones@ap.org (Night Supervisor)
5. Rob Carr (Photographer) – rcarr@ap.org
* Sara Brumfield is working out of AP’s D.C. office temporarily.
sbrumfield@ap.org