A Year in Review from CPRS President Vincent Power

This is an interesting time of year for someone like me. I refer to myself as a “summer person”, and here we are counting down the days to the beginning of Winter and the darkest day of the year, December 21 BUT here’s the bright side, on December 22 the days start to get longer! Every day following gives us two or three more minutes of daylight until we get back to Summer once again. It truly is the season of hope.

The season of hope.

I hope you all have a happy Holiday season. I hope the new year brings you and your families many good things.  I hope you know that if you are a volunteer with CPRS your work is very much appreciated, and Society is more successful with you.  I hope you have felt that being a member can be very rewarding.  I hope you find a way to get as involved with CPRS as you want to in 2023. I hope you can make it to “Elevate”, our national conference in Whistler in early June, and I hope I get to meet you there.

As we end the year, it’s a good time to look back on what has happened over the past twelve months and reflect on our accomplishments as we look forward to a prosperous 2023. Here are some of the highlights from 2022:

• We welcomed new national Executive Director Sara Rafuse to the Society who has already proven to be a capable leader for our organization 

• Redstone Agency was selected as our association management partner and under the direction of Operations Manager Larissa Johnston has managed the National Office providing services to CPRS members across Canada 

• Our first in-person National Conference themed “At the Heart” was held in Winnipeg giving many members the opportunity to rekindle friendships with colleagues that we couldn’t be with for over two years and concluding with the much-missed Awards of Excellence Gala 

• We held our March is Membership Month promotion and we conducted our first Membership survey since 2019, thanks to National Partner Leger, to gauge the sentiments of our members and take appropriate actions; the results were shared at the September 21 Annual General Meeting 

• The CPRS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force concluded its first full year and its work continues to remove barriers and provide equitable opportunities for all members to participate fully in their profession and in their professional association at all levels. 

• An official stand to help eliminate unpaid internships was communicated to all members 

• A new virtually-based mentorship program was launched in the fall with its first group of 40 protégées and mentors being paired 

• Four Task Forces were launched aimed at reimagining professional development, enhancing elements of the accreditation program, marketing the Society and determining how best to conduct national conferences in the future. 

• The establishment of “Giving Season” in November culminating with Giving Day on November 29 to highlight the work of the CPRS Foundation and the scholarships it provides in the PR and Communications learning arena and to help promote donations to our fundraising arm (still not too late to donate for 2022 at www.cprsfoundation.ca) 

Thank you to all our volunteers, staff and sponsors who make the operation of the Society possible.  Happy New Year to you all! 
 

Vincent Power 

CPRS National President