Last April, during a trip to South Africa in Johannesburg, I visited the headquarters of PRISA (Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa) where I received a nice welcome and I had the opportunity to make a stimulating exchange of ideas with Susan Richardson, National secretary, Margaret Moscardi, former chief executive officer now retired, and Adele Paulsen, executive director (pictured from left to right). The PRISA, founded in 1957, is the principal association of the African continent to which they adhere colleagues / and companies and communication agencies, freelancers, academics, the central government and local media experts to Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa and as I understand it this year also Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The President is Victor Sibeko referenced Ronel Rensburg as vice president of the University of Pretoria and a board of 19 members including representatives of the regions, states and the associated representative elected by the shareholders consultants. Currently, members are more than a thousand, and most are women. PRISA membership does not require any examination but only one interview for the verification of the studies and work experience carried out. Members have 6 levels of integration ranging from Students against APR (Accredited in Public Relations) and the ability to program Continuining Processing Development "to move from one level to another over the years. The registration fee is 137 Euros in the first year, 120 € for the following years. For students is € 25 and € 30 for pensioners. The association is managed by the friendly Adele Paulsen, executive director, who coordinates four full-time employees and 4 part-time (by the way all women). The PRISA is housed in a villa he owned in a beautiful park which it shares with the Provox (Centre for Public relations & communication), a company that was similar to our Ferpi Services. Provox nellambito offers communication training programs at different levels (students, beginners, experts, managers) training courses in various specializations (media and investor relations, crisis communication, etc.) and the opportunity to graduate in public relations after three years of studies and 600 hours of practical experience in business. All activities are accredited by the Provox at government level. The PRISA has a well structured website
http://www.prisa.co.za/ . where it uses all the tools of Web 2.0 (Twitter, YouTube, Social media, newsletters, etc.), publishes a magazine ComuniKA directed by Margaret Moscardi, plus pamphlets mainly oriented training. Each year, in addition to corporate events, national and regional assemblies, which organizes the Prism Awards are awarded to the best campaigns in the various categories (eg Investor Relations, Crisis Communication, Internal Communication, Public affairs, media relations etc. ..). Also regularly gives, on the recommendation of the President, "President's Awards" to the member or that has best helped to enhance the association and was awarded the PRISA Gold Medal "in the world famous South Africans, for example, Christiaan Barnard in 1968 and Nelson Mandela in 1996. The perception that I had is that in South Africa, our profession is held so dear with the contribution of established college / ia internationally as the aforementioned Margaret Moscardi, and Prof. Ronel Rensburg. Mervyn King, author of one of the King Report documents the most influential in terms of governance, that the next PR Forum in Stockholm is one of the key note speakers with a speech entitled "Stakeholders relationship in the new economy."
