Please excuse me for all my different posts being done at the same time but I had a few technological difficulties. Thanks for you understanding and have fun reading the first post!
Three years ago I was sitting in Nigel de Bussy’s class learning all about public relations theories, theorists and definitions. Yet until my first day at work yesterday I do not think I had grasped the importance of a public relations officer. In this blog I am hoping to share my experience as a Public Relations Officer for the International Students Committee (ISC) at Curtin.
Just to give you some background knowledge, the ISC is there to represent international students at Curtin. I decided to do my placement there after being a volunteer with them and witnessing the sometimes not so good PR strategies for example organising events a week before. Yet what really made me want to be elected as PR officer there was because the National Liaison Committee (the peak official body for International Students in Australia) gave the ISC three national awards such as the International Office of the year for 2008. Therefore I knew that with them I would surely face some challenges but at the same time, they had being recognised by the NLC.
Thus I was elected PR officer back in November but it is only yesterday that I was really able to exercise my PR skills! Well, one thing I still remember from Nigel’s class is Grunig’s and Hunt’s definition of PR. According to them it was the ability to manage relationships and communication between the organisation and its publics. How did I use it at the ISC? Well firstly in October the ISC organises the Multicultural Week (a day for every continent) and one of the suggestions an executive made was that there be two days one for Western and one for Asian. Not only would that be ethically wrong because what happens to Africans and many other categories of people but also it would not respect the ISC’s duty in representing international students. It was unbelievable how in my head I mentally was using the Potter Box just to see what the principles were and to whom our duty was. I know this is all mixed up but that’s exactly how it was all the theories were just all coming in and I never realised that I would really use them.
The second instance where my public relations skills came into play was about an issue that happened two years ago. One of the performers from the Multicultural week has still not been paid. I thought this was really unprofessional and told them how it was bad because of the reputation it gave the ISC and, if we did need him again, the relationship had been tarnished. It’s unbelievable how I was thinking of the organisation’s image while also thinking of all the public’s involved and trying to work in their best interest throughout that day. If you were wondering whether the person will get paid, well yes the Convenor is going to fight the case with the Guild!
While reading this you must be telling yourself well oh my that does not sound like a very good day, nothing much that we as PR students did not know. Well for me, this first day was also full of new knowledge too. I knew that the PR officer was the person that most would contact when they needed the club but in no way did I expect to open my inbox for the first time with 500 emails, it of course included 300 spams but the other 200 was about people wanting to know more about the organisation, asking if we wanted a stall for 0-Day (too late...), thanking and congratulating us on events but most importantly media updates (I’m not quite sure form who yet) about everything concerning international university students. I do not think I had really ever grasped the importance of the PR officer fully, his or her role as an intermediate more especially.
This day has also allowed me to reflect on my PR skills, yet during the meeting I was sometimes lost about some of the abbreviations they used or even the terminologies they used. Therefore for some bedtime reading I have the Annual General Meeting 2008, the ISC Induction Manual and the Guild’s Rules and Regulations (the ISC falls under the Guild). This will most certainly help me know about the organisation’s mission, vision, role and I will be aware of much more ISC-related information than I am now.
Therefore all those PR classes were therefore not just theory. Until today I was very unsure about whether I wanted to go into the PR field in a year or so, but after this day, I know that is what I want to do; protect the different publics, work on the organisation’s image, planning of events and all of activities PR people have the chance to do. This first day is already giving me a much better view of what a PR officer does.
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