Sept. 18, 2007 Meeting

Reminders

-National Conference in Philadelphia deadline to register is next Monday!
-If you're interested in entering the PRSSA t-shirt design contest, please submit your design by Oct. 16.
-Wednesday was the last day to sign up for MentorMatch, if you signed up and havne't received an e-mail from Erin Mustain, please contact her at emusta1@lsu.edu.
-Remember your $70 dues are due at the next meeting on Oct. 2. Remember, this does cover you for the whole year. If you need to pay before the next meeting please drop your money off at our mailbox in the Journalism Building on the second floor. You can ask the receptionist if you need help finding it.
-If you're interested in PRestige, the student run PR firm, meetings are at 5pm, right before regular meeting days.

Guest Speaker: Rebecca Strecker, Public Affairs Specialist for the NASA Stennis Space Center
Former PRSSA member and LSU alumna, Rebecca Strecker, gave advice to PRSSA members at Tuesday's meeting. Her main duties include internal commmunications, education media relations, promotion of the StenniSphere, the visitor center at SSC, and history office coordinator. Soon after coming to work at Stennis, she was faced with the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. She provided what information they had to the public, astronaut biosheets, mission factsheet to the public, and also held a press conference. After the crises, she aided NASA in publicizing what they were doing to make sure another tragedy wouldn't happen again. She would invite media to engine checks and keep them informed of findings of the investigation.
Strecker said there is no typical day you can expect in Public Relations, but she mainly works with internal communications, handles media inquiries, and writes a weekly newsletter. Strecker suggests finding internships and that nonprofits are a good place to start. She said she was able to do and learn more since nonprofits have a large professional staff.
Strecker, who has a Master of Arts degree in organizational communication from SLU herself, says that having a masters degree is great, but not necessary. She suggests working and getting real world experience while you're earning your masters.