Professional Organizations

It never really occurred to me to branch out and look for an organization of professionals who share the same education as me.  Now that we are on the cusp of graduation, I feel it might behoove me to branch out and try new things.  Below are the five I selected, placed in my particular order of interest.

Public Relations Society of America - http://www.prsa.org/

PRSA provides professional development, sets standards of excellence and upholds principles of ethics for its members and, more broadly, the multi-billion dollar global public relations profession.  They are the largest organization of public relations professionals in the world.  With over 21,000 members, this organization is quite sizeable and carries a lot of weight in its field.  Their focus is to spread information and innovations in the field of public relations.

Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals - http://amcpros.com/

AMCP administers and judges several international competitions for marketing and communication professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of marketing and communication programs and print, visual and audio materials.  This organization was founded with competitive communications in mind.  They are involved with PR firms, Ad agencies, design shops, production companies, and more.  Their focus is marketing, but they also seek to broaden communications knowledge worldwide.

National Communication Organization - http://www.natcom.org/#

The National Communication Association advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry.  This organization's focus is on a broad topic of communications in general.  They wish to advance free and ethical communications as well as promote appreciation of all things communications.

IEEE Communications Society - http://www.comsoc.org/

I have actually known about this one for years.  I first heard about them when I flew on AWACS.  They make use of the IEEE-488 bus that is used for test equipment.  This bus became a technology standard back in the 1970’s.  Imagine flying on a 1980’s military aircraft with 1960’s technology in 2009.  Well I did!  And that goes to show their technology still works (albeit a little slowly).

This Communications Society, or ComSoc as they call it, is community comprised of a diverse group of industry professionals with a common interest in advancing all communications technologies.  Their focus is Communications, but mainly the science, technology, and engineering side.  That being said, I probably wouldn’t join because I am not an engineer but the IEEE ComSoc is a great organization that has done a whole lot to advance communication globally.

International Communications Consultancy Organization - http://www.iccopr.com/

The main focus of this organization is Public Relations.  They are a consortium for senior management of the world's best PR consultancies to meet and address issues of mutual interest and concern. To belong to this organization seems to be quite a big deal as they claim to represent over 1,500 firms.

 I would consider joining the Public Relations Society of America.  The reason for this is because I am very interested in Public Relations.  Anything to put myself in the lead amongst my peers would be helpful, especially in today's competitive job market.