Monday, 12 July 2004
Chennai PR Club formed - An initiative of the Foundation
Foundation meeting of 'Chennai PR Club' was held on Saturday the 10th July 2004 at 4 PM at Stenographers' Guild premises, T. Nagar, Chennai 17. Mr K. Srinivasan, Chairman, Prime Point Foundation who facilitated the formation of the Club read out the draft laws para by para and the 'founding members' accepted the bye laws without any modification and it was unanimously adopted. Mr R Nurullah, Senior Journalist of Chennai City was present as an observer and the elections were held for the Managing Committee.
The unique aspect of this Club is that all the office bearers are young and below the age of 30. The Managing Committee plans to organise various programmes and seminars to hone the professional skills of the members.
The following office-bearers were elected unanimously. Mrs Vidya Swaminathan, President of the Club thanked the members and the Foundation for the formation of such an unique organisation to bring together all the PR professionals, students, teachers, etc. Click here for bye laws
Ms Vidya Swaminathan, presently communication officer at CES Onyx, a multinational company carries a rich experience of customer relations management at Maurya Sheraton and Oberoi group of hotels. A computer science graduate with PG diploma in Marketing Management and Public Relations has turned out to be a corporate communicator. Her e mail id is vidyaswami94@yahoo.co.in
Mr S Rajagopal, presently is the Branch Manager of Hanmer and Partners, a leading Public Relations firm. A post graduate in Marketing and Advertisement, he has worked in Equation, an Advertisement Agency. Before joining this present assignment, he served Genesis PR, another leading PR firm. He has handled many leading National and Multinational clients. His e mail id is srajagopal75@yahoo.co.in
Mr Sathish Issac, Chief Executive Officer of Amazing Communication carries three Post Graduate degrees, of which one is on 'Mass Communication'. He has served Marketing Agencies and shifted to corporate communication. Before starting his own agency, he has served Perfect Relations, a leading Indian PR Agency. His e mail id is sathishisaac@yablue.com
Ms J Marceline, CEO of 'Management and News', an event management company and a placement agency for communicators is holding two post graduate degrees, of which one is in Mass communication. She is presently doing research in Administration. She is also a 'News anchor' for English bulletins of Raj TV. Her e mail id is marcelinej@yahoo.com
Mr K Natarjan is presently working in the Public Relations Department of Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India at Chennai. A computer science graduate, Mr Natarjan completed his PG Diploma in Public Relations. He has also closely associated with public awareness programme organised by the Government to educate the people on the positive aspects of Nuclear power. His email id is natraj30@yahoo.com
Mr R Jai Krishna, a post graduate in Mass Communication and Journalism is presently the Director of "Media Maestros", a firm engaged in event management, public relations and public service advertisement and promotions. He is one of the early entrants in Private Television channel in Chennai. He has served Raj TV, one of the popular Tamil channels as News Editor and Producer of English bulletins. He is also contributing to media as a freelance journalist. Presently, he is doing research in communication. His e mail id is jaikicha@yahoo.com
Mr N Satish, is a student of III year M Sc (Electronic Media - Integrated course) from Anna University, Chennai and represents the students in the Committee. As a student, he is also producing programmes in the 'Anna FM' radio run by Anna University. Last year, he has associated actively with the 'Image Audit' of five Chennai Post Offices. His e mail id is nsatfiresh_exe@yahoo.com
Greetings
Greetings from Mr Donald Charumbira, Secretary General, World Assembly of Youth ( Youth wing of United Nations) dated 11th July 2004
"We are pleased to learn of your initiative to form the Chennai PR Club. This is certainly a step in the right direction towards greater communications efficiency and expertise, and an example for other states and countries. We are particularly happy to note the youth involvement in the initiative. Public relations is critical if world peace, understanding and harmony are to be achieved, and therefore the Chennai PR Club will have a critical role in enhancing relations amongst the various publics in your community."
Friday, 2 July 2004
Youth participation in decision making process - Dialogue at Malaysia
World Assembly of Youth (WAY), youth wing of United Nations Organisation organised a dialogue at Melaka, Malaysia (MIYD 2004)on 28, 29 and 30th June 2004 to discuss the 'Youth participation in decision making process'. Around 230 delegates from 43 countries participated in the dialogue. Representation from United States of America was conspicuously missing, as they donot have any 'youth structure' in their country (Click for an exclusive interview of Mr Donald Charumbira, Secretary General) .
MIYD 2004 (Melaka International Youth dialogue 2004) was inaugurated by Rt. Hon. YAB Datuk Seri Hj. Mohd. Ali Bin Mohd. Rustom, Chief Minister of Melaka State, Malaysia and also President of WAY on 28th June 2004. (see picture). Mr Donald Charumbira, Secretary General of WAY welcomed the delegates. A message from Dr. Abdul Kalam, President of India was read out by Mr Theethan, Accountant General, Govt. of India
Plenary sessions : On the first day representatives from various youth organisations of different countries shared their views on issues of serious concern. K. Srinivasan, Chairman, Prime Point Foundation also presented a paper on 'Media Relations'. He emphasised the need for youth organisations and NGOs using the Media for creating awareness. (see picture).
Workshops : On the second day, the delegates were divided into three groups to discuss the various issues pertaining to 'involvement of youth in decision making process'. The delegates from different countries shared their experience (see picture for one such group discussion). All the group leaders presented their views at the end of the day.
Side events : Very interesting feature in this MIYD was the 'side events' at the end of every day on various topics to discuss important issues like environment, ICT, HIV/AIDs, poverty, etc. Many youth from different parts of the world participated enthusiastically and shared their views. (see picture for one such side event)
Two hearing impaired participants Ms Jessica Mak and Mr Anthony Chong (both from YMCA, Kaulalumpur) were informed of the entire proceedings simultaneously by an young sign language expert. They participated effectively during the entire programme. (see picture)
The delegates were mixture of seniors and young people. It was more of the culmination of 'wisdom and experience' of the seniors and the 'energy and enthusiasm' of young people. (See the picture for a section of the audience during a plenary session)
Based on the outcome of the workshops, 'MIYD2004 Declaration' was prepared by a group of young people in the age group between 16 and 23 independently without the help of any seniors. (When many elderly people criticised this as 'childish', Mr. Donald Charumbira, Secretary General, defended this declaration as 'though childish, it is youthful').
Around fifty Malaysian student volunteers (age group between 15 to 22) organised this event well and took care of the delegates. In some of the countries, the youth organisations and student organisations are headed by 'young persons' in the age group of 50 plus. It is because of the fact that there is no standard definition for 'youth' at global level.
Monday, 19 April 2004
Drafting of Press Release - Workshop
A workshop was held on Sunday the 18th April 2004 at Chennai on the topic "What is wrong with our press releases? - Drafting of effective press release". Around 20 Public Relations professionals participated in the half-day workshop.
Mr K. Srinivasan, Chairman of the Foundation welcomed the participants and spoke about the differences between journalists way of writing and Public Relations officials' way of writing.
Mr Prakash M Swamy, one of the senior journalists of the city talked about the various mistakes committed by the PR professionals while drafting the press releases.
Do you want to download the background materials circulated to the participants?
Click here for downloading (pdf file)
Mr R Nuruallah, another senior journalist and working in Dinamalar, a leading Tamil daily spoke about the various mistakes committed by the PR professionals while sending the press releases in regional languages.
Mr T P Sridharan, Business Editor of Daily Thanthi, another leading Tamil daily spoke about the importance of business press releases in regional languages. He also showed the way as to how good press releases could be made in regional languages.