Whether you’ve been a practicing PR pro for years or are just starting your career, there’s one thing we can all agree on: investing in your professional development should never stop.

At its core, professional development is a personal responsibility to keep your knowledge and skills current. It’s good for you, it’s good for your company, and it’s good for your clients.

One of PRSA Nebraska’s 2018 goals is to ensure that your professional development not only arms you with the tools you need but is also engaging, fun and affordable.

The importance of continuing professional development should not be underestimated — it is a career-long obligation for practicing professionals. We hope you make PRSA Nebraska part of yours.

To help you plan your year, here’s a quick snapshot of what’s to come:

Monthly Luncheons (two per quarter)
$20 Member | $30 Non-Member | $15 Student

Upcoming Scheduled Luncheon: Tuesday, Feb. 6
PR at the Zoo, Earning Your (Zebra) Stripes
Dawn Ream | Director of Communications, Marketing & Sales at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

Quarterly Networking Events (one per quarter)
Come to PRSA Nebraska's networking events to meet fellow PR pros and experience different parts of Nebraska. Stay tuned for more details!

Save the Date! ON Brand Conference | July 26 | Embassy Suites Omaha-La Vista Hotel & Conference Center
The ON Brand conference is a unique gathering of professionals working to create, support and promote strong brands. Developed by the local chapters of three national industry organizations — the American Advertising Federation, the American Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America — the ON Brand conference will provide education and development for the many facets of branding, as well as a valuable networking experience for individual career growth. Centrally located in Omaha, the conference will draw attendees from the Midwest region. Look for more details on this conference soon!

Shannon Hilaire 
PRSA Nebraska President 

If you’re searching for a reason to submit a PRSA Nebraska Paper Anvil awards entry, here you go. In fact, here are seven:

1. It’s a professional peer review of your greatest work.
2. There's an empty spot on your trophy shelf (or you want a reason to build one!).
3. Winners are promoted in local media outlets including the Midlands Business Journal and Omaha World-Herald.
4. Social links to your profile from the PRSA social accounts congratulating winners.
5. It’s another accomplishment for your LinkedIn profile. (We know you already have quite the list, but let’s add more!)
6. Backlinks to winners' websites from the PRSA Nebraska website.
7. Pride when your hard work is rewarded at the annual awards gala! (Save the date: Dec. 6)

5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10 is the deadline to complete the entry form on the PRSA Nebraska website. Full award entries are due Friday, Oct. 13. (Scary? Nah!)

We can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on!

U.S. employees spend, on average, about a quarter of the work week combing through hundreds of emails. Despite the fact that we’re glued to our reply buttons, plenty of professionals still don’t know how to use email appropriately. Because of the sheer volume of messages we’re reading and writing, we may be prone to making embarrassing errors, and those mistakes can have serious consequences.

When it coes to mass emails or email marketing campaigns, best practices include informed consent – having permission to send emails in the first place. 

• Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative, a universal moral principle, states that to act ethically we must treat each other as ends not as means only. 
• The Categorical Imperative implies informed consent.
• Informed consent requires notification, comprehension, and voluntary agreement.
• Subscribing journalists to email blasts without notification or voluntary agreement does not ensure informed consent.
• Subscribing journalists to email blasts without informed consent does not treat them as ends.
• Subscribing journalists to email blasts without informed consent is wrong.

Email recipients should have expressly signed up with you. It is not recommended that senders ever purchase email lists, since there do not contain the express permission of recipients. All sorts of bad things can happen: poor in-boxing rates, poor opens and clicks, high unsubscribe and spam complaint rates, and even blacklisting of your business domain.

Source: https://help.sharpspring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001036547-Email-Best-Practices