STOP THE MADNESS!

Forgive me for a moment while I vent about one of the silliest things in the Public Relations industry.

Isn't it time to stop the silly feud between Jack O'Dwyer and the Public Relations Society of America?

It's time for BOTH parties to call a truce.

PRSA (you first, because you won the coin toss): Lift the boycott of O'Dwyer publications. Answer Jack's very reasonable questions. And open up a bit (don't we in the PR business preach openness and transparency?).

Jack: It's time to resume the use of the capital A on your keyboard (just press the "shift" key with your right pinky, and then hit the "a" key with your left pinky). Oh, and in the day and age of the Internet, the printed directory is a dinosaur that costs too much and is out of date before it is published.

Unilateral action by either party is encouraged.

PRSA

Note to Jack O'Dwyer:

Jack, you make many very valid and insightful points regarding management of PRSA, and how they serve (or don't serve, as the case may be) the rank-and-file of the PR industry. That said, your refusal to use the "A" in PRSA comes across as a hissy-fit from an obstinate old man. Give it up.

But, please, Jack, don't give up on your quest to have PRSA better serve its members, to adopt more open policies, to employ PR professionals to do "PR for PR," and to implement sound and accepted fiscal and accounting policies.