UAB Accreditation Tips and Tools — October 2018

Need a Mentor to Help a Candidate?

An APR mentor is someone who has already earned his or her APR and has volunteered to support others on the journey. APR mentors can help a candidate assess if, and when, they are ready to apply, keep a candidate on track, share their own APR experience and offer study tips and feedback. APR mentors are not teachers, they are cheerleaders — their role is to support a candidate while that candidate works to achieve the APR credential. If you think a candidate would benefit from an APR mentor, consider the APR Mentor Match, newly created by the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB). Begin by reviewing the APR Mentor Match guidelines. If the process sounds like a fit, ask the candidate to email the volunteer Mentor Match coordinator at APRmentor@praccreditation.org. The coordinator will identify a willing mentor, often in the same geographic area, but some pairings will use “remote mentoring.”

Urge Your Candidates to Take the Next Step

If you know a candidate who is ready to take the Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations, urge them to go ahead with their Panel Presentation.  In the Five Steps to Earning Your APR, it’s the third step, where a panel of three Accredited members assess the candidate’s competence in several areas not evaluated by the computer-based Examination. Some of these areas include interpersonal skills, communication skills, flexibility and whether a practitioner uses multiple delivery mechanisms. The presentation reviews a campaign or case study, not the candidate’s entire body of work over the course of their career.

Candidates can get all of their questions answered about that process by downloading the Panel Presentation Guide and Materials document. There is also an APR Panel Presentation video that gives a visual aid of how a Panel Presentation would unfold.

Celebrate the Achievements of New APRs

All Chapters are encouraged to conduct some kind of APR recognition activity. Those activities could include “APR Pinning Ceremonies” at Chapter award events, articles in print or e-newsletters, email announcements and Chapter website postings.
Other ways to recognize APRs:

  • Host an APR social.
  • Designate an APR table where Accredited members can sit and be recognized at a Chapter function.
  • Recruit APRs to participate at a display booth for Accreditation at an upcoming event.
  • Have a door prize drawing for Accredited members who wear their pins to a luncheon.
  • Hold an APR storytelling special event for anyone interested in learning more about Accreditation.
  • Feature an Accredited member of the quarter in an upcoming newsletter.

APR Maintenance Is now APR Renewal

Beginning in 2019, APR Maintenance will be called APR Renewal. Be sure to remind current APRs in your Chapter of any upcoming professional development opportunities, and while you are at it, remind them that serving on Panel Presentations or assisting you with study sessions for candidates prepping for the APR Examination count as renewal points. APRs will still need 10 points over the three-year period. Some additional changes regarding points have been made to the APR Renewal form that will be posted in January APR Renewal is a very important part of retaining Accredited members for your organization — and they have worked so hard to earn it. They are an invaluable resource for your organization as well as for candidates seeking APR. Visit: https://accreditation.prsa.org/