Our meeting in Auckland was a full blown success and we owe a great deal to the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (Prinz) and to our good friend, President Tim Marshall and his colleagues for having ensured the warmest and most effective reception to all GA members, in parallel with the setting of a highly interesting and well organised national conference.

In Auckland we accomplished a lot and we definitely have the net impression that the GA is taking flight. Yes, it surely needs a lot of ‘gardening and passion’, but is definitely beginning to grow in a manner which comfortably suits the original intentions of its founders.

1. The most significant (but certainly not the sole) accomplishment, was the unanimous approval of Jean Valin’s proposal to adopt the Global Ethics Protocol on which he had been working for some time with an international team of experts.

   This is a landmark decision for our profession and our member associations are now required to endorse this global standard and, over the next three years, adapt their existing codes of ethics or certify inclusion of the minimum standards to ensure a full coherence.

   Also, it was decided that a global team of highly experienced ‘consultants’ would act as confidential advisors to all individual members who wish to submit an ethical problem they are facing. This new GA service will be offered through the website. We will also post on the website an increasing number of case histories in order to assist members.

   Now this protocol needs to be publicized in every country, care of our member associations as a strong sign that the Global Alliance is making a difference, thus also raising the added value of membership in our members association.

   In the upcoming Rome Public Relations Festival (please visit www.worldprfestival.org) from June 19 to June 21, the Ethics Protocol will be the center of discussion of a one and one half-day conference, which will attract the comments of many of the world’s foremost experts.

2. Also, and this is one more reason for you to seriously consider coming to Rome, the event will host a workshop discussion, led by Colin Farrington, director general of IPR (UK), on ‘effectively running a public relations association’.

   This workshop will be a key moment for each of us to benchmark what we do every day for our members and discuss how we can do it better, hopefully learning from each other. A must appointment for all those volunteers and technocrats who strive to improve the quality of their contribution. A moment which will be also followed by a mid term meeting of the Global Alliance members, fully open to other interested potential members as well.

3. Other major decisions taken in the Auckland meeting were:

• it was agreed to immediately move to a third stage of development of the Alliance’s website focused on increasing member knowledge and information services. Each member will, at this point, be required to regularly supply materials related to its own activities as well as to significant professional developments in each country. The objective is, by the end of 2003, to make our website the most relevant information source on the public relations profession.

• it was agreed to kick off with a ‘how to’ sector of the website which will feature standard, relevant and periodically updated information on the practice of public relations in different countries. This feature, also, will be available in the second part of this year.

• it was agreed to intensify and accelerate the work being done on the comparative analysis of soft and hard regulations of the various public relations practices which is under way although encountering some difficulties. Everyone felt that even a partial completion of this project before the Rome conference was essential in order to begin discussion on the options of common advocacy platforms to be recommended to member associations.

• it was agreed to pursue a quick member ‘needs analysis’ in order to arrive, hopefully before the end of this year, to an agreement on a joint program of activities to developed with the global public relations research and education community.

• it was agreed to adapt the same methodology used for the ethics protocol to the definition of a global standard related to certification and accreditation processes of our members in the context of the ever more important need of continued professional development schemes for the members of our members.

• the Global Alliance also agreed to fully endorse the highly important efforts underway by the many professionals and educators who are actively working on the development of an extensible public relations language (www.xprl.org). This project needs to be fully supported because of its potential far reaching implications for the profession and the GA Executive Board decided to actively search for dedicated funding.

4. Many other issues were subject of attention. We discussed the highly sensitive implications, which could derive for the global profession pending the upcoming US Supreme Court decision on the Nike case and fully approved the PRSA decision to stand by Nike in this case. Also, we examined the possibilities of actively participating to the October New Orleans International Conference of the PRSA with a session on global pr issues and various other items, not least financial and administrative ones.
    
5. To sum it up: a very good meeting indeed and the sense that our Alliance is growing and keeping its feet firmly on the ground. It is critical that all member organisation work together to implement these measures that unify the profession. Of course all our best intentions will not be sufficient if:

1. you do not agree with them, but do not take the trouble to tell us so that we miss valuable contributions;
2. you agree with them, but do not proactively help us in implementing them in your country and with your members.

For example:

• Are you promoting or offering the ‘ we offer you the world at members rate’ policy? We have agreed that all products and services of one association should be offered to other members of the GA at member’s rate. Effectively offering a world of products to your own members and vice versa.
• have you given thought to putting the global alliance link in your association Website?
• have you given thought to the idea of putting a global alliance logo in your association stationery and overall identity tools?
• don’t you think your members will want to regularly be updated on your contribution to the global alliance?
• do you have any ideas on how we could raise necessary funds from external sources?

Rome, my home city, is honoured to be your host from June 19 to 21. I very much hope you will be able to come and actively participate to what appears to be developing into a highly relevant appointment for the global public relations community.

Very best regards,

Toni Muzi Falconi 

Contact: Toni Muzi Falconi
FERPI 39 335 6100384 
tonimuzi@tin.it