by Lakota Lackey
“What is PRSSA?” “Why should I join?” “How will it help me?” “What do they offer?” “Is it worth my time?” “Is it fun?” “Is it an acronym or is it pronounced PURSE-uh?” In this post, I’m going to answer all of those questions and more (it is an acronym by the way). In May of 2021, I received an email informing me that I was accepted for the role of Vice President of Member Services for the University of Northern Iowa’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter. Or, more simply, VP of Member Services for UNI PRSSA. After being involved with the student organization for a little over a year, I was ecstatic to be able to serve on the executive board! I eagerly anticipated the team I would be a part of and the duties I would fulfill in the coming school year. What I didn’t realize at the time was how little I actually knew and how much I needed to learn in order to faithfully serve our members. In the summer leading up to the fall semester, I did my research and can now confidently share all that PRSSA has to offer. There are so many opportunities offered by PRSSA, but I am going to highlight and explain the benefits I feel are most important to maximizing your potential. General Member Benefits Our general member meetings offer the opportunity to connect with real industry professionals who speak on their experience in the industry and give insight on how to succeed after college. Attending meetings regularly is one of the greatest ways to grow as a pre-professional. For one of our members in the fall 2021 semester, attending a meeting and asking one question allowed him to connect with a speaker and be offered a job interview. This goes to show how simply being involved could lead you to your future career! General member meetings are something that we as an executive board plan for our members, but before expanding on what benefits our chapter offers, let me share a little about the benefits we receive from PRSSA National. PRSSA National Benefits PRSSA has many chapters on college campuses across the country, and a National Committee which oversees them all. One spectacular opportunity programmed by PRSSA are their annual international conference (ICON) and district conferences. ICON happens in the fall each year and is held in cities across the country, some notable places of the past being San Francisco, New York City, and Orlando. District conferences happen in the spring and are hosted by a PRSSA chapter within our Midwest District. This year’s Midwest District conference is hosted by DePaul University in Chicago, but has been moved virtually due to the pandemic. Both conferences are amazing opportunities to network with professionals and fellow students from across the country, learn from industry leaders through breakout sessions, and have fun with our chapter! There are also many hands-on and leadership opportunities to take advantage of. Similar to our Chapter’s blog (which I will expand on later), you can write for PRSSA’s national blog, PRogressions. Good writers are what every hiring manager in our industry wants to see, and this is a great way to develop and show off your skills! You can also make connections and gain experience by being involved with a national subcommittee: The Publications Committee assists with publications for PRSSA, the PRoud Council facilitates diversity and inclusion initiatives, and the Social Media Squad helps promote the voice and brand of PRSSA. A great way to gain leadership experience and expand your network is by becoming a District Ambassador. These student leaders act as a liaison between Chapters and the National Committee by helping Chapters within their district grow in membership and strengthen their offerings. UNI PRSSA Benefits Becoming a dues-paying UNI PRSSA member makes you eligible for an array of benefits: you receive a member gift every semester, you are granted access to our recorded Zoom meetings and our private Facebook group, and you have the opportunity to be featured on our website and social media. There are so many amazing opportunities offered by our chapter, and I want to touch on a few which I believe are most beneficial. The first opportunity I want to talk about is publishing. One way to have your work published is by writing for our blog, Setting PRecedents. As the person who oversees our blog, I will tell you that writing for Setting PRecedents is the greatest way to develop your writing skills! You can also write for our bi-annual newsletter, The PRogressor, and if you would like to share or develop your creative side, you can design for the newsletter as well. Graphic design is a skill that is growing in necessity within our industry, which makes this a great opportunity for growth. Next, I want to highlight our special events, some of which are our socials. These are held in place of general member meetings and happen randomly throughout the semester. They are a fun time to get together and grow closer as a Chapter. Another event put on by the executive board are our end-of-semester banquets. This is a time for us to celebrate the Chapter’s accomplishments, eat a fancy meal, and hand out member awards and prizes. My favorite event of every semester, however, are our agency tours. We plan a trip where we get to visit many different organizations we could one day be working for. In the past, we have toured Two Rivers Marketing, White Willow Events, and the Des Moines Buccaneers to name a few. Being able to envision my future, speak to professionals in their workplace, and have a blast with my fellow members has always been such a wonderful experience. Finally, I want to share about our leadership opportunities. As a member of the executive board, I can tell you that there is so much professional development that comes from serving our Chapter. All of our dues-paying members have the opportunity to apply for the executive board for the next academic year and sometimes for particular positions at the end of the fall semester. All of the benefits I described above are worked on by the executive board. Each position has different responsibilities, but we all help each other out. We program events, recruit members, create promotional content, plan our semester schedule, run meetings, and so much more. Serving on the executive board looks great on a resume and helps you to grow in more ways than I could put into a blog post. I highly encourage everyone to apply for a position for the coming academic year! Get Involved As you can see, PRSSA has a lot to offer. It’s up to you to take advantage of these opportunities to grow professionally. I guarantee you that if you do, you will be amazed at how much you can grow your potential and maximize the benefits that UNI PRSSA has to offer! Thanks for reading our blog! If you want to learn more about how you can get involved, feel free to leave a comment below!
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