I can hardly believe that January is almost here and it's time for me to step into the role of president of the chapter.  I have big shoes to fill, following in Becky Lawson's footsteps, but I am so excited to be at the helm of the premier organization for public relations professionals in Hampton Roads.

This is going to be an exciting year for PRSA.  Thanks to your feedback in the various surveys we conducted throughout 2007, we are making some changes that will benefit our members this year.  You told us that you wanted greater depth in the speakers and workshops that we hold and greater networking opportunities. We heard you.

This year, we are reducing the number of regular monthly meetings and holding meetings every other month, to allow us the flexibility to spend greater resources to bring in a higher-caliber of speakers to share their knowledge and expertise with our chapter. I encourage you to put the dates on your calendar. You won't want to miss any of the meetings of this year, as they are all fantastic.

We start out on January 9 with internationally-recognized public relations guru, Jim Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, who is coming in from New York, to share info with us on "Transforming Managers into Better Communicators." That's followed on March 5 with a half day workshop on eMarketing. You can roll up your sleeves and dive right in putting what you hear into practice. We're holding that event at the ESI training facility in Virginia Beach so computers will be available.

Other events this year include sessions on Jamestown 2007, political PR (the day after the election, should be quite interesting) and on October 1, Larry Hincker, the Associate VP of University Relations from Virginia Tech will be here to talk about their crisis management of the Tech shooting last year. We're also working on putting together a media panel to feature national media representatives and plans are underway for our professional development workshop.

We're also launching a "pub crawl" in 2008 to provide greater networking opportunities. We'll hold one per quarter and it will be a great opportunity, after work (over adult beverages!) to get to know each other in a relaxed setting.

For those of you who were at the social in November, you heard me mention that our chapter is only as good as we-as volunteers-make it. I'd like to thank the 2008 board members and committee chairs who have agreed to step up to the plate to lead our organization this year. And, I'd like to encourage all of our members to get actively involved. Our chapter will grow and succeed and benefit all of us, if all us lend our expertise to the cause.  We have a great year in store and it can only get better with your support.

Happy New Year to you all!