President's Message
President's Message
September 20, 2007
This will be an exciting year for CPRS Nova Scotia as we get ready to host the 2008 National Conference in Halifax next June. Members and non-members alike will have an opportunity to take in the best in professional development and public relations networking.
It has been 15 years since Halifax hosted the national conference and delegates in Edmonton last June were expressing a pent-up desire to visit the Nova Scotia capital. Many said they would bring their families and stay a few extra days.
The national conference will shine a spotlight on Halifax and the Nova Scotia chapter, so your provincial board felt it was time to revamp the chapter's web site. We are very grateful to Daphne Ross Sleigh of W3 Internet Services Ltd., Halifax (http://www.w3internet.com/) for the terrific new design. Our new web administrator, Steven Chase, is a welcome addition to the board this year.
As you might expect, hosting a national conference takes a lot of work and demands a lot of our attention. With that in mind, and the desire to develop a first class conference, we have had to make some changes this year. While we normally hold a professional development session almost every month in the fall, winter and spring, this year will see a reduced number. It's our belief that the reduction will be more than made up by the high number of quality professional development sessions presented at the national conference.
We have also decided to postpone our major annual event, the Atlantic Gemstones, for this year only. The popular public relations awards program will return in 2008. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to submit their entries to the CPRS Awards Program (http://www.cprs.ca/Awards/e_awards.htm) so we can have lots of Atlantic Canada winners to celebrate at the national conference.
Your 2007-08 CPRS Nova Scotia volunteer board is a great mix of experienced and new members. Returning for yet another year is Pat Brownlow, responsible for finances and sponsorship. Heather Deighan returns to the board after a maternity leave to help Pat with the sponsorship portfolio. Also returning are Mary Barker, APR, LM, Honorary Fellow as archivist and Rob Batherson in the PR for PR portfolio. Hedi MacDonald is back as secretary and Sarah Moses will again guide the education portfolio. Matt Currie joins Sarah in the education portfolio after serving as a student representative. Denise Corra, APR chairs the accreditation portfolio while Angela Murray moves from PD to become vice-president. Past president Donna Christopher will help with the PD portfolio. Janet Gallant returns as CNW representative (ex-officio).
Joining the board this year are Cindy Bayers, APR who will help with the PR for PR portfolio. Steve Chase, as mentioned earlier, will be our new web administrator. Hope Rudolph joins us to manage the membership portfolio and Erin Esiyok wil be a student representative.
I also want to sincerely thank those who have volunteered their time and talent to the board during the past year: Len Canfield APR, Debbie Buott, Jennifer Delorey-Lyons, Hugh Fraser, Trish Smith, John Muir, Sarah Woods, Ron Zima, Allison Gerrard and Mark Sears-Gamache.
And a special mention to Peter Spurway, past president of CPRS Nova Scotia and who recently retired from CPRS after serving on the national board. Thank you Peter and thanks for agreeing to be the master of ceremonies at the national conference in Halifax.
I will be providing regular updates on both the board activities and planning for the national conference. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss something about CPRS NS or the national conference.
Cheers
Tom Peck, APR
President
