GMM now open to non-members

The General Membership Meeting (GMM) is now officially the “PR Forum & Networking Session”, open to both members and guests.

Newspaper columnist and book author Jullie Yap Daza speaks at this year’s first PR Forum on March 21, Thursday, 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the Hardrock Café in Glorietta, Makati City. She will tell members and non-members, “What I like and don’t like about PR peeps.”

Also featured is a presentation on “80 Years of Petron: PR Practices of an Anvil Hall of Famer”, courtesy of PR Forum sponsor Petron Corporation.

Outgoing PRSP president John Rojo, APR, will be giving his report for the term 2012-2013 while PRSP president Yoly Crisanto, APR will give members and guests an overview of the year ahead.

Make the most of your membership privileges. Join colleagues at the PR Forum, and bring a guest. Members attend for free while guests pay P500.

Members elect new board

Members of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) elected the Society’s new board on January 11. Nineteen members agreed to stand for election and the nine who received the highest number of votes became members of the PRSP board for 2013-2014. Jones T. Campos, APR, chaired the election committee.

At the organizational meeting on January 15, the following were elected as officers: Yoly Crisanto, APR, president; Jika Dalupan, APR, vice president-internal; Barbie L. Atienza, vice president-external; Maricar Bautista, secretary; Claire Papa, treasurer; Lou de Guzman, APR, internal auditor; Joji Banzon, Charmaine Canillas and Bong Osorio, directors. John Rojo, APR, PRSP president for 2012-2013, is now ex-officio member.

The following were invited by the board to serve as advisers: Eduardo S. Alcaraz, APR, Atty. Melvin S. Martin, APR, and Butch S. Raquel, APR.

Meanwhile, Crisanto appointed the chairpersons of various committees, as follows: Banzon for the Finance/Ways and Means; Osorio for the 49th Anvil Awards; Canillas for the 20th PR Congress; Atienza for Programs/General Membership Meetings; De Guzman for Membership; Papa for Professional Development; Bautista for PR Education and Student Affairs; Dalupan for Publications and Publicity; and Crisanto for Accreditation and Ethics.

On its 48th, The Anvil of many “firsts”

By Lourdes S. de Guzman

The 48th Anvil Awards on March 6, 2013 went down in history as the Anvil of many “firsts”.

A record breaker in number of entries, it surpassed last year’s count of 283 by113 more, raising the benchmark to 396.

For the first time, this year, digital campaigns were recognized as a distinct category under PR Programs – on a sustained basis. Likewise, multimedia tools were grouped in a single Multimedia category under PR tools. The criteria for the Anvil’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame Award, were also defined and established.

It was also the first Anvil with Vishnu Mohan, chief executive officer of Havas Media, Asia Pacific, as chairman of the board of jurors. Mohan brought in and contributed his expertise and experience in traditional and digital media, as well as shared the benefits of a regional and global perspective in the judging process.

The board of jurors included information technology specialists, members of academe, bloggers and social media experts, specifically for the new categories of digital campaigns and multimedia tools.

The Anvil recognizes the role of communicators in organizations, in their projects which achieved PR objectives, showed evidence of significant and sustainable impact, and have been proven effective.

The 48th Anvil was the first with full television coverage, as well as live streaming at live.anvil.ph.

Bronze Anvil Awards went to Studio 5 Designs, Inc. (PR Tools – Publications), EON The Stakeholder Relations Firm (PR Tools – Special Events) and Sun Life Financial-Philippines (PR Tools – Multimedia). Petron Corporation was elevated to the Hall of Fame for its Vision Petron Collaterals, which won the Anvil Award of Excellence for the 7th time.