PR industry body PRIA in ‘turmoil’ as national board resigns en masse
The Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) is facing what senior industry figures have described as “turmoil” following the decision of the national board to resign en masse.
Mumbrella understands the entire board, with the exception of WA representative Katharina Wolf, has stepped down in the wake of last week’s election that saw Mike Watson replace Terri-Helen Gaynor as national president.
Those who have left the PRIA national board are former deputy national president Cara Burke, treasurer Phil Burfurd and former national president Nicolas Turner along with senior industry figures James Wright, Karen Patterson, Kristin Devitt, Leigh McClusky and Sheena Campbell.
New national president Mike Watson this morning attempted to calm the industry telling Mumbrella he was not concerned, despite the mass walkout.
He said: “It is no big deal for us to find ourselves in this situation. As for why some of those board members have resigned I don’t know, but I’m bemused by it. Apart from one or two I’ve spoken with, the rest of them appear to have resigned without reason. This is quite a normal process with change in organisations and there are processes in place.”
Mike Watson
When challenged on this and whether the resignations were unprecedented Watson conceded they were. “There has rarely been an election with more than one candidate and so we’ve not had this situation before,” said Watson.
The organisation is also making efforts to find a new permanent CEO with the interim incumbent Catriona Barry signalling she wishes to step down.
Many senior industry figures Mumbrella spoke to this morning expressed their dismay at what some described as “leadership turmoil” within the peak industry body.
“The place is a basket case. Again,” said one major agency CEO. “It’s only been 18 months since the last round of this and now they have no board, a CEO who wants out and clearly no idea what they are doing.”
“As I understand it, Terri-Helen Gaynor was working hard to fix that place but she’s pissed off the wrong people and now the industry body is in crisis and is going to be worse than it was before,” said another agency boss.
In the aftermath of last week’s extraordinary general meeting, it appears former national president Gaynor and her treasurer Phil Burfurd lost the confidence of key parts of the PRIA membership, with members of the powerful Registered Consultancy Group (RCG) and the PRIA College of Fellows pushing hard for a leadership change.
Terri-Helen Gaynor
Gaynor declined requests for comment, but figures on both sides of the dispute say the key issues behind the leadership challenge were a disagreement with members of the College of Fellows over the College’s involvement in the board, personality disputes with members of the powerful RCG over the PRIA national budget, and the level of consultation with various stakeholders.
When challenged on the reasons for his leadership challenge Watson conceded that the decision of the board to exclude the College of Fellows from board discussion was a key factor in the leadership spill.
“The College of Fellows was formed in 1987, it is the highest level of membership within PRIA and it is an honour to be invited to join the College,” said Watson. “For all those years the College has participated in the board in an ex-officio capacity… Terri-Helen advised me that the participation of the College of Fellows was no longer needed, without reason.”
“(I challenged) for a combination of reasons. One of them was lax governance, what I and others perceived as not reporting back to state and territory divisions all the things going on and giving those people the opportunity to participate,” said Watson.
Allies of Gaynor and Burfurd have disputed all of these charges.
“For anyone to say that PRIA’s finances are in a parlous state or there was lax governance is just wrong,” said one former board member who declined to be named. “(Under Terri-Helen) PRIA has been able to pull back the majority of the loss two years ago and the objective was to be making a profit in 2015.”
Annabelle Warren
Another key issue appears to be a dispute between Annabelle Warren, national chairman of the PRIA registered consultancies group and Burfurd. When asked about this Burfurd declined to comment but Warren denied the allegation: “I have had one conversation with Phil Burfurd in the last 18 months and it was civil. That is completely not the case (that there has been a falling out). I have had nothing to do with Phil Burfurd.”
On the broader board departures Warren confirmed the state bodies would be asked to meet in the coming days to appoint new representatives for the PRIA national board.
“Individuals make individual choices but there are a lot of people who express their support for Mike and who will be working with him,” she added.
Many of the board members Mumbrella contacted declined to comment.
Nic Christensen
I look forward to reading the press release on this.
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Sounds like a PR nightmare
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Please mumbrella check your articles for grammar before posting. There’s no something glaring every day.
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P.S. The spelling mistake was deliberate.
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. Not surprised. Several years ago I was on the board when the RCG (i.e. PR consultants) rolled the then President and other corporate board members. In those days the RCG treated the PRIA like their personal fiefdom, seemingly only involved to pick up clients (who knew). Sounds like nothing has changed. Ho hum. These days I’m a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) which has a global outlook and is run by adults.
Teri-Helen Gaynor replace Mike Watson as national president? Or vice-versa?
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Issues management … Looks like a little media training is required for Watson as this is indeed a ‘big deal’ in the perception stakes
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“Many of the board members Mumbrella contacted declined to comment.”
🙂
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Governance drama aside, the PRIA continues to achieve astounding levels of irrelevance.
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Mumbrella understands the entire board has stepped down in the wake of last week’s election which saw ‘Teri-Helen Gaynor’ replace ‘Mike Watson’ as national president, with the exception of WA representative Katharina Wolf.
Can you please switch it around to read: which saw ‘Mike Watson’ replace Teri-Helen Gaynor’ as national president…
It makes the article a lot easier to understand. 🙂
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First rule of PR: make sure you have the facts right. And correct names, titles and spelling helps.
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Looks like they need some PR and crisis management advice. I wonder if they know who to call?
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A few Individual members of the College of Fellows may have wanted a change of leadership of the PRIA but as a group we took no action. No-one raised the issue of the Presidency with me as a Fellow of six years’ standing and no-one lobbied me in relation to my vote. I think the mass resignations are a knee jerk reaction by those who supported the outgoing President. Either that or it was a colossal dummy spit.
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Yeah I think Watson’s comment “As for why some of those board members have resigned I don’t know, but I’m amused by it” says it all. And he’s the president of the peak body for PR.
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Good point PR Manager (above)
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Lets get real – a few high rollers didn’t unseat the incumbent – it was a huge swing of interest from the general members (including me) to get a more focused and engaged committee and leadership for the Association. The incumbent and her Board simply chose to resign when they realised they were going to be rolled. Perhaps they took the view that they would rather jump before being pushed and minimise the embarrassment of having little support? It certainly looked like a massive dummy spit by the Gaynor gang.
Everyone who takes a committee role in ANY industry body will ultimately be limited in what they bring to the group by their availability, commitment and personal agendas. I think that with Watson at the helm the PRIA will be far better at representing our industry and more positive outcomes will be achieved. Lets hope..
BTW – Ms Barry’s intention to stand down has been on the record for some time – her title was Interim for a reason!
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Mike Watson is Ron Burgundy?
http://memegenerator.net/instance/45864578
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The Comms Council will be laughing all the way to the bank
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Someone should take a look at the books and the losses over at least the last two to three financial years. For PRIA to have made the losses it has under the former administration was an indictment on its management and the board’s lack of oversight. Perhaps it’s a good thing that the former board has resigned so that a new regime can get the organisation back on track. And for the record, the College of Fellows includes three former national presidents of the PRIA who all ran successful and surplus-producing administrations.
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RCG – financial mismanagement? Refusal to be accountable?
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I resigned from a State PRIA Executive several years ago as I had grave concerns with where it was heading. Having moved from a very strong PRIA state to another that I perceived to be “strong”, it soon became clear that the whole organisation was heading for disaster. Totally agree with PR Pro – the PRIA is completely irrelevant and a platform for petty politics, particularly when it came to agency members. Move on – it’s time to go PRIA!
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This sort of thing is not normal – and he has no idea why they resigned? – they should call their pr agency asap
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Should bring a very “leftist” viewpoint to PRIA -perhaps thats why we see a mass exit
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Greetings fellow commentors, thanks for taking such a keen interest in PRIA.
Bruce – press release? For 30 years we’ve called them news or media releases
Nick (at night) – we’re turning the PRIA lights back-on post nightmare
DC – agree
PR Pro – Your recollection of that night’s meeting does not concur with mine
Concerned PR – agree
101 – the piece cut me; PRIA members regularly manage board resignations
offalspokesperson – love ur smiley; reporter told me resigned boardies had talked
Ian – allow me to share or update you on how relevant the PRIA is
Pedant – agree
PR – agree
David Barrett – more issue than crisis management I’d have thought
Spindoctor – please reread this everyone
PR manager – I was misquoted; said bemused, not amused, big diff
Opportunity knocks – please reread this everyone
Wendy Barnyard – careful of libel 🙂 Ron Burgundy has a moustache
Come in Spinner – Haven’t they got heaps of $ already from big ad/sales agencies?
Ingrid Harrison – please reread this everyone
Hamster – RCG remains one of PRIA’s biggest financial contributors
Jules – I’ve really enjoyed moving and helping PRIA in different states & territories
tvguide – glad the ratings are on. Enjoy. Last year six board directors resigned.
All the best Mumbrellians!
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If someone can give me one good reason for the PRIA to exist beyond awards – I’d love to hear it. In my 8 years in the industry I have never once seen the PRIA take a stand on any of the major issues facing the industry.
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MIke. Don’t know you or any of the above commentators, but good on you for stepping up to the microphone.
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All I can say is good luck to the organisation and the fellows. The board was full of dedicated and experienced professionals and I can’t see a group of retired bored fellows doing much better than them. Hoping you’ll prove me wrong though.
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Time to switch over to the Comms Council!
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@mike watson
Woooweee!!
In general Australian business and various societal leadership suffers from a crisis of arrogance. What a geat opportunity to show industry (you know PUBLIC RELATIONS) leadership……..oops lost
As the head of a body concerned with public relations your post is a gobsmacking confirmation of the need for leaders to a) rise above the school yard squabble b) focus on objective concerns of the body they should humbly represent and c) stop being so very subjective in exercising their office………Its about facilitating enhancement for your industry and members…not a Mad Hatters tea party for the PRIA
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A quick note to flag this article has been amended with the quote from Mike Watson now reading “I’m bemused by it” rather than “I’m amused by it”.
There was error was made in transcription.
Cheers,
Alex, Mumbrella
I believe Mike Watson would have taken these comments more seriously had the commentators had the courage of their convictions and put real names to their comments. It’s easy to be critical of anyone or anything behind pseudonyms. One can only think that the negative comments here are from disgruntled former board members or their associates who have now been called to account over their past questionable oversight of the PRIA. Without their real names, we will never know.
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The PRIA has never understood PR – and only makes the industry look worse with ever missive. They’ve alienated the media, don’t make any money, don’t help anyone and lack credibility at every touch point. Why bother?
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@Mike Watson “more issue than crisis management I’d have thought”
That’s what it should have been when it was becoming and establishing itself as an issue or issues. And, given the context, one would have expected some awareness and mitigation. It seems apparent that the issue/issues were not well managed or – benefit of the doubt – they were “unmanageable”. It’s certainly occupying the crisis end of the issues – crisis continuum now (reputation and credibly as opposed to people getting hurt crises). Still, we are always telling people about the opportunity in crisis, aren’t we? Let’s wish the PRIA better times to come.
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Has this been reported as a result of a leak? Or did they proactively communicate this change to mUmBRELLA?
The quotes here just feel awkward…the sad thing being that they come from an industry body focused on the business of reputation. The PRIA was originally developed to prevent the unionising of the profession, but it obviously has quite a way to be a thought leader, innovator and voice in our profession.
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@ingrid harrison.
Whilst your desire to have everybody state who they are is laudable (though in many cases unrealistic), it is infact beside the point. The PRIA is a representative body and more acutely it is the body for parties with implied PUBLIC RELATiONS expertise. Non of these skills have been evident in this fiasco.
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As a member, I’m extremely baffled by the considerable amount of errors in this piece. ‘Phil Bursfurd’ should read ‘Phil Burfurd’ for one. Nicolas Turner was the immediate past president and therefore had to step down.
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I feel sad for the PRIA. As an industry body, it has too little support from the industry it is here to work with. Even sadder still, is the fact that as a body they are constantly talking about PR Practitioners getting a place on the boardroom table… Now in our industry there is a whole lot of table without much board.
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I support PRIA and I have expressed to them my willingness to stand up and be involved.
As for the Comms Council – far too expensive for a small business such as mine so in my view they are elitist and only interested in the big guys.
PRIA has welcomed me as an individual and as an agency with open arms and I can see what they are trying to achieve.
To all you naysayers and negative Nellies – I believe it will get better but only if people step and support the organisation instead of knocking it.
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@I object to hypocrisy why is it unrealistic to say who you are? Seems you and others who post anonymously, are happy to throw stones at the PRIA and its new president but are not prepared to be up front about your own identity. In my opinion that’s a cop out. Most mainstream media doesn’t accept pseudonyms. Perhaps Mumbrella should adopt the same guidelines?
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pass the popcorn.. this is getting juicy
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You gotta laugh – this is the PR Council – and its all bad news .
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