Applications for the 2019 - 2020 UA PRSSA executive board are officially open! Below is some brief information about each of the positions on the board. If you want to know more about a specific position, feel free to reach out to the board member who currently holds that position.
Name: Alyssa Comins
Position duties: Manage the executive board, lead chapter meetings, collaborate with Vice President to plan chapter programming, maintain communication with regional ambassador/National Committee
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Strong time management, public speaking, ability to manage others
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 4 to 5 hours per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Use the summer to get most of your planning done; getting organized before school starts makes everything better.
Name: Anna Claire Toxey
Position duties: Plan speakers for all Chapter meeting and Lunch & Learns, assist president with various tasks when necessary, oversee Teahan Award submission process, assist executive board members with initiatives when necessary
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Good time management, strong interpersonal skills/ability to network with industry professionals
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 3.5 hours a week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Be sure to utilize your resources such as professors, alumni databases, etc. when planning Chapter meetings. A lot of professors have great suggestions for potential speakers, so be sure to seek out advice when planning Chapter meetings.
Name: Makayla Williams and Gloris Trujillo
Position title: Co-VP of Diversity and Inclusion
Position duties: implementation and creation of diversity and inclusion initiatives for the Chapter, liaison between Chapter and campus organization (Safe Zone, Law School Diversity and Inclusion office, Business School D&I Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion UA), promote the importance of diversity and inclusion in the PR industry and create a welcoming environment for everyone who would like to join the chapter.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Be organized, a good team player, good time management skills, good writing skills and be creative to be able to develop interesting content and initiatives around these topics to create awareness and interest among college students, faculty, staff and industry professionals.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 3-4 hours per week.
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Connect with other professionals in the industry who are working around diversity and inclusion topics, maintain and create new relationships with organizations and events around campus to have the opportunity to create diverse experiences for the chapter.
Name: Elizabeth Summers
Position duties: Creation and implementation of a communications plan targeted toward recruiting diverse, dues-paying members; Manage the membership committee; Manage chapter funds; Submit dues to National PRSSA
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Organized, Detail-oriented, Effective communicator, Take initiative, Time management skills
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 2-3 hours/ week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Use your planner and always make reminders! This job requires you to be extremely organized and detail-oriented. Create a strong relationship with your committee and utilize them. Always start tasks early to prepare for unknown things that may come up. Always stay in communication with your fellow exec members!
Name: Halle Russo
Position duties: Send weekly emails to the Chapter through MailChimp, respond to any emails sent to uaprssa@gmail.com (or direct them to the appropriate person), create content for and distribute the alumni newsletter (3x per year), develop a content calendar for UA PRSSA’s LinkedIn, post to LinkedIn, alumni outreach as needed for LinkedIn content and the alumni newsletter
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? You must be able to write well (meaning that you need to have great grammar skills, be able to articulate your thoughts clearly and concisely, and know AP Style). You need to be able to bring creativity into your writing (especially for LinkedIn), and you must be willing to take on projects outside of your “job description.” Finally, you must have good time management and organizational skills as you need to keep up with what is going on with every other VP in order to accurately relay information to the Chapter.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 2-4 hours per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Keep a running list of everything going on in PRSSA somewhere on your computer so you don’t forget to include anything in weekly emails and set aside time each Sunday to draft the email for the week. Also, challenge yourself to get more creative with this position: think about how we can better communicate with our Chapter to increase attendance at events, how we can amplify our LinkedIn presence, and how we can better connect with our outstanding alumni network.
Name: Heather Griffith
Position Duties: Routinely update the UA PRSSA website, including frequently posting blogs and internship opportunities. Monitor the success of the website via Google Analytics and find new ways to engage members via the website.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Being organized is a key quality. You will receive emails with website updates from the president and VP of publications frequently and it's important to make these updates in a timely manner. Having a basic understanding of how to work Wix is also a huge advantage. Wix is fairly user-friendly but having some prior knowledge will help you get a running start.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 2-3 hours per week.
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Pay attention to the emails sent from the president and make the updates right away otherwise things will start to feel overwhelming. Take advantage of Google Analytics and learn how to use it well. This will help you recognize which areas of the website need improvement and will allow you to create more effective initiatives.
Name: Katrina Waelchli
Position duties: Create content for Instagram, Twitter and Facebook through continuously engaging with our community members, utilizing our voice and leveraging our digital presence.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Time management, creativity and open-mindedness. It takes a lot of time and diligence to create content for several platforms, utilize the proper voice and understand how to appropriately reach an audience. Therefore, you must obtain exquisite time management skills to handle creating and posting of content, creativity to always been renovating the digital tools and keeping an open mind to what does and doesn’t work.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 5 hrs per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Be consistent with the social media brand because it allows for cohesiveness among all platforms. Also, actively seek out feedback on how to improve the effectiveness of social media — the digital landscape is always evolving and it can be tricky sometimes to know how to properly serve an audience in an effective way.
Name: Julia Landon
Position duties: Fundraising planning and management, committee management
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well?: You have to be a strong leader and collaborator, be good with timelines and deadlines, be able to think on your feet and coordinate with multiple people.
How much time did you dedicate to this position?: 2 hours per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position?: Set your deadlines and stick to them. Be sure to allow wiggle room for everything because things will fall through and classes will get in the way, but if you plan early, these issues can be remedied. Utilize your committee.
Name: Anna Jones
Position duties: Create content for and distribute the bi-weekly Chapter newsletter; Upload at least one blog post per week to the Chapter blog; Assist publications committee and executive board members in brainstorming topics for their blogs; organize Write Nite each semester
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? You must be organized, detail-oriented and have strong time-management skills. You will write a lot in this position; therefore, you need to have a strong knowledge of AP style and grammatical skills. You also will need strong written and verbal communication skills, because you have to communicate with other VPs in the Chapter for information that needs to be put in the newsletter.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 1-2 hours a week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Be sure to write your deadlines down in your calendar or in your planner in order to stay on top of your deadlines. Set up a spreadsheet with where you are at in the approval process with blogs. Plan for Write Nite at least two months in advance, and plan it somewhere where the technology is already set up for you (I know this is silly, but I am dead serious).
Name: Olivia Lake
Position duties: Peer mentorship program, professional development (conferences, agency tours, leadership workshops) for members.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well?: Professionalism and time management.
How much time did you dedicate to this position?: 2 hours per week.
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position?: Stay on top of things and take advantage of the school breaks to plan out what you’d like to accomplish over the course of the semester.
Name: Noah Avery Greene
Position duties: Partnering with nonprofit organizations to help bolster their communications programs and tools. Educating high school students about the public relations industry and career opportunities. All of this is done to give PRSSA students valuable communications experience while also making positive connections with the Tuscaloosa community.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? Patience (a single initiative may take two or three months from inception to completion), passion for strengthening organizations in Tuscaloosa.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 3 hours per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Clearly define your initiatives’ goals and intent. Try to make initiatives sustainable. Less is more. Completing 10 projects by the end of the year may sound nice, but so can six, especially if they were well executed. You should also keep in mind that your volunteers are usually college students and every initiative takes at least some people power. For students who have multiple commitments, getting them to participate can sometimes be difficult.
Name: Emily Hillhouse
Position title: VP of Promotions
Position duties: Promote the Chapter and Chapter opportunities by designing and distributing posters for Chapter meetings, and writing press releases for Chapter accomplishments.
What qualities or characteristics does it take to do your position well? You must be organized, a big-picture thinker, creative and a good writer.
How much time did you dedicate to this position? 1-2 hours per week
What advice would you give to the next person to take on your position? Make a sheet of all Chapter dates and meeting speakers to keep handy so you don’t miss anything.