October 2020 President’s Message
Dear NCC Members and Colleagues:
As we move into the final quarter of the year, I want to center this October message around the unity and progress occurring among our professional community.
The PRSA National Capital Chapter (NCC) is fortunate to have a large, talented and diverse membership. The chapter has long had an active cadre of volunteers. Though, in my nearly 12 years of membership with the NCC, I have never been more impressed with the dedication and selflessness of our members than I have in a year like 2020.
From caring for and educating children at home while maintaining a full-time job, to experiencing illnesses, lost jobs and the passing of family members, our chapter volunteers have endured significant challenges. Even still, we have stayed committed to advancing and giving back to the profession – coming together in diminished windows of free time to bring ideas to the table and bring them to life. The result is that we are on track to achieve, and possibly even exceed, several of our objectives and priorities for the year, and with a healthy financial status to continue serving our members in the future.
Some of those priorities were shared in my June message. However, in light of October being PRSA Diversity and Inclusion Month, I want to focus specifically on the actions I promised you in our Commitment to Action and Accountability Statement.
While fostering an inclusive environment of diverse professionals has been an emphasis all year, I am pleased to share just a few of the actions we have already taken to uphold our commitment to do more:
- NCC has brought an even greater diversity of voices and expertise to members through our events and our blog. This includes increasing access to many of those events by offering them free to members, with “PR’s Role in Advancing Diversity and Inclusion” up next on Oct. 23.
- We enhanced our focus on building a more diverse leadership pipeline for the NCC by reviewing and improving our Nomination Committee composition, and our leadership candidate recruitment and election process.
- We donated $250 to the PRSA Endowed Multicultural Scholarship, a program that provides scholarships to diverse students studying public relations and communications.
- We will soon announce a brand new NCC program to help new professionals of diverse backgrounds access professional development and networking opportunities.
- And, we are actively engaged in a review of our 2020-2022 strategic plan (Executive Summary) to further embed diversity, equity and inclusion into our chapter.
Additional actions and plans are in place as well, and we are well on our way to laying the groundwork for sustainable change that will endure in the years to come.
This progress is only possible through unity, collaboration, passion and dedication. I am proud to share these accomplishments and to continue leading and serving our chapter alongside our stellar volunteers in these remaining months.
Lisa Kiefer
President, PRSA National Capital Chapter