Positive News in the Waning Hours of April PRSA APR Month

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

Perhaps it’s just an anecdotal observation, but it’s certainly possible that the work-from-home phenomenon driven primarily by the two-plus year COVID-19 pandemic may have provided the impetus for some in the public relations profession to carve out the time and take on the challenge of earning the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) credential.

Here are two factors that have helped me come to this conclusion.

1. Over the past 24 or so months, by my count five members of my local chapter — PRSA Chicago — were successful in earning the APR — three during the past six months! One, who holds a top position with a leading local PR agency, noted that hunkering down at home rather than making the daily trip to the office was, indeed, a factor that led to completing the Accreditation program.
   
   
2. The annual number of professionals earning the APR (and APR+M, the credential for military communicators) has remained relatively steady (by my sort of quick count) over the past five years at around 150. Visit the Recently Granted Accreditation archives page for details.  My assumption here is that even with new factors brought on by working remotely — child care and binge-watching programs on Netflix, for example — those committed to Accreditation continued to recognize its value.

With just hours left in April, which PRSA dedicates as APR Month, I remain passionate and positive about Accreditation and applaud all who balance the the APR challenge between work, home, and pleasure.

And, let me put the proverbial spotlight on the three PRSA Chicago members who were granted the designation since last fall:

• Lindsey Nemcek, APR
• Elizabeth Chentland, APR
• Bridgette Russell, APR

My sincere congratulations to these three outstanding communicators. 

On a related note, at a recent PRSA Chicago reception, I learned that three other members — including a past Chapter president and current board member — were advancing their individual APR programs.  Another member is progressing with the APR Online Study Course and plans to sit for the Panel Presentation in the months ahead.

It’s conceivable there will be four new Chicago-based APRs by year’s end!

Want another example of my commitment to Accreditation? Read this PRSA Tactics article I wrote way back in April of 2010 on APR programs then offered by nine Chapters representing communicators in markets across the nation.  Want one more?  Here’s a PRDude 2018 post, one of four other posts I’ve written on ARP Month.

It’s clear that the global health crisis altered the lives of just about everyone. Yet, as I’ve attempted to demonstrate here, COVID-19 did not dissuade some communicators from pursuing what’s arguably the public relations profession foremost personal achievement.

Pleased to finally meet Bridgette Russell, APR, in person at the PRSA Chicago April 28 reception.

Beyond the ISU Vidette: A Q & A with Kevin R. Petschow

Kevin and daughter Madeline, also a public relations professional, at the March 26 Vidette Hall of Fame reception at Illinois State University in Normal.

By Edward M. Bury, APR, MA (aka The PRDude)

One tangible benefit of being a member of an organization is the opportunity to meet new people. Through my membership in PRSA Chicago, I had the pleasure a few years ago to meet Kevin R. Petschow, a senior-level communicator who cultivated a very successful career with some of the world’s foremost telecommunications firms. Like many modern public relations professionals (myself included), Kevin was a journalist before making the transition.  Here’s Kevin’s story.

1. We have three things in common: We are Illinois State University alumni, we both wrote for the ISU Vidette newspaper, and we transitioned to public relations. What inspired you to make public relations a career?

What inspired me to make public relations my career is more about what job opportunities were available when I graduated from ISU. Our country was in a recession and I had only three job offers, two were to serve as a sports journalist for small newspapers in Salina, Kansas, and Covington, Kentucky. The other was an opportunity to work for my Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at its national headquarters in Champaign, Illinois, which I gladly accepted. It afforded me the opportunity to work part-time as a sportswriter for The Champaign News-Gazette under the tutelage of the great Loren Tate, sports editor.

Those three years in Champaign were awesome. After that, I returned to Chicago and the rest as they say is history … in the field of public relations having served for some of the world’s most well known and unknown brands and names in the telecommunications and technology industries including GTE, Sprint, 3Com, Cisco Systems, Heartland Payment Systems, Aeris Communications, and now Syniverse, the world’s most connected company. 

2. For the past three-plus years, you’ve held the position of Senior Director Global Corporate Communications at Syniverse in Tampa, Florida. What prompted you to take on this position and move from Chicago to the Sunshine State – besides leaving Chicago winters behind?

What prompted me to leave my home state of Illinois and the Chicago area was the exciting opportunity to become a member of Syniverse and help elevate the company’s name and brand among mobile operators and Forbes Global 2000 enterprises around the world. Syniverse is truly the heart of the mobile ecosystem and without it, you and I would not be able to accomplish many of the things we do everyday with our mobile Internet devices and applications.

The move to the Sunshine Coast afforded me the opportunity to shovel lots of sunshine and no longer any snow.  I am an avid golfer so Tampa offers me the opportunity to play year-round. I played golf for the first time in my life on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days in Tampa. What can I say, I’m addicted to the “greatest game ever played.”

3. Your current position with Syniverse apparently requires great knowledge and insight into telecommunications. Where did you gain this kind of technological experience?

I gained my knowledge and insight by surrounding myself with some of the smartest minds, sharpest talent and innovative technologists at numerous companies including GTE, Centel Cellular, Sprint Cellular, Ameritech Cellular, Nextel Communications, MobileStar Network, 3Com, CommWorks, Cisco Systems and now Syniverse. I had the opportunity to work with and collaborate with some of the most forward-looking visionaries including Jack Goeken, who invented GTE Airfone, the world’s first air-to-ground telephone service, to Dr. Martin Cooper, who invented cellular technology, to John Chapman and Kip Compton, two innovators of cable and video technologies for Cisco, to the late Jack Rooney, former president of Ameritech Cellular, who I worked with to launch the American Cellular Patrol program in the 1990s that brought together mobile services with police departments and neighborhood watch groups in 20 Midwestern cities. The program was so popular that former President Bill Clinton and his White House staff approached me and others on my team to help them implement a similar program in the District of Columbia. 

4. Let’s shift to the future of the profession. If you were providing guidance to a young person interested in public relations, what advice would you offer?

My advice centers around three important tenets that involves performing as a business person, first, and a public relations professional, second. What I mean by that is that you have to understand your business and its business and financial objectives before you implement your public relations strategies and tactics. 

The three tenets are: 1) Be a sponge and take in as much information and data as your brain will allow each day. Read as much as you can. Read with an intent to use it, share it and formulate ideas to solve problems and drive action. 2) Be a problem solver. That is what public relations is all about at its core. 3) Manage expectations with grace, humility and style. Managing your manager, CEO, co-workers, customers, and even your family and friends is important because it allows you to add value for them and yourself.

5. Now, back to the Vidette. On March 26, you were inducted into the Vidette Hall of Fame class of 2022. Congratulations! Please share an anecdote on how writing for the Vidette proved valuable to your career.

My three years of working for The Vidette provided me with many transferable skills that I continue to use today in my professional and personal life. Those skills are: 1) Ability to communicate effectively in writing and verbally. I had the good fortune to serve as sports editor of The Vidette and sports director of WILN (now WZND), which allowed me to hone my writing and verbal communications skills and give me the confidence I need to be successful in my career. 2) Ability to work under deadline pressure and manage my time effectively. I still love writing with a deadline. I wrote my speech for my Vidette Hall of Fame induction in one day. Truth is I had two years to think about it thanks to a postponement due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.  3) Ability to serve as a leader and use my leadership skills in overseeing a team of co-workers. I find leadership such an important skill and continue to mentor college students today through associations with my fraternity, The Vidette, and the School of Communications at ISU.

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NOTE: Kevin began his studies at ISU a year after I had graduated. But if we had been on campus at the same time, it’s a good bet we would have hoisted one (or two) at Pub II and enjoyed a conversation following a Gondola at Avanti’s.

Kevin (right) at the reception with Vidette General Manager John Plevka and fellow inductees Anna Frazier and Jason Piscia. Not shown: Inductee Mick Hubert.