Hello Members --
In case you were unable to make the Quotes meeting this week, here’s a recap of all the fun that took place!
We began the meeting with elections for our two vacant board positions, president-elect and director of advertising.
Dana Bakich won as president-elect, and that’s no surprise! Dana presented in a way no one has ever done before at Quotes – she brought in different objects that represented her personality. She showed a football for her love of sports, concert tickets for her love of music, and a FPRA Conference pamphlet because of her passion for Quotes. Dana is currently the external director of Knight-Thon, the largest fundraising club at UCF. She is also interning with UCF Athletics, and aspires to intern for the Orlando Magic in the community relations department. Dana will be shadowing Michelle Khouri, Quotes president, throughout the coming year and will then transition as president of Quotes next year.
We had two candidates for the director of advertising position, Hillery Brooks and Charlene Ruhge. Charlene was unable to be at the meeting this week, but sent in a biography including all of her qualifications. Both candidates were very well suited for the position. Ultimately, though, Hillery won the election and is now officially your new director of advertising! She has a focus in graphic design and has been working with Photoshop and Illustrator for several years. Hillery just completed a year-long internship at a PR firm. Hillery will be the mastermind behind the flyers and other promotional collateral for Quotes you’ll see around UCF.
Congratulations again and welcome to the board, Dana and Hillery!
After announcing our board members, we switched gears and welcomed Laura Guitar, senior vice president of Edelman Orlando. Laura started off by explaining how she worked her way up in PR and how she eventually, with her colleague Lori Kifer, opened the Orlando office of the global PR agency, Edelman.
She gave insight into the fast-paced world of agency PR and the culture of the Edelman network. Here are some of the points she touched on:
- The biggest change happening right now in PR is a shift toward focusing on public engagement. We must talk with consumers, not at them.
- We are all aware of the growing popularity of social media as a PR tool, but we need to realize that it is a channel, not a strategy in itself. We must use it to our advantage – not use it as a crutch.
- PR used to be focused on output (writing news releases, accumulating media hits, etc.); now, it’s becoming more geared toward behavior change. PR practitioners have to be more accountable for producing real results.
Laura then spent time during her presentation answering questions we had about Edelman, agency PR and the field in general. Here are a few highlights from the Q & A:
- When hiring new employees and interns, Laura looks for prospects that have a deep intellectual curiosity about a variety of things, not just PR.
- You must bring fresh ideas to the table and be passionate about whatever you’re working on.
- You’ll be more successful if you gain an entrepreneurial vantage point – get to know the finance and legal team and really understand how the business works.
- There’s no particular type of PR person. You just have to figure out what niche of PR you’re best suited for.
- Critical thinking and offering fresh ideas are a must to make it in agency PR!
Laura finished off her presentation with an invitation to send in your resume to intern at Edelman. See previous blog post for more details.
Be sure to come out to our next meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 13. Grant Heston, assistant vice president of UCF News and Information will be there to discuss how UCF introduced the new tailgating policies and managed the issues surrounding their introduction. The meeting is all about UCF pride, being the Tuesday before the big game against the University of Miami, so be sure to wear your black and gold!
See you at the next meeting!
Masha Murakhovsky & Julie Primrose
