One of my goals as President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in 2014 was to realign the organisation with its vision and purpose.

I hope that the year will be characterised as a period when the CIPR reasserted a commitment to professionalism as set out by the founders of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) in 1948, and committed to statute through its Charter in 2005.

A key component of this work is to clearly set out the member journey for members leading to Chartered PR Practitioner accreditation.

New book launched

I hope that a new book released today called Chartered Public Relations: Lessons from Expert Practitioners published on the tenth anniversary of the CIPR’s Charter will be an important contribution to this effort. Its an anthology of essays on modern practice by Chartered Public Relations Practitioners.

My objective as the book’s project manager and editor is to celebrate the work of Chartered PR Practitioners and create a substantive piece of work that can act as a showcase to encourage other practitioners to achieve Chartered status.

I also hope that the project will also make a valuable contribution to the community of public relations practice, and the advancement of public relations thinking worldwide.

The book tackles five critical areas of the development of public relations as it shifts to a more professional approach.

• The shift to the open organisation – the application of public relations within every area of a modern organisation
• Developing areas of practice – an exploration of the opportunity in developing areas of public relations
• The application of best practice – an analysis of the application of public relations in different markets
• International – the impact of the globalisation of markets on public relations
• Reflections – an examination of the fundamental theories of public relations and their application to modern practice

Contributors

The book features contributions from public relations experts from organisations including Specsavers, Thomson Reuters, and the University of Cambridge.

The expert practitioners are Matt Appleby, Catherine Arrow, Hilary Berg, David Crundwell, Richard Flynn, Susan Fox, Jane Howard, Julie McCabe, Matt Mckay, Anne Moir, Paul Mylrea,Paul Noble, Clare Parker, Linda Rolf, Alan Smith, Sally Sykes, Martin Turner, Ben Verinder, Peter Walker, and myself.

Growing the community

The CIPR has a stated ambition to rapidly grow the community of Chartered PR Practitioners and celebrate the work of this important community as a mark of the shift of public relations towards a clearer statement of profession standards.

If you believe as I do that the public relations industry needs to make the shift from a craft to a profession then you should sign up to Continuous Professional Development (CPD) via the CIPR and start your own journey to Chartered Practitioner.

I hope that Chartered Public Relations: Lessons from Expert Practitioners inspires you to start your journey to Chartered PR Practitioner accreditation.