November President’s Message

Greetings PRSA Members!

This marks my final President’s Letter to you, as I wrap up my term as chapter president later this month. A year ago, I was gearing up for my 2020 presidency with an energetic theme of “The Rolling 20s,” continuing to roll some great initiatives – and more – into a new decade.

2020 was not the ride any of us expected. We rolled into 2020 with a stellar lineup of in-person professional development, events and awards planned. We pivoted as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered PRSA as we knew it. We innovated by quickly responding with high-quality virtual programming across every aspect of our chapter.

Thanks to you – the PRSA Richmond community and our sponsors – you hung in there with us. We have ROLLED, survived and thrived during the most unprecedented year in chapter history.

I want to especially thank the 2020 PRSA Richmond Board of Directors who dedicated many more hours than anticipated to quickly deliver new ideas for presenting important initiatives in a virtual format. They all deserve much applause. Just consider some of these highlights:

After two in-person lunch programs kicking off the year, we shifted to six virtual lunch programs – all touching on timely, useful topics impacting us in 2020.
An interactive and engaging Virginia Public Relations Awards program that went virtual. We rolled out a fun, creative social media campaign touting the winners. We gave you a Facebook “watch party” starring our MC Andrew Frieden; our Best in Show winners; our TJ and Rising Star honorees; and our Platinum sponsor, Padilla.
Two highly successful initiatives: Student Connections Month and our pro-bono Public Service Collaborative. Both presented in a virtual.
The APR accreditation is continuing, thanks to virtual study sessions and processes.
Virtual professional development workshops – social media and speechwriting.

With all the virtual programming offered to you, I hope you’ve benefited from your PRSA membership this year. We look forward to continuing these excellent programs, and more, next year. We already are planning for exciting programming in early 2021. More on that soon!

We have a few more special events this month, including Wed., Nov. 18, our final virtual lunch program of 2020. Mark your calendar for this — we’ll recognize past chapter presidents, our 2020 scholarship winners, and we’ll officially welcome in our 2021 PRSA Richmond chapter officers!

It’s been an incredible honor to serve as your PRSA Richmond Chapter President. I’ll carry forward many memories and new friendships made this year. I look forward to seeing you all again soon in 2021. I wish you all good health and happiness as we end 2020. Let’s look to more positivity and hope in 2021.

Stay safe. Stay smart.

Windy Campbell
2020 PRSA Richmond Chapter President