Perfect.

All right, you guys see
the recording button on now?

Yeah.

OK, good.
All right, so

my clock is a little off on my computer,

but I think it's passed 7:00pm now.




But welcome, everyone.

My name is Jane Antoniak and I'm the 

Chair of Accreditation for CPRS Hamilton,
and last year achieved my APR.




Congratulations on your APR.

Thank you.

And

Alex Sevigny asked me to

help with the APR Accreditation process

for CPRS Hamilton, and I
started doing that in June 2020 and that

was when Alex became the Chief
National Examiner for CPRS National.



















So we have a panel here tonight that I
want to introduce you all to,

and then we do have a small short
presentation from CPRS National.

And I'm going to run through

that and hopefully will answer
some of your questions.

And then we're going to open it up
to the panel,

to your questions, and also some standard
questions that most of us get asked.

Claire Ryan [panelist] and I first attended this seminar

in person at the 2018 CPRS National Conference
in Charlottetown, PEI.







Claire, of course, is joining us
from the Atlantic provinces as well.

So without further ado,
I'm going to introduce our panel and so

that we can get going,
because I know probably a lot of you are

still keeping your eye on the US
election results tonight.

Let's go from east to west.
So from the east,

joining us tonight is Claire Ryan.

Claire is the Director of Public Relations
at Cooke Inc., 

a vertically integrated family company
based in Black's Harbor, New Brunswick.

It's a salmon farming operation

in Atlantic Canada, also in the United States,

Chile and Scotland, as well as a sea bass
and sebring farming operations in Spain.

Claire joined Cooke from CAA Atlantic,

where she was the manager of public
affairs, and she managed communications

initiatives, stakeholder relations and community partnerships.

She began her career working with two

of the region's largest
and most prominent agencies.

Claire is also an active volunteer
and a community builder.

She's a Past Chair

of the St. John Region Chamber of Commerce
and she is currently Chair of the St.

Joseph's Hospital Advisory Board

and most importantly, President
of CPRS Society Atlantic Council.

I'd also like to add that Claire and I
have been colleagues now for five years.

We met in 2015
as classmates in the cohort of the Master

of Communications Management Program
at McMaster University.

So

that's quite exciting.

She has her APR.

We went through the APR process together

and studied for a year together and we
both wrote this time last year and we both

received our APR in December of 2019.

She also holds a B.A. from St.

Francis Xavier University

and Advanced Diploma in PR
from Nova Scotia Community College.

And as I mentioned,
she did as well achieve her Master's

of Communication Management (MCM)
from McMaster University.

She lives in Uptown St. John,

a community that she really loves
and spends a lot of her time renovating

an old house with her husband Phil
and their three young children.

So this woman is balancing a lot of balls.

And if she can achieve an APR
doing all that, so can you.

Next, I'd like to introduce Dustin Manley.

And Dustin is the Past
President of CPRS Hamilton.

And in 2018,
he became one of the youngest people

to earn the APR designation in Canada.

He currently works
at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) as

an Employee Development Specialist,
and previously he was responsible

for handling their social media
and customer-facing communications.

Outside of the TTC,
Dustin teaches research methods

at Royal Roads University
in the Master of Arts in Professional Communication

(MAPC) program, and social
media management

in Centennial College's Bachelor
of Public Relations Management program.

So welcome to Dustin and Claire.
And the third person on our panel today:

We're very lucky to have because he's so

busy doing a variety of things,
including a keen political watcher.

Alex is an Associate Professor

of Communications Management
at McMaster University,

where he previously was the director
of the MCM program for 8 years,

including when Claire and I
were both students there.

He is also Editor in Chief of the Journal

of Professional Communication,
and he is currently the Chief Examiner

of Accreditation in the Public
Relations Program for CPRS National.

I've also had the honour of co-presenting

with Alex at numerous national conferences
on our joint research.

He was my

supervisor in my area of study, which is
Digital Leadership Communications.

So you're very lucky to have
this great panel here tonight.

Briefly introduce myself, I am,

as I mentioned, the Accreditation
Chair for CPRS Hamilton.

I am in London, Ontario,

and I am the manager of communications
and media relations

at King's University College, which is an
affiliated College of Western University.

And I have a keen interest
in leadership communications.

This past summer,
I was a teaching assistant in the program

and I also am an instructor at Fanshawe
College in Strategic Public Relations.

So there are no further questions,
I'll just check the chat.



Good to go here.

So the APR: Do it for yourself!

I'm really glad you could
all make it here tonight.

We're thrilled with the turnout

and I think that this is actually a great
time to dive into public

professional development,
despite the fact that there's a pandemic

and you're probably all worked off your
feet and many of you are stuck in your

homes and or working in very challenging
situations, there's never been a more

important time to reach out for the support

of organizations like CPRS and to actually
reach out to your colleagues

and to further your own skills
in professional development.

So tonight, we're going to talk about
a lot of topics, including the top reasons

to pursue your APR credential,
which projects are suitable for your work

sample, how much time you'll need
for studying, what kind of support we

offer as a community of CPRS--or perhaps
the chapter that you may belong to if you

don't belong to our chapter and what kind of

supports we offer. So to get started

tonight, I just wanted to ask what kind
of questions are at the top of your mind?

And if you want to throw those

into the chat,
that would be very helpful, I'm sure,

to the panel to think about as we
go through a quick presentation.

First of all, eligibility: and let's
talk about what APR even means, and

really it is a voluntary program,

highly respected and administered by CPRS National.

It has been around for more than 50 years,

and is the most recognized PR designation
and credential in North America.

And I know that for myself.

it carried a lot of weight with my own
organization after I achieved it.

CPRS has 14 regional societies across
Canada and holds a national conference

every year, and I think that accreditation
really improves your skills and knowledge.

It's an opportunity to remind yourself

of foundational knowledge that you may
have forgotten when you were studying it,

possibly in college or university, and
it also is a chance to learn new knowledge

and that both of those things
were certainly my experience.

It also prepares you for greater
on-the-job experience.

If you're not already in a leadership

role, your year of studying and assessment
will encourage you to take on one.

So there are a lot of reasons why to study for the

APR, and that's going to be one
of the questions that I'm going to put

to the panelists tonight,as to "what is your why"?

Because I think in this time of

reflection, for a lot of us during
the COVID-19 lockdown and subsequently working

from home, et cetera, we have had
time to ponder what our own "why" is.

And these are just some of the suggestions,

 that have come up over the years.

For myself, I felt that I had spent two

to three years in a master's program,
and I didn't want it to end there.

I did want to keep on learning and I also

wanted to apply my learnings to achieve
this professional designation.

You will stand out and you will join

a group of professionals
who will be an amazing support system,

and I can tell you that even with this
seminar tonight,

I reached out to the chapters across
Canada and instantly received support.

Everything from notes on this presentation,

et cetera, to many of you joining because
you heard from our colleagues across

Canada, it is a very important group
of professionals who really we hear it

over and over again during the pandemic
that we're all in this together.

I do feel that I'm in it together
with my colleagues on the panel tonight

and also with our colleagues across Canada.

And I think that's a really

for us very inspiring reason why to obtain
our APR and also to maintain our APR.

These are some of the nuts and bolts about
what's involved, and, you know,

it's very fair to ask this now
because it takes time and it takes money.

And that's a lot of what people want

to talk about right off the bat just
to see what are they getting into.

The application fee
is due and the application at 1 minute

to midnight (11:59pm) on December 1, 2020.

And they [CPRS National] will quickly review that and

then give you the yay or nay.

What that involves is three references,
two of which must be from APRs.

And we're going to talk about that tonight
as well, as if you don't know

two APRs, how we can help you
possibly gain those references.

The next step, if you are accepted,
you will be asked to submit your work

sample overview and your CV or resume
by December 30th,

and I know that's a crunch time
with the holidays, but I don't think we're

going to be going to too many holiday parties this year.

So it's possibly a great time to consider doing this, really.

Once you've submitted your work sample
overview and you will hear back likely

around the end of January
from CPRS National if your work sample overview

 and your resume meets the requirements,

and in that case,
you'll be invited to work on and then

submit your full work
sample by April 1, 2021.



That's a big job.

That's a big part of the work
and that does count towards your overall

passing of the APR--
the grading of your work sample

and whether it passes and how
you did on that is actually

counted towards getting your APR.

From that point, you will
wait and hear from CPRS National typically

in late spring--May, maybe June--
as to how you did on your work sample.

And if you have passed it at that point,
you will begin to really

make your plan and start studying
for the written exam and the oral exam,

which will take place on those dates
in October that you see on the screen.

And those are universal dates across Canada.

It's usually always a Friday for the written exam

and then the oral exam can often be
spread out over two days this year.

This was all held virtually

through a virtual proctoring system

and all the oral exams were held
online [in 2020].

In past years, people would have had to go

to an examination center and write them
and then have an in-person oral exam or

in the case of myself and actually Claire,
because we both were located in the cities

where they didn't have a live panel,
we actually did it virtually.

So I think we were trailblazers there, Claire.



And then once those examinations are

complete, as happened just a few weeks ago
for several of our members out

of Hamilton, you will wait
and hopefully pass.

There are appeal processes along the way.

For instance, if you don't pass your work

sample, you are allowed to appeal
that decision and possibly

work through the appeal
and possibly still continue on to.



And there are also our procedures
along the way where you can defer.

You may have a health issue or personal issue,

job change, or whatever that may
have you to consider deferring--and you can

retain some of these steps along
the way that you may have achieved.

Big question, you probably have already
asked yourself, or you might not be here

tonight, is, "are you ready"? And
while you may want to think about if

you're ready mentally and those might be
some great questions for the panel tonight.


"Are you ready"? According to CPRS National

and the big one is the first bullet point,
which you do have to have 5+ years

of full-time PR experience in order to be ready.

There is a previous level [exam] for any of you
that may not have the 5+ years,

which is the PRK, which has been
recently introduced, which is the

Public Relations Knowledge (PRK) exam
that you can take.

It's not an accreditation per say,
but it is a [useful benchmark examination].

So there is also an online self-assessment

questionnaire on the CPRS
website that you can also take.

So you will apply and include the three

references, and that's the big step
that you have to consider right now before

 11:59pm on December the 1st.

And it would require these.

You also need to be a member of CPRS,
and we would certainly welcome any of you

to join our chapter--and at least
to apply to join our chapter.

And we do have you would apply through

the [CPRS] National website and then indicate
which chapter it is that you want to join.

Further on then, for December 30th,
there's your work sample overview,

and I know that that will be important
for our panel to talk about.

They'll give you some
examples of what they did.

And you can now also use an educational

work sample, which is what I
did and also what Claire did.

We did was did boil down our capstone
projects for our master's degrees

and use that as our work sample.

And then finally, the full work sample is
due in April, and I really want to draw

attention to the word limits--the bullets
are on the bottom of the screen.

This is very, very,

very important and probably will be
your biggest challenge, actually.

Take your capstone project from a master's
degree and create a 500 word

executive summary was actually
a super helpful exercise for me.

And then to boil it down to 2,500 words

for my work sample submission,

that is really what we spent a lot of time
on, working with people within the chapter

who were helping me with that editing process.

And you probably know your own work,

and especially any of you
that work in leadership circles.



The CEO does not want
your full master's paper.

Nobody really wants it, except your parents maybe.

But

you need to be able to distill your work.

And if you get five minutes in the C-Suite
to actually present your comms plan,

you know, it's going to be a high
level presentation of your work.

And that is indeed 

what CPRS wants you to be able
to do throughout the whole process.

When it's time to write the exam,

it's very succinctly laid out into sections and

this is what they are testing you on,
your skills and knowledge and your

knowledge translation
in a timed test that is

3.5 hours long.

And

we practiced a lot, literally the
your stopwatch is your best friend.

And there's a lot of practice exams available

that you can work on, and
eventually get down to.

Timing is everything.

Sorry, [the written exam is] 3.5 hours--and how I

could forget that
because that should have been ingrained

in my mind--you do recover, so you
do recover after taking the test,

when you forget some
of those painful details.

There is a lot of preparation.

In our chapter, we have an amazing set of resources

in an online file that we keep and share
with people who are in our study group.

They also have a Facebook group that we run.

And many people--in fact,
the three candidates that wrote it this

year that I was helping--had their
own separate Facebook group.

We met every two weeks starting in June,
right up through till October

for on study sessions, and then they had
their own private study sessions as well.

So there was a lot of support
available for you as well.

National has developed some really great
webinars and that you can jump on and

participate in and as they help
walk you through the process.

You're lucky here tonight because we do
have the Chief Examiner on our panel,

Alex Sevigny, and he'll be able to answer
some of your questions about this.

The oral exam is about a 1-hour

conversation with the three selected examiners.

My panel was actually from western Canada,
and they did ask me one regional

question for my area,
which is southwestern Ontario.

We discussed my work sample
and they put various scenarios to me,

and we had a conversation
over the course of an hour.

So what do APR have to say? 
Look at Alex, you made the PowerPoint

from previous time, right?

I was going to say, more hair and not grey haha.

It happens to the best of us.

So we're going to turn this over to our
panel now and they can

talk to you about some of the great
resources that are available.

And really, let's let's hear directly
from them, because I know that information

directly from your peers is probably
what you're going to value most of all.

So with that, I'm going
to run the chat questions and

turn it over to our group here.

So.

I guess, first of all,

just to get things started and we'll
start with Claire, and then go to Dustin,

and then to Alex.
Can you tell us your "why", what was your "why"

and how and why did you decide you
were ready to try and obtain your APR?

[CR] I don't know if I had a very clearly
defined "why", other than there always

seemed from the very
beginning of my career to be

APRs in my universe, and they were people I respected,

and for the one of the agencies I
worked at early on was run by three women,

two of them had their APR.

So it was just sort of something I saw young,

being like the career path that I
admire seem to involve this step.

So it was always in the back of my mind.

And then,

I considered it when I was, you know,
in the 6-7 year mark of working

and opted to do my MCM instead;
I thought, I'll deal with the APR later.

And

then when the opportunity

to continue to stay connected to my MCM
classmates like Jane and people like Alex

presented itself to that program,
I thought that's a good time to pursue it

and have a study group
and some study buddies.

So I went for it shortly after
I finished the MCM program and

got it done.

Thanks, Claire. 
Dustin?

[DM] Well, similar to Claire, people in my orbit

when I was an undergrad
at McMaster University, when I

started out in the profession--a number
of my mentors/colleagues had APRs.

But it was something that I was
always interested in doing.

I did my master's thesis research
was focused on designations in

communications management,
public relations, and how they're valued.

I found that they were respected,

 as I did find later after I got the designation.


But also I had my five years,

I'm always one to strike when the iron's hot. 

 I was 27-years old,
I was the President of CPRS Hamilton,

I was going to start teaching and I
really needed a designation to prove that

in addition to having the knowledge
that a master's degree says,

I have the competency of yes,
I actually can put my theory into practice

and I do have some competency in public
relations. And the APR was

a perfect opportunity to do
that and demonstrate that.

Thanks, Dustin. 
Alex?

[AS] Yeah, I did my APR in 2011,
and I did it shortly before becoming

MCM director.
And my main reason for doing it was

to actually show that I had chops as
a practitioner and not not only as

an academic, because
I had actually maintained a pretty active

political communication practice since 2003,

as a strategist and as an analyst.

And I had served in various positions

in mostly the provincial level up
to that point, and lobbied federal.

But nobody believed me because I was a professor.

Somebody said, "yeah, yeah, whatever".

They just let you play around over there.

So I thought, this [APR] is great.

This will give me credibility.

And you know what, it really did.

I mean, people 

in the practice, like business people,
corporate people, government people.

When they saw the APR, they said,
"oh, this guy is not just all theory".

"He's for real".





You're the furthest from hiding away in
the ivory tower that I know, Alex, you're

extremely active and contributing
greatly to the profession.

So thank you.

I'd like to switch over--we'll go back
and forth between the chat questions

and some of the questions
that I had prepared.

This is an important
question right off the bat,

and I think it's
good to clear the air on this one.

"What is the investment and time commitment
per week or per month"?

And

I think we spelled out

the financial investment,
which is $495+ HST,

and as well as your CPRS
membership in a chapter.

But as far as the time commitment,

I'll speak to that first
and I'll throw it to the panel.

But I did just observe three people go

through it, and they went through
it in three very different ways.

And I only got to know them in June,

so I'm not sure what their time commitment was prior to that.

But one of them decided to take three

weeks off in October
leading up to the exam.

And that was a very unique approach,
which was a straight-on just going to take

three weeks off and study like mad,
and that was that approach.

Another person got married

in September who was in our group,
and so was very organized from when I met

her in June through till September because
she was studying and preparing

for a wedding
and then wanted to go on a honeymoon

and then come back and study
a little bit in October and write.



So there were different approaches.



For myself,

I felt that I had a very intense time
in December on the work sample overview

and then again, an intense time in March
with the Work Sample in its longer form.

Now, I had a very large document that I

had to condense down, so that may
be different for other people.

We then took a break after we found
out that we passed the Work Sample [in April].

And I would say I started reading
reading articles, preparing articles.

We'll talk later about the binder.

And

it was really, I would say in August,
that I thought I better get cracking

and start studying very
strategically in August, September,

and then, of course, in October. I did
take the week off leading to the exam.

But that was kind of a joke, because I

every day was getting called
away from my studying to work,

and finally took the day two days off
before the exam and tried to lock myself

in a study room at the university and
pretended I couldn't answer the phone.

And that did help.

Claire, what was your time commitment
for this project--while having babies?



I'd say it was similar to you
in that there was a push on--

I'm a deadline person--and I definitely am
someone who works better under pressure.

So,

you know, there were a couple busy weeks
leading up to the work sample overview.

And I used my MCM capstone research too, like
Jane's, the same idea of I was taking this

huge document and trying to figure out how to

condense it and also, like,
fit it into the fairly prescriptive mold

that you get for how everything
needs to be laid out.

So

December,
you know, there's maybe 10 days of really

crazy writing time in addition to
work in the holidays and all of that.

Same in March.

I kind of put it away and then
went back to it in March and

put pressure on myself to get it
done and get it in on time.

In terms of exam prep,

I say September--

like the beginning of September--was
when I really cracked down on myself.

I mean, I'm really interested
to hear what Alex thinks because

he shepherded us through it and he
may say, don't listen to those two.

But,

you know, Jane and I and others in our

group, like we were in touch
about it a whole lot.

It was on the forefront of my mind,

definitely like in the summer
I was thinking about it.

I was kind of book working articles,
but I didn't really,

like, put pen to paper on exam prep until

beginning of September.
And that's when I started.

 What I found was a really helpful approach,
was just doing a bunch of practice exams

and I started those.
I think I did my first one in the first

week of September and just kept doing them
like almost weekly-ish, leading to the exam.

[JA] Dustin and Alex, anything
to add on time commitment?

[DM] So I'm glad to hear
how both of you approach the APR exam, 

really starting to prepare for the
written and oral in August/September.

What a lot of people hear is that, again,

it's a significant time
commitment, which it is.

It's just you have to be wary of your time.

So for December 1st,

you need three names of references
to agree, and you need a 300 to 500 word

work sample and then
you provide your work sample by the end

of December, rather, and then start really
thinking about the final work sample

in February, March, and April.

When I was in the study group,
we started really meeting together

and doing practice exams and weekly phone
calls, I'd say, in the middle of August.

And that prepared us.

It is a commitment, but it won't take over your life.

The important thing is just pace yourself

and take it seriously, because
as someone who has gone through

the APR exam, as well as the CMP exam


I don't know how anybody could walk

into an APR written and oral exam, sight
unseen, no preparation, and be able to do well.



So,

Pace yourself,

put pen to paper--again,
you're not going to be studying every day

from January 1 to [October 23]--but have a plan.

You're really going to start focusing
on your exams around the end of August/

beginning of September.
But as long as you're prepared,

you've done your readings,
you should do fine.

[AS] You know, I'll just add that

what was great about working with

with Jane and Claire was that you
guys are really self-driven.

And, you know, when

what I would tell you is don't don't
look at your PD/Accreditation Chair as your teacher.

Look at them as your as your facilitator,

and as your kind of mentor through
the process. Because they're a volunteer.



And the onus really is on you
 to keep on track and to study.

I think the time commitment,

from what

you guys are telling me and from what

my own experience is:
I think if you want to do it comfortably,

it's probably 3-5 hours a week of studying.

I think that's a fair assessment.

And incrementalism is way
better than cramming.

Cramming will give you a nervous
breakdown and--

you'll get, honestly--

You'll get a 10th out of it what you

would if you if you kind
of went at it slow and steady.

So I would budget like three hours
a week, five hours a week max

for the long period throughout,
which is, I think, exactly what

Claire and Jane, you did
during that period.

[JA] OK, a quick question that's come up

in the chat and also on my list and I
think we'll clear it out of the way right

now, is the question about the references.
Because that's something that if you are

going to go ahead,
you're going to need to get on right now

so that you'll have them lined up
for the December 1st submission.



So how do you go about finding references,
two of whom are APRs?

And Alex, I think I'll start with you

because as National Chief Examiner,
you would probably

be somebody that might be called
in to look at references. Can you

give your advice as far as what makes the
best reference and how do people get other

APRs to be their reference?

[AS] You know what, I mean

honestly,

the ideal situation is that somebody
who knows you and knows your work.

I was fortunate, my references were
Terry Flynn was my colleague at McMaster,

and Heather Pullens, sadly deceased,
but she was sort of

one of our early,
very earliest students in the MCM program.

You know, so I was fortunate that way.
I think a lot of people

who go through programs like
master's degrees are exposed to APRs.

So you have a lot of potential among your professors.

But if you don't have that,

what I would do is
I would talk to the Accreditation Chair

that's going to be running your

accreditation program in your in your [CPRS] society.

I'd ask them,

and possibly somebody else in the society,

you know. If you know somebody
on the board, they don't have to be they

don't have to be your your
professor or your boss.

Like, it doesn't have to be that intimate.

Basically, they just have to say
that you're an ethical person

and that and that you're,
you know, a serious person and that

you're not going to waste your time--and in the
end--anybody else's time and in attempting.

That's really all they're looking for.

[JA] Claire and Dustin, anything to add on how

to obtain references? And Claire,
maybe from speaking from the Atlantic

area, how would you be able
to assist people with that?

[CR] You know, 

the conversations the Atlantic Council's
had about that right now, is if we're

approached by someone and this
is a hurdle for them,

it's really as simple as we would just
sort of facilitate introductions.


We represent three provinces.

So would be like, "who do we know
in that province that could help out" or

in kind of a sector, like maybe
there's a match-up where

there happens to be APR,
not in your province, but in your

industry that you could just have a quick
call with, get to know each other.

It's a good connection no matter what,

even if you decide not
to go forward with it.

It's great to make
a connection with somebody.

So that's what we talked about doing.

And I know, too, I'm not sure if it's been

updated, but there is a list
of all the APRs on the CPRS website.

So it might be worth just having a look.
You may not think you know any,

And then you look at the list and say, "oh,

gee, there is someone in my
community who has it [APR], who I

know or know of, that I could just sort

of reach out to on LinkedIn
for a discussion about it".

I think people are really
generous with their time.


so that's what I recommend.

[DM] I completely agree.

Look at the list of current
APRs on the CPRS National website.

But again, if you still need somebody,
reach out to us. 

We're hosting this webinar right now,

you have our contact information.

If you're interested in taking the APR,
reach out to myself, reach out to Jane,

reach out to anybody

you feel comfortable reaching out to. 
Say that you're interested in earning the APR.

We could have a quick conversation,

learn more about each other,
why you are planning on earning this designation.

But do keep in mind that the references--
you're providing CPRS National three names

on December 1st, you're not
providing actual written references.

CPRS National is going to reach out
to these three people that you've

indicated and they're going to get
the references directly from them.

So all you really need to do

between now and December 1st, or whenever
you hand in those references, is provide

them with a list of three names
and their contact information.

[JA] Thanks everyone, and to that end as well,

at CPRS Hamilton, we will circulate and

if there are people that we don't know who
are requesting references, we will try to

circulate an introduction from any

potential candidate to other APRs
that belong to CPRS Hamilton.

And I also know that CPRS National will do
that as well, that they will try to assist

you in finding other APRs to be your reference.



I think that that's pretty clear we are

here to help you, and it's as simple as
maybe exchanging a resume,

having a phone call, determining
how serious you are about this,

because we don't--it isn't something
you would just take lightly.

The fact that you're all here tonight is

a great indication of your interest in this.

I'd like to move on to the topic
of the work sample overview,

because that's the other thing that would
be due by the end of December.

And several people have asked about
the work sample and work sample overview.

So just so we're clear,

the overview is the short one,
the 500 words--

they literally you have to do a word
count on the top of your submission--

So take that seriously.

And then let's talk about the topics.



Sean is asking what type of work samples
are required and is there a different

treatment preference given to internal,
external, or crisis communications?

We would like to take
that first from the panel.

[CR] I'll give my kind of understanding
of how it all works, I don't know,

I found the work sample--

the summary and the overview--

I found it,

once I wrap my mind around the fact

that it is fairly prescriptive,
like if you read through the manual--

they lay it--CPRS lays out very
clearly what they're looking for.

And I think for a lot of us,

the instinct is to be like,
how can I take this and make it better?

No, you just need to follow
the instructions.

You have to have the word count.

You have to follow the RACE formula.

And once you just sort of do

what's asked of you, the word count came
together and all that sort of thing.

So I think that's more important than

whether or not it was an internal,
external, or crisis project.

I know Jane and I used
grad school research.

That's a fairly new thing for CPRS, but

it seems like it's quite open
to different kinds of projects.

And I know I went through a lot of

the samples in the library online,
just to see what different people did,

and it really seems to run the gamut,
so I'd say pick something that you're

proud of and that you
put it in and that you're willing to spend

a lot of time revisiting
and reformatting over the next couple

of months because you'll be
staring at that document.

Yeah,
you have to be very attached

to that sample, because
not only will you have to write it

in short for the overview and in a little
bit of a longer form for the sample,

you also will be asked
about it in your oral exam.

And it is something that is you want
to feel very strongly about,

and especially that it has
the evaluation component.

So it needs to be a sample that has

a research component and has
an evaluation component.

And I know that that's a luxury that we
don't always have in our workplace.

But think about that and think about
it as an award submission, right?

If you've submitted to awards,
things like that,

you've had to follow very strict
segments of the of the process.

Alex or Dustin, anything about types
of work samples that you would recommend.

.

[DM] I completely agree with Claire,
it is very prescriptive, so

follow the rubric--it's laid out there--

make sure that you have
everything laid out in terms of...

I'll speak for the broader work sample,

I have it up here in front of me.

You're going to have an executive summary.

You're going to have Research,
Analysis, Communication, and Evaluation.

As part of Research, you're going
to have: "what's the primary research"?

"What's the secondary research"?

What's an audit that you did for analysis?

You're going to have your PEST analysis,
SWOT analyses for Communications.

What are the mediums
that used for evaluation?

A question was put in the chat
about "what if I don't have a budget"?

Calculate your hourly wage and use
that if you're not able to use a budget.

So I get paid, let's say
$35 dollars an hour.

I'm going to say that was my budget here,
the hours that I worked for this amount

of time, and that was part
of the budget for this.

And that's something I did for the written

exam too, for calculating a budget which
we needed to do for an aspect of it.

I chose for mine.

It was social media management project I

did for the S.I. Newhouse School
of Public Communications.

And one of the reasons why I wanted to get

my APR was again,
I've been involved with the CPRS

for a long time, but I don't
do a lot of press releases.

I'm not a media spokesperson.

I really do the digital side

of communications with
more of a marketing approach as well.

And I was able to use that approach where

I did a full digital and print
advertising campaign

with the Lubin House at Newhouse,

and I made it fit into the Research,
Analysis, Communications, Evaluation--

the RACE module because it was still,
in its essence, communications.

It's a broad practice
and that worked perfectly fine.

So if anybody has any concerns about, "oh,
I don't have anything that was

specifically straight PR",
maybe it's more digital communications,

maybe it's more customer service,
customer communications focused.

You can absolutely use those.

Just make sure that it's prescriptive.

It follows what they're asking you.

Don't try and

reinvent the work sample in this case.

[JA] Thanks, Dustin

Alex,

just if you can also address as well
the confidentiality of the work sample.

That was one of the questions
in the chat: is it kept confidential?

I know that you can write up a

you don't have to give your exact
budget details, for instance.

Right.
You can you can create that, so to speak.

Alex, you want to speak to that?

[AS] Yeah, for sure.

So so the examiners

all and the

all sign a very strict NDA,
so they are bound to not reveal any

of the details they
read in the work samples.

You can certainly request that your
work sample not be posted.

I, I did not because I
was revealing a lot of my

political communication strategy that--
because I did a case study where I helped

a, I ran communications for
a minister who got elected and,

you know, there were just a lot
of trade secrets in there.



And, you know, my client was really,
really uncomfortable with it ever,

ever being seen with people
outside of the group.

So, but CPRS had no problem with that.

And I can tell you that it's
been 10 years and it's never leaked.

So, yeah, it's people take
confidentiality very seriously.


[DM] And that'll add on to the work sample is

on CPRS National.

We have a library

in Mount Royal University and we have
dozens upon dozens of APR examples.

Claire and Alex were discussing those
you can choose to help them published.

You can choose not to

look at those because they all
have to follow the same formula.

And that's what I did when I
was preparing my work sample.

I read through about 15 of other

people's work samples and it helped
tremendously because it shows you.

Exactly.

What you need to follow,
how integrated comms, how internal comms,

how digital comms, et cetera, followed
this particular work sample outline,

but it also gives you.

More insights for preparing it [Work Sample] for April.

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that, Dustin,

because I was also going to mention
the collection at Mount Royal and actually

opposite to Alex, I agreed to share
my work sample into that collection.

I was invited to do so.
And I did do that.

I happen to be married to a librarian

who is very particular about issues
of copyright and protection of research.

And he assured me

that the Mount Royal Library was
following all the correct procedures.

And so I was comfortable
in having it posted there.

So there are, through Aisling

at the CPRS National or through any of us,
you can access that collection

and maybe you want to use it
for some of your research.

So I think that's a great question.

Are there any other questions
from the floor about work sample?

I see Katrina is asking


if our work sample is related to,

our current position will
be kept confidential.

And I believe you've answered that.

"Can it be an integrated
communications strategy"?

I guess as long as it's
a full project, right.

That has the four steps
of the RACE formula in it.

Is there anything anybody wants
to add to that on the panel, Alex?

[AS] Yeah, one caution with is

what I've experienced
both as a mentor in this in this area and

as an examiner and my very brief time
as examiner thus far is having having

a small is beautiful.

Right.

You know, I think having a broad expanse

of campaigns where you're
heading up a national effort

is actually less in your favor than
somewhere where you

were having a direct impact on strategic
decision making,

where you control budgets,
where you had had input on tactics.

So I would say

an integrated communications campaign is
as good as long as you were really the one

in charge who is forming the strategy
and directing the tactics.

If you're not, it shines through because
you start speaking in generalities

and the example and then
that doesn't fly solo.

Always better to keep it

small and all about you.

[JA] Thanks, everyone.

Just not to spend the whole
night on the work sample.

But I did just want to quickly do a sort
of short snapper question to the panel,

which is what was your biggest challenge
in submitting your work sample overview?

Just a short snapper.

What was your biggest challenge, Claire?

[CR] I think, again
where I used my capstone research,

I found it very hard to distill down
at all when I started it all seemed all

like 75-pages felt important to me.

So to really capture it

in 500 words and I think to like this
happens to all of us, but like I spent,

you know, most of November being like,
oh, just 500 words.

I'll be able to, like,
fire that off in a day.

And then when I sat down at the beginning
of the month to actually do it,

I realized it's going to be like anything
a lot harder than I thought.

So

it's not one I would leave too late.

I think I would start,
you know, start thinking about what your

example might be and then how you can
really capture the essence of that project

and your role in it, to Alex's point, in a page.

And if you can't sort of easily see that,

maybe you want to think about a different project.

I really like how you worded that.

So if you can capture the essence

of the project and your role in it,
your leadership role in it,

try to narrow it down to that destiny.

Because, I mean, I considered doing some

not using my research and doing
different work projects and 

I know the path of least resistance was
using in a lot of ways my capstone,

and because I could really clearly
articulate my role in it,

I didn't have a budget,
but I could see how that could be laid out

as a budget because I could I
could see how it could all unfold.

And that so that's like.

Kind of what led me down that road versus

something I was working on at work where
a lot of my work projects are like.

Agencies are involved or colleagues

from different offices and that sort
of thing, so it just seemed like something

again, this was something smaller
that I had a lot of all the ownership over

and I felt really comfortable
and confident to talk about.

So it's hard to distill down.



But making that kind of smaller piece
of work that I had done made more sense.

Dustin, your biggest challenge?

Not to be all negative here,

[DM] Like everybody is mentioned,
the most difficult part was just taking

this massive project and putting it down into--

What do I have here?

3,000 words for the project overview,
executive summary of 500 words

and I have here--I was one word short
for each, which I'm pretty happy with.

But that was that was
the biggest challenge.

Find something that you're comfortable
with because you are going to be working

on this a lot and referencing it
throughout the rest of the year,

but really making sure that you follow

that prescribed path of the sections; RACE
formula really helps you organized how

much time and how many words you're
going to be putting into each section.

But it's something that you are going to
be reviewing and massaging quite a bit.

But I found that after I wrote it,
I was so happy with it.

I used it as an example of

one of those like work portfolio
samples for my agency.

So it served extra uses, but it is,

you will need to do a lot of finessing for it.

And Alex, a quick challenge that you had,

and then I'm going to ask you a couple
of sort of official questions about that,

for example, that have
come in on the chat.



[AS] It was just distilling the project down
because it was big was a it was

a commsfor a big
political campaign and

it was a complicated thing.

And I had to bring it down
with a lot of detail.

So, like, I had to gloss over parts.

And that was a hard decision, right.

Because we had so many tiny
little tactics that we did.

Right.

What what do I not put in or
what do I not describe?

And that was it was challenging.

It was a strategic
decision in and of itself.

[JA] I'm not sure if anyone on the panel knows

and if you know, Alex, but if not,
we can get back to this person later.

But the timing that the project occurred.

So I know that it's a two year previous

limit and then how can it actually
be still in the works right now?

I say it's not wrapping up until 2021

 or what is the timing around it?

You know what?
We should probably ask Aisling Birmingham

to confirm, but I know the 2-year
number is is one I've heard as well.

And I think--I don't know,

but I mean, confronted with the goings

going forward project idea,
I don't know what the answer to that.

[JA] OK, so sorry about that,
I don't know that either,

so I do know that you can go
back in time up to two years.

Yeah, and

there was a question here about ownership.

So building on this work sample

discussion, how much
of it has to be owned?

If I was the owner of my company,

but I used an agency for research or
another agency for creative

and distribution with that strategy that I
still fought for,

I'd still fall under my ownership
for the purpose of the work sample.

It's my understanding,
and I'll throw this also to Alex

and the others, but I do believe
that you can use some agency work.

You have to detail that in the budget.
But do you want to speak to that, Alex?

[AS] Sorry, could you just repeat,

because I was just looking up at the 2 vs 3 year--
[JA] oh, sorry,

how much ownership can you can you have
you see an agency for research or could

you have used an agency like,
let's say you hired Leger to do alright?

[AS] Yeah, that's

fine.

What about an agency for creative
or distribution, et cetera?

Totally fine.

What you have to demonstrate is

a strategic decision making and the fact
that you had control over the budget

and the fact that really
the choice of tactics was yours.

Right.
Because that's really the key here.

So if you were so fortunate as to have

a budget big enough to hire Leger
to do--or Nanos or whoever--to do

market research for you, then that's great.

I mean, you had that tactic
at your disposal, right?

It's kind of interesting that we mentioned

Leger, because Dave Scholz from Leger,
who actually was our instructor in the MCM,

but he also went through
the APR process with Claire and I.

And so it's people of all ages,

somebody as young as Dustin,
who was one of the youngest in Canada,

to people who are very successful
executives in their organizations,

may reach out and try this designation
at various points in their career.

So don't feel you're too old,
too young ,or too much in the middle.

There is a wide range of people
going through the process to that end.

There is a question about support and not
financial support, but chapter support.

So I just do want to make it clear

that CPRS Hamilton does have
a group I mentioned previously.

We have a very nice little library

of previous documents
that people have put together.

What we walk you through is the creating
of what's called your binder.

And that's it sounds very old school,
but it's very helpful to have because when

you go into the written exam, you are not
allowed to use any electronic resources,

but you can have a binder.

Now, whether that will change over time,
maybe Alex can speak to that.

But you literally have a document.

So you are--it's like an open book exam.

You are allowed to take into the room

with you this document, this coveted binder.

And we and we reached out to people
in years ahead of us as well to help us

understand the best things to have in
that binder, how to organize your binder.

So we did spend quite a bit of the summer
this year, the Hamilton Group,

and talking about how we wanted
to organize our binder,

printing out articles,
creating cheat sheets on all the various

different topics and having those at our
disposal so that we could quickly

while actually writing the exam questions
apply references to literature,

references to theories, et cetera,
to get the top marks possible.

Does anyone else want to speak
about chapter support?

Alex, you certainly gave it,
and you also were the recipient of it.

[AS] Yeah, I mean, I was very fortunate to have

to have my accreditation, sure.

As Melissa McDonald, who's actually moving
on to another profession now, I believe.

But she was fantastic
and she had regular meetings.

It was almost like a study group.

And then Heather Pullen ran our
accreditation and also did it that way.

And I kind of followed in that tradition.

And I think Jane is following that tradition,

to sort of regular meetings,
that's really the best way.

It's almost like a book club.

You know, it's the best way
to to to to take a run at this, I think.

Right.
Because

setting yourself deadlines and expecting

yourself to self motivate through
something like this is really hard.

You know, it's really--

and not only that--you get you
get caught up in your own ideas.

And the essence of this essence
of communications is to communicate.

So, you know, to you,

you just being in a virtual or
a real room with other people and,

you know, bouncing ideas off each
other is key, like, you know,

and you ask questions and they come up and
then, you know, the Accreditation Chair,

Can clarify them with National or

whoever with me, I guess,
once I learn it properly.

But, you know, the I think it's
key to have a study group.

And if you're if your association
doesn't have a study group,

join another association's study group.

I mean, I'm sure they'll
be happy to have you.

You know, in Hamilton,

we've often had people join us from
from other associations, or who weren't

affiliated because,
you know, we have a robust,

such a robust program.

[CR] I would second that too, as somebody

from New Brunswick who joined
the CPRS Hamilton Study Group.

I think having a group

like it, it provided accountability,
but also a really great camaraderie.

Just everyone's in the same boat trying

to figure it out and having those sessions
regularly kept everyone on track and.

Even sometimes I think some of our calls--

I know Jane and I certainly did calls that
was just to like commiserate,

but even that was helpful to move things
along and keep moving forward.

So nobody has to do it by themselves.

And I wouldn't recommend that to anyone.

I'd say if your

[CPRS] chapter doesn't have a group,
reach out to your chapter nonetheless.

There may be enough people to
start one, or they can connect you with

another chapter elsewhere that has
an active study group.

[JA] I just want to quote Claire Ryan,
who said nobody is deferring on my watch.

Because it will cross your mind

unless you have a serious issue, right?

Dustin, if you want to add or should
we carry on with some more questions?

[DM] I just say,

again, the study group--
not to put in financial terms--

but it was more than
worth the price of the application fee,

the $495, just the quality,
the camaraderie.

Again, I couldn't have gone
through it without it.

It really set the structure.

And a lot of it is divide and conquer.
Because we'll get assignments,

we'll have people do readings
and then do a background on it.

So you're not responsible for reviewing everything.



it's just a tremendously valuable benefit,
which we're pleased to offer our members.

[JA] Yes, absolutely.

Alex, you might know this one,

but Alison is asking if we submit our
application early, such as next week,

will we find out before mid-December
if it has been accepted?

Is it a rolling response?

No?

You're just on mute, Alex.

[AS] No, I think it's all at once.

[JA] I think you can rest assured that if you

feel that you have the five years,
you have the references.

You're probably going to be accepted.

Unless there's some question
about your years of service.

[AS] I just I did check that it's
three years, actually [for Work Sample].

[JA] OK, that was great.
I was just going to get to that because

people are asking about that so
you can go three years back now.

[AS] It has to, it says--
I looked in the handbook--

it says candidates should note

that acceptable work samples must be
initiated, completed and evaluated within

the three years prior to your
application for eligibility.

[JA] Great.

So let's just shift a little bit now
and talk about the exams,

even though that's quite a ways that's one
year from now, you guys that you know,

it's 11 months from now, that'll be high on your mind.

But people are asking about the exams a little bit.

So, for instance,

one question about accessibility
and accommodation for exams.

And Alex, you might know this,
but when you go for your oral exam,

your APR, are there accommodations
for people with disabilities?

You know what, that's a very good
question, and it's one that we actually

discussed, and to be honest with you,

it's a priority for me as  the chief examiner,

particularly given the discussions of equity,

diversity, and inclusion that are
happening across the country.

I know that as we kind of
rethink some of the processes

that that we've traditionally used
to make them more inclusive and to embrace

diversity, where
there's going to be a bigger focus on

accounting for different
ways of writing the exam.



I mean, it'll still happen in a place
and it'll still happen ideally,

you know, supervised at a computer terminal.

But I think every effort
will be made to accommodate.

[JA] Thank you.

A quick question from the chat and then

I've got another one to ask for my list
and then we'll see how people are feeling

about if they want to rush to see CNN or not.

What about the research?

How in depth--from Katie--

how in depth does research component
need to be for the work sample?

And I know it's not fair because Claire
and I both been talking about a lot

of research that we would have
done for a master's capstone.

But if it's not that, if it's for work,

what kind of research are they looking for?

Alex?

[AS] What kind of research in the work sample?

[JA] Yeah, and how in depth does it have to be?

[AS] You know, this is one of those

terrible answers that people hate,
but as in-depth as it needed to be.


you know, so if what you're doing is

is, you know,
participating in the launch of a

 totally new

campaign that's breaking

new ground, whether it's
something in public health during COVID.



You probably will have to do quite a bit
of research because there's no precedent.



If what you're doing is,
you know, more in the line of established

precedent then, you know, your research
will be more summery that way.

And it'll focus more on,

you know, researching the kinds
of strategies and tactics

that you'll use rather than doing sort
of environmental scans and that sort

of fundamental research that you would
have to do if you're breaking new ground.

So, you know, it's a tough one to answer.

I would say, you know,
it's the horrible answer, but it's

the research that's appropriate to your case study.



[JA] All right,

Dustin, did you want to talk about what

research--did you use your MA as well?

[DM] So I used the essence of my MA. I'm

looking here, and as Alex said it, it depends
upon what type of role you're doing.

So I'd recommend
go to the work samples available

at Mount Royal University and see
what other research has done.

I did two pages here separated by
three reasons for, in this case,

1) a drop in enrollment due to the financial crisis of 20017,
 

2) increase in competition,
3) lack of program differentiation.

I referenced my master's research where I

looked at graduate credentials across Canada.

It wasn't performed for Newhouse,
but I had conducted the research before.

And then I talked about
secondary research.

And I believe, Sean, you asked about this.

I didn't conduct the research
on behalf of the Newhouse School.

They paid a firm to do this research.

They got the findings.

It was my role to make sense

of the research that they gathered,
and that's what I touched upon.

And then just a slight social media audit,
but two pages is what I had.

But as Alex said, it depends.

And as I said, refer to the samples that are available.

[JA] I think what you were demonstrating was
the need for the communications project.

Claire, anything to add on research?

[CR] No, I think, like I

again, you're trying to fit that
prescriptive rubric of the RACE,

so I had lots I could talk
about for the research, but...

One of the approaches I took was just
making sure I sort of had balance, in terms

of how much I had in each section
to the best of my ability.

And I didn't have a budget.

I kind of had to

create something to put in there.

But

with different projects, like different

components of the RACE model,
you may be able to find yourself being

able to write pages and pages on communication.

But you've really got to just try to tick

all four of those boxes and show that
you've done every step of the project.

And so I find it helpful just to try to make sure that

they were all sort of similar,

in, not necessarily word count,
but in what I was capturing for each.

Like beginning, middle, end of each section was there.

[JA] Thank you,

so we've been at this for about an hour,
which makes me think that it's time to ask

the work-life balance question,
because I'm sure like everyone on this

call, you probably worked all day today, too.

And it was a gorgeous
day in southern Ontario.

And you probably thought
"I should have gone for a walk" instead.

And here we are keeping you late at night.

But let's can we just briefly,
any tips for work-life balance?

Because I really don't want to dampen
the enthusiasm any of you

who are considering pursuing your APR,
because we're all stronger when we have

a stronger APR community across Canada and
we know what that designation stands for.

And I certainly, when I'm posting for jobs

at King's [University College], I'm definitely
looking for those credentials.

So work-life balance.

Any comments on that?

Alex has just written a great blog about

achieving work-life balance
during the pandemic.

Alex, do you want to talk about work
life balance from your perspective?

Because you do a lot.

[AS] Sure, I don't know if it's the best example,

because my work-life balance is kind
of like 90-10 work and 10 life, but it's

what I enjoy, to be honest with you.

So it's not a labour for me.

I think my best advice about work-life

balance is to find the balance that works for you.



So for me, it's a lot of work
and a little bit of life.

For some people, it's the opposite.

And what you kind of have to figure out,

with APR is, does it fit
into the work part or the life part?



And is it something that you're enjoying

or is it something that you're perceiving
that you have to do?

Because if it's like

if you treat it like something that you really want to do,

that you're enjoying doing that you
look forward to doing that.

You are having fun with.


Meeting your fellow candidates,

improving yourself, personal growth--
all that good stuff.

Then it'll fit into your
work-life balance.

It'll just happen.

Because you'll make it happen. If you
perceive it as drudgery and something

that you have to do and that is
imposed upon you, or that you're imposing

upon yourself psychologically,
I think then it'll be harder.



So for me, the angle of attack on
the project is really important.



That's what I would say.

[JA] Claire, you've got a busy life.

What do you think?

[CR] I actually really like the way Alex just

summarized it.
This is not something I did--

Like, I don't think--

my employer didn't expect it.

They didn't even really know. They were not

that tuned in that I was doing it,
I think, until after I got it.

For me, it was part of the work thing

because professional
development is important.

And I wanted to stay connected.

I wanted to become more involved with CPRS.

I like you know, I wanted this other designation.

So it was something I personally really
wanted versus feeling obligated.

And that,

you know, is an important motivator,
I think, for these kinds of things.

And it made--

It made, even in the stressful tense times,

It was still like.

I found some found some fun of it,

you know, we had some fun
calls and even when we 

felt under the gun.

And I really liked actually Alex's advice
at the top of the call around taking

 3-5 hours a week from the beginning.

I wish I had done that.

I didn't.

I say that's like a "do as I say, not as I did".

And I mean, it's a year-long process,

but in the grand scheme of things, it's not. 
A year goes by really quickly. Like,

it's crazy to me that it's already
been a year since we finished.

So

it's one of those like short-term pain, long-term gain situations.







I had to give up some evenings and some

Saturdays and Sundays during
exam prep, but not forever.

And that's just kind of what I told myself
at the time last September and October.

I was like, I'll do this now and then--
never again.

And so keep that perspective,
it's a long year

because it's drawn out and there are
these dates that span the calendar, but

it's not really that long, really.

[DM] Yep, and as everyone said, again,

it is a year, but again,

look at the deliverables.
You have: the work sample due April,.

so you're really going to start
thinking about that in February/March.

The exam is going to be in October.

So you're really going to start focusing

on that in August and September and then
beginning of October.

It is an investment of time,
but it's not going to take over your life.

Did I have to head to Hamilton for a few
Saturdays in a row for study sessions?

Yes, but I had a great cohort
and we had great camaraderie.

So it was useful in that respect, too.

But just pace yourself.

If you're part of a study group,

part of the structure of the pacing
will be put forward to you.

But again, at the end of the--

in one year--once October's done, you get

this nice certificate here and it is entirely worth it.

If you're thinking about it,

if you already have a master's degree and
you're still thinking, "do I need an APR"?

You do.
It's important.

If you're already thinking, you've
kind of made that decision already.

But a master's degree,
academic degree, is great to demonstrate

that you have strong
certified knowledge in a certain field,

e.g., public relations,

communications management.
As Alex said

at the beginning of this, an APR is more--
you're putting that theory into practice.

You have the chops.

And my master's degree wasn't able
to demonstrate that to my students.

The APR was.

And I'm very happy I went through
the process, even if I did go through as

early as I did, because it's over for me now.

I have it.

I've gained all of the
experience from it as well.



It was a full year, but it was a very valuable year.

[JA] Thanks.
And speaking of investment,

there were a couple of questions
in the chat about money

other than application and membership
fees--are there any additional fees?

My answer to that is no, 
and I believe that's correct.

Right, Alex?
There are no other fees?

[AS] No, no official ones.

But there are a couple
of costs you might incur.

Like you'll have to,

you'll probably, you might buy some books,

possibly you might spend some money on paper.

I mean, just to be a completist about it,


about the cost.


One thing I recommend to people, is
the night before the exam

maybe check yourself into a hotel if you have a noisy house.



If you have that luxury to be able to do that,

just so you get a good night's sleep and you know,

nobody says anything upsetting to you in the morning.



So there might be a few
other expenses here and there, but

the fundamental is just the $495.



[JA] And I think those are some good points.

Like you might also need to use some
of your vacation time from work.

So I did save up a week off, to the week

leading up to the exam was supposed to be
my vacation time.

Or if you get professional development, leave time from work,

you might want to start planning to save
up some of that, although I guess we don't

really have much use for our
vacation time right now anyway.



And the other expense also,

if you do care to go to the National
Conference the year after you get your APR,

you are presented with it
at the National Conference,

which we--Claire and I've been to two
of them, in PEI and Edmonton.

And we did see our colleagues
receive their APR at both conferences.

And that's quite a nice occasion.

You do get a lovely pin as well.



And then to maintain your APR, you do
have to maintain your membership in CPRS.

So that would be an ongoing expense.

Somebody has asked, is the fee refundable
in case of not passing the work sample?

I believe you can defer and you can
resubmit your work sample one year later.

How does that work, Alex?

[AS] Again, I have to check the details,
because I'm new to this, too,

but I believe that there's a submission process.

But you know what,

 before I can commit to an answer on that,
let me get back to you on that one.

I do know that if you defer to a certain
point and ask, to say write it next year,

like let's say you've passed your work
sample and then but you can't write

the exams, I believe you have one more
year to write the exams..

But I'm not sure if there's a supplemental fee or not.

There's a question: are there suggested
study and reading lists?

I know yes there are definitely.

In our, at least in our chapter
in Hamilton, we have a lot of suggested

reading lists and so does
the National website.

Is there anything anybody wants
to add to that on the panel?



[CR] Start with the manual that's online,
make that your first.

And read it cover to cover,
it really spells out a lot of it.

I kept it in my binder, like
I just found it was a good

reference document to have throughout the year.

And those lists and all that--
a lot of what we've talked about

in terms of the Mount Royal library and
formatting and RACE model is all in there.

[JA] OK, great.
There still is another question,

just a clarification on how much ownership
of the project you have to have.

Alex, do you have any further
clarification on how much of the project

you have to actually own in order
to submit it as an example?

[AS] You know,
there's a measure of subjectivity there,

but you have to be the principal in the project, really.

Like you, you have to be the strategic decision-maker.

You have to be choosing tactics.

You have to have a hand in setting
and managing the budget.

And, you know, to be the person who's

doing all those three things, it pretty much has to be--

you have to have some sort of
managerial role on the project.

That doesn't mean you have to be a manager

to qualify, but the project has
to be something that you've run.



Otherwise, it doesn't sound credible or authentic.

[JA] Question

for the written exam.

"Assume it's done with a word processor

of some sort--are there tools
like spell check disabled"?

You know, if you make typos in the written

exam, will you fail because
of a couple of spelling errors?

"How much editing would we be
doing as part of the test"?

I do know that I wrote mine remotely.

I didn't go into the examination center.

Dustin, you probably went
into the examination center.



And now with COVID, everyone's writing
it remotely with online proctoring.

And also so I had to have a proctor

who was a person who worked at the university.

I had to book an examination room.

I had to submit to CPRS: where that room
was located, who the proctor was.

They sent the exam to the proctor.

That person monitored me

and I wrote it on my own laptop.

But I had to pledge--
which is part of the whole ethical

reason for being an ethical practitioner
and having your APR is--that I was not

using any outside resources besides my binder.

I did definitely--

I was very, very

observant of any typos--
but I guess I'm vigilant in that from the

days of being a journalist where that was drilled into me.

But anyone else want to comment on that as

far as the technicality of writing the exam?

[CR] I know that we just planned--
it's a timed exam, but--

in planning the writing of the exam we filled

in some time for editing,
reviewing your own work.

I was like Jane and I wrote mine remotely.

I was in a university conference
room here in New Brunswick and

I had the luxury because I was in a room by myself.

I'd like, just write my answer and then

read it aloud to myself and caught a bunch
of things and move on to the next.

And but just like if you're going to give
yourself 45-minutes to write

for a section, make 5-10 minutes of that your review and edit time.

So I think you do lose points for spelling and grammar.

You'd hate to lose marks on that if you can avoid it.

[JA] Yeah, definitely.

And we do have it all mapped out

for exactly how many minutes you
should spend on each question.

And I literally had my phone timer

go off and I would stop exactly
at that time until I got through the whole

exam with 10-minutes here, 90-minutes here,

all these timed out sections,
which we will give you those times.

And then the last half-hour
was for editing and reviewing.

[DM] And I wrote it in person,
so I sat an exam room proctored

at McMaster, there was another
person writing it to the side of me.

It was kind of those partitioned walls that we had.

And we were writing it on word processors,
on the university's own computers.

It was Microsoft Word.

I saw the red underlines.

I saw the blue underlines for grammar--had all of that.

But the most important part is the content.

I think I finished
3h 15 minutes in.

I had 15 minutes left to kind of review.

I really didn't want to review.

So I looked for the most jarring things.

But content's important.

So if you are reaching the end of a
section, your timer is about to go off--

And again, there's not a timer set
for each section that are hard and fast,

It's more so you can keep on your
own kind of pace for the exam--

If you need to write things down quickly
or just go into bullet points,

it's better to have the content there than to have it absent.

And I had to bullet-point a few things myself.

So was it perfect?

No, but I got the content there and that's the key thing.


[JA] Alex,

can you just speak to the overall pass rate?

I mean, how stringent--how many people
write it, how many people pass it?

Do you have that kind of data?

[AS] I don't think we actually disclose
that data, to be honest with you.

But I can check to see whether
we can start doing that.



my sense is that the majority of people...

I'll put it this way: 
if you take it seriously and if you put

in an effort and you think about it
positively and you prepare

the right way, there's no reason you shouldn't pass.

On the writing thing--

just briefly--remember that PR pros 
and communicators in general,

creative professionals, they're often
the word nerds and grammar geeks.


and, you know, while we forgive ourselves,

our typos when we make them, we tend to be very

less forgiving of other people when they do it.

So, you know, it's kind of part of the writer's craft.

When you want to try to make your career,
your document is as clean as possible.

But as Dustin said,

I would always favour content over
being persnickety about that.


[JA] so we are almost and I think we are

at 1.5 hours now, which I think is a pretty,

very generous of the panelists
to give this amount of time.

Thank you all very much.

I think I've covered everything in the chat.

Is there anyone that wants to just turn

off their mic and ask a quick question that hasn't been asked?

[CR] Jane, the question that just came in I think
it's worthwhile addressing Emily

about whether or not,

If you don't have a graduate degree or

formal PR education,
I don't think you need it. Like this is

a panel, people who all have master's degrees.

But in the conversations I've had

with friends and colleagues around here,
as I'm trying to encourage them to go

for the APR, I think having like
years of experience is what's

most important.
And you can learn the theory,

you can do the studying, but

like I think especially with the written
exam, some of the questions,

what you're going to rely on is your own
lived experience,

having worked in PR and things you've
done or things you've been a part of.



I would say, like my recommendation
to Emily, I'd say maybe go for your APR.

And if you really enjoyed spending
the year doing the reading,

getting prepped and you found it
valuable and a good use of your time,

then maybe you want to consider
a graduate program after that.

But this is definitely

faster, cheaper way to test that out.

And you still get your designation at the end of it.




Is was just going to say there

 is the PRK,

which is kind of like
if you want to test yourself to see how

you do in exams, et cetera,
there is the PRK.



[DM] I was just going to say,
in terms of formal education and PRK, I

know this because I researched it,

but until 2007 there really were no formal
bachelor's, master's degrees

in communications management or public relations.

And the APR has been offered
since, I believe, 1968.

So you definitely don't need formal

education in PR, but that five years
of experience really does matter.

And the 5+ years--

Alex, I think this is a good
question for you to answer.



[AS] I think the APR is, the whole point
of the APR is to give you credibility if

you don't have that formal education.


so because a lot of people were coming

in from journalism or from creative
writing or theater and film or,

you know, sort of teaching backgrounds or

in a more the IR vein,
a lot of people were coming

in from finance
and they didn't really have a way

of saying, "hey, I'm a I'm
a competent communicator".



And the APR was the way
that the Public Relations Society

of America, when they invented it,
I think it was in 63, I could be wrong.

That was their solution to that credibility gap.



So don't feel at all stopping if you don't have the education in PR.

That's what it's for--the APR.

[JA] And you do have a whole year to
access a lot of great readings.

The way that they grade the exam,
questions are tiered.

So the people that add more
references to literature, etc.

and maybe reference theories,
et cetera, will get higher marks.

But there still is an acceptable mark
without a lot of theories.

I think we're good to go here,

somebody is just asking,
"can the 5 years be a combination

of part-time and full-time work in the profession"?

[AS] Good question.

I think there's a measure
of flexibility there.

[JA] All right, well,

I see no other questions.
We do have this recording, we will

figure out a way to share this
through our social media and or the CPRS

website, Hamilton chapter
website, possibly, Dustin.

And thank you all,

but really thank you to the panel,
you guys have given it all to CPRS

and to the APR, and then to come out again tonight and

share your knowledge is really the true sign of a pro.

.

So thank you on behalf of everyone here tonight.

And with that, I will wrap it up.









Hi, lovely to see you guys.
Have a good night.