president's column

	The Balance Wheel
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President's Column

Do We Have A Future?

By Judy Stokes, APR

Maybe it's all the millennium hype. Or, perhaps it's the mantle of ACI leadership. Whatever the cause, I've been thinking a lot about the future of communications in the fish and wildlife arena. What is our role in the future of fish and wildlife management and are we ready for it?

Maybe it's all the millennium hype. Or, perhaps it's the mantle of ACI leadership. Whatever the cause, I've been thinking a lot about the future of communications in the fish and wildlife arena. What is our role in the future of fish and wildlife management and are we ready for it?
At a regional meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, the future of our profession was discussed. I was encouraged to learn from some of the best and brightest in the public relations field, that people like us are needed more than ever. There is, in general, a greater awareness of public relations and a growing pool of trained communicators. However, there is still an under-valuation of public relations. Its true potential is not fully understood, nor is the important distinction between communications activities and building relationships that earn trust for our agencies.
Perhaps that under-valuation has something to do with how we define what we do and how we evaluate its impact. Pat Jackson, APR, Fellow PRSA, takes a behavioral approach to public relations. He suggests it's time we moved from being producers of communication products to being strategists, counselors and trainers.
This is an important distinction, and one closely tied to where we fall in the organizational structure of our agencies. Are we in the boardroom or in the newsroom, the management team or the special events team, the first to know or the last, then left to sweep up and repair the results of bad decisions. Are we seen as the guys down the hall who write news releases, or are we the trusted advisors who provide the decision makers in our agencies with human dimensions research, strategic thinking and planning, and proposals to develop powerful relations with our constituents?

Taking a behavioral approach, we can define our work as "influencing behavior through strategic communication, in the public interest." What are those behaviors we seek to influence? The list is extensive and includes buying a license, donating to nongame programs, hunting safely, fishing ethically, making good decisions about the environment, valuing fish and wildlife management, voluntary compliance with rules and laws, support for license increases and other critical pieces of legislation. I believe we can become more effective, internally, in selling the need for strong communications programs by changing our focus. We should monitor the outcomes of sales, support and success, rather than the number of publications we print, gross impression in the print outlets, ad equivalency and other evaluation methods we now use. Our goal, after all, is to continue to support our agencies' efforts to provide healthy wildlife populations, diverse habitat and opportunities for the public to enjoy these resources
So, what about the future? My action plan is to continue to take my seat at the management team table, look for opportunities to develop our role as trusted advisors and work in partnership with my peers. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to continue strategic communications planning efforts with the resource units of my agency. My task will be to determine their highest priority needs and work with them to develop programs that affect the desired behaviors, support good fish and wildlife management, get results and benefit the public.
I think conservation agency communicators have a bright and promising future -- let's make it happen.

President's Column
Do We Have A Future?
By Judy Stokes, APR
Maybe it's all the millennium hype. Or, perhaps it's the mantle of ACI leadership. Whatever the cause, I've been thinking a lot about the future of communications in the fish and wildlife arena. What is our role in the future of fish and wildlife management and are we ready for it? Maybe it's all the millennium hype. Or, perhaps it's the mantle of ACI leadership. Whatever the cause, I've been thinking a lot about the future of communications in the fish and wildlife arena. What is our role in the future of fish and wildlife management and are we ready for it? At a regional meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, the future of our profession was discussed. I was encouraged to learn from some of the best and brightest in the public relations field, that people like us are needed more than ever. There is, in general, a greater awareness of public relations and a growing pool of trained communicators. However, there is still an under-valuation of public relations. Its true potential is not fully understood, nor is the important distinction between communications activities and building relationships that earn trust for our agencies. Perhaps that under-valuation has something to do with how we define what we do and how we evaluate its impact. Pat Jackson, APR, Fellow PRSA, takes a behavioral approach to public relations. He suggests it's time we moved from being producers of communication products to being strategists, counselors and trainers. This is an important distinction, and one closely tied to where we fall in the organizational structure of our agencies. Are we in the boardroom or in the newsroom, the management team or the special events team, the first to know or the last, then left to sweep up and repair the results of bad decisions. Are we seen as the guys down the hall who write news releases, or are we the trusted advisors who provide the decision makers in our agencies with human dimensions research, strategic thinking and planning, and proposals to develop powerful relations with our constituents?	Taking a behavioral approach, we can define our work as "influencing behavior through strategic communication, in the public interest." What are those behaviors we seek to influence? The list is extensive and includes buying a license, donating to nongame programs, hunting safely, fishing ethically, making good decisions about the environment, valuing fish and wildlife management, voluntary compliance with rules and laws, support for license increases and other critical pieces of legislation. I believe we can become more effective, internally, in selling the need for strong communications programs by changing our focus. We should monitor the outcomes of sales, support and success, rather than the number of publications we print, gross impression in the print outlets, ad equivalency and other evaluation methods we now use. Our goal, after all, is to continue to support our agencies' efforts to provide healthy wildlife populations, diverse habitat and opportunities for the public to enjoy these resources So, what about the future? My action plan is to continue to take my seat at the management team table, look for opportunities to develop our role as trusted advisors and work in partnership with my peers. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to continue strategic communications planning efforts with the resource units of my agency. My task will be to determine their highest priority needs and work with them to develop programs that affect the desired behaviors, support good fish and wildlife management, get results and benefit the public. I think conservation agency communicators have a bright and promising future -- let's make it happen.