Expand Your Network with BPRSNY, PRSA, NAMIC
and Professional Development Organizations

WANTED! YOUR MEMBERSHIP,COMMITMENT AND KNOWLEDGE

While these are “austere” times, it pays to shore up your professional network and lean on like-minded colleagues who can offer professional support on the path to an encore career or life-changing, wealth-generating revenue stream.

What networks offer

> Insider value
> Innovative career-building techniques
> Industry insight

What you gain

> Access to those in the know
> Admission to circles of power
> Authority to soar with eagles

Understand you get what you pay for. While splurges may be out of the question, make sure your 2009 annual budget includes memberships in professional associations—important building blocks as you solidify the foundation of your personal brand.

For a bargain price of $50 (that’s $4 a month or less than $1 a week), you can join the Black Public Relations Society—New York (www.BPRSNY.org), one of many professional media societies offering prime access to professionals with decades of experience in the communications business. Or, you can spend (or fritter away) more on any given night on cocktails at any Manhattan nightspot—you decide.

For those considering bold moves between the fast-blurring lines of journalism / broadcasting, content development, social marketing, entrepreneurship and brand development, BPRSNY offers a FREE SEMINAR to recharge your career batteries for the new year:

BPRSNY :: Career Transitions
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 :: 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Burson-Marsteller, Inc.
230 Park Avenue South @ 19th Street :: NYC
RSVP > president@bprsny.org

Moderated by Marsha Haygood, President of StepWise Associates LLC and BPRSNY Board of Advisors member, the free symposium will include panelists who have transitioned between journalism and broadcasting to careers in content development, marketing communications, entrepreneurship and other digital disciplines.

According to BlackExperts.com, “StepWise is a premiere career and personal development consultancy with a clear mission: to offer professional and personal guidance to individuals and corporations through coaching, facilitating self exploration, and motivational speaking.”
http://stepwiseassociates.com/

Versatile and well-versed in many fields, Marsha and her team of expert communicators will share techniques to keep you motivated and mobile as you manifest your personal destiny in the PR field and beyond.

Think you have job security? Think again. You may have (thankfully) made it through 4th quarter budget cuts; but the 1st quarter ends March 31—and thousands could get their “marching orders.”

Be prepared and stay one step ahead of the game. Attend BPRSNY’s free career transitions seminar Jan. 27 (www.bprsny.org) and join BPRSNY now! While you’re at it, join a few other professional groups. In the PR profession there’s the Public Relations Society of America (www.prsany.org), National Association of Multiethnicity in Communications (www.namic.com) and the National Alliance of Market Developers (www.namd.org) to name a few.

All are excellent values, help provide career clarity and offer valuable continuing education, training and insight to keep you at the top of your game. While I’m a fulltime professor at The City College of New York (CCNY-CUNY), I serve as BPRSNY VP Programs & Membership and serve on PRSA’s Diversity Committee.

Why? Because despite nearly a 30 year career as a journalist, communications strategist and global marketing executive and college educator, networks still help in my professional growth and development. BPRSNY and PRSA colleagues are among the first I turn with questions or counsel on important projects. And, there’s still a lot of important work to be done as assist colleagues in my Grassroots to Global PR network.

Take your professional development seriously each and every month of this new year!