Barbados' Business Communicators Board 2008

VP Administration, Petal Barclay Smith; VP Professional Development, Richard Thomas; Executive Vice President, Pamala Proverbs; President, Christal P. McIntosh; VP Membership/ Marketing, Cliona Donohue; VP Finance, Fay Best; and VP Communications, Lynette G. Taylor. (Photo compliments PBS Communications)

Hello IABC

Well we have made the first step! After a successful meeting of a good mix of Barbados' pr stalwarts, mid-career professionals, newbies, and individuals interested in the profession, a board of management have been chosen to do the work to get the Barbados Chapter of IABC off the ground.

Judette Coward-Puglisi, president of IABC Trinidad and Tobago did a fantastic job telling of the Trinidad experience and helping to guide the meeting into making solid choices for the vacant board positions. She told the communicators that her chapter was founded on the principle of the 3 Cs - Content, connections and credibility. She said that Trinidad's membership of 80 in the first instance had grown in two years to about 370 and that the Chapter was actively podcasting, blogging, hosting a website, conducting conferences and ongoing educational forums for members. The Chapter had also received a "Certificate of Excellence" from IABC for its outstanding performance.

Judette spoke of some of the common universal concerns of pr persons which helped forged the backbone of her Chapter's coming together - 1. CEO not valuing our work 2. Building relationships with the media and forming a body to bridge the gap. 3. The issue of measuring ROI and 4. Accreditation.

At that end of the night yours throughly had become the Executive Vice President and President Elect. Our good friend Christal Mc Intosh who was mentioned in the earlier post is the President. Other members of the executive are:

• Petal Barclay-Smith - VP Administration
• Lynette Taylor -VP Communications
• Cliona Donohue - VP Marketing/ Membership
• Fay Best - VP Finance
• Richard Thomas - VP Professional Development
• Vicki Olton -Co-VP Professional Development

The board has its first meeting on Wednesday.

A New PR Chapter In Barbados

T.S. Elliott referred to April as being the cruelest month. He probably was a Bajan hotelier because April signals the end of the booming winter season and the start of the low occupancy period for hotels. April however for the rest of the world is a glorious month ushering in spring - flowers, butterflies and all things bright and beautiful.

For pr professionals in Barbados April also brought great news. The online community which had been gathering for the last six months or so will finally be meeting. The community was occupied for a long time with which international association it should align itself to, PRSA or IABC.

As a member of both organisations for a very long time, I felt the topic did not need much discussion it needed a decision. Both organisations give great value to members, it is really a question of preference. I maybe a little bias towards PRSA, being an accredited member and the only person in this part of the region with the APR for the last six years.

At one stage when my good friend Cheryl Procter-Rogers was president of PRSA I had flirted with the idea of establishing a chapter in Barbados. All the materials were sent to me and I passed them on to another professional but I was knee deep in a MBA and she was a new mother, at a tender stage in a very big organisation. All our good intentions remained just that.

I was delighted to see Christal McIntosh, full of youthful zeal and clearly a web 2.0 junkie leading a serious discussion on the Internet encouraging local professionals to gather. I immediately offered her my full backing although I warned her that having just launched my own company my time would be limited. Of course if you know Christal you would know that this was no deterrent and she is somehow able to squeeze every ounce of advice and work out of me.

The inaugural meeting will be held on Thursday May 8 at 6pm at the Small Business Development Centre on Fontabelle. Judette Coward, the Chapter President of IABC Trinidad will be on the island to tell of the T&T experience and to give us some advice on starting the chapter. Judettte, like Christal, was responsible for the formation of that chapter. Christal has also sought the help of IABC International and has received a lot of support from that organisation to facilitate the first meeting. All business communicators are invited.

Can anyone guess which organisation Barbados will be going with?