Debra Bethard-Caplick, APR
Managing Partner
Private citizen
Chicago, Illinois
Applying for: Midwest District Director
Alternate Position(s):
Biography
Debra Bethard-Caplick, MS, MBA, APR, is a founding partner of Quicksilver Edge Strategic Communications, a boutique public relations firm providing veteran expertise to clients with a focus on healthcare, governmental and generational communication issues. The the firm's name, Quicksilver, is another name for liquid mercury and is a humorous nod to the evolving hair color of the partners and the firm’s responsiveness. She is an adjunct PR instructor at DePaul University, a past chair of PRSA Midwest District and president of PRSA Suburban Chicago and the chapter's longtime PRSA Assembly delegate. She is a life member of the International Association of Business Communicators, the Immediate Past Chief Ambassador of the Illinois Jaycees, and travels the country as a trainer and public speaker on communications issues.
In addition to her Silver Anvil and Gold Quill Award-winning client work, she serves as the professional adviser to the PRSSA chapter at Olivet Nazarene University, #PRLove!, blogs on the fun and foibles of the public relations profession at www.APRwriter.com and collects memorabilia on PR history. She's currently working on a book on public relations for the non-communications executive, and is happy to debate the value of the Oxford comma with anyone.
She lives with her husband and five “furry children” (dogs) in Chicago and in her spare time goes camping and fly fishing in her vintage 1968 Ritz Craft camper with the Sisters on the Fly, a women’s outdoor adventure group where she is Sister #5726.
Debra earned her B.S. degree from Illinois State University in 1988, and her M.S. in Management-Public Relations and MBA degrees from the University of Maryland in 2007. She has been Accredited in Public Relations since 2001.
PRSA Accomplishments
SIlver Anvil Award, 2014
PRSA Skyline Award of Excellence, 2014
PRSA Suburban Chicago President, 2011-2013, 2016-2017
PRSA Midwest District Chair, 2014
PRSA National Elections Committee, 2012-2013
PRSA Midwest District Conference Committee, 2012
PRSA Suburban Chicago Assembly Delegate, 2007-2013, 2016-2017; Alternate, 2014-2015
PRSA Marketing & Branding Committee, 2007
PRSA APR Marketing Committee, 2007
PRSA Suburban Chicago Director, 2004-2006
Health Academy Board, 2006
PRSA Suburban Chicago Newsletter Editor, 2002-2003
Health Academy Conference Committee, 2001- 2005
Health Academy Interim Newsletter Editor, 2005-2006
Governance Skills
My governance experience has been earned from all areas of nonprofit/association life: as a board member, association president, a regular member, and as association staff for multiple associations and nonprofits. As a board member/president, I have led or participated in the strategic planning process multiple times. As a staff member, I have experienced the challenges and successes of implementing those plans, and as a regular member I have seen the results. While with the Jaycees for nearly 10 years, my "area of expertise" was in the administrative and fiscal management area. During my two years as local treasurer I was responsible for managing three separate checking accounts (including one dedicated to our casino nights fundraising activities) and two savings accounts. Our annual budget approached $100,000 annually - the profits from our Haunted House fundraiser alone regularly netted $10,000 or more. As part of those responsibilities, I developed a system of checks and balances to ensure that all expenses matched receipts. I was also responsible for securing and maintaining chapter incorporation registration, casino licensing, and dramshop and regular insurance. Chapter funds were dispersed for projects only after receiving board approval of chairmen's planning guides. Each project followed a set of planning and results reporting requirements, which, when met successfully, qualified the projects for state, national and international award consideration. As treasurer, I was responsible for the fiscal management of the chapter and these projects, and later, as the management vice president, I shepherded the projects through the approval process and submission to state, national and international organizations. Also as the chapter's management VP, I managed the chapter's "Blue Chip" process, which included an annual chapter strategic plan, which was evaluated at year end as part of the awards process.
Leadership Skills
Over the course of my career, I have had the opportunity to observe leaders ranging from outstanding to average to truly horrendous. It's no cliche that the leader of an organization sets the culture for the entire organization, and they do this through their actions. As an example, one of the failed leaders I worked with lost the support of an entire front office staff by complaining about being the last car in the parking lot at the end of the day, totally disregarding the fact that no one else had the luxury of rolling into the office at 11:00 am. A true leader shows by his or her actions that they are a part of the team - not above it. And as a part of a team, you work together. For example, member recruitment is a major focus of the Jaycees, and I once managed to acquire four new members by the simple act of attending the wake of a chapter member's relative. I wasn't personally acquainted with this member yet, but as the new chapter president I felt it was my responsibility to attend - and that changed how the family viewed the chapter. As a result, they became active members.
At some point I have been a member or the president/chief of almost every volunteer or professional organization of which I have been a member. A true leader isn't building their resume, or collecting glory. True leaders integrate disparate individuals with their own individual talents and goals into a functional team that works to achieve something beyond themselves. Leaders not only set the tone for an organization, they need to identify "sub-leaders" - those at other levels within the organization who make the organization succeed - and make sure that these individuals can achieve their goals.
Strengths
Strengths are like your muscles - you have to use them to keep them strong. A weakness is just a strength that hasn't gotten enough attention. Like many in the profession, I have never been particularly comfortable with numbers, which is why I seek them out. Only by facing this weakness can I develop the necessary skill level. One of the strengths I've worked on over the years to succeed is patience and an ability to listen to people, to figure out what the underlying point is. Few people will tell you directly what they want or need, even when asked. It's not something we're culturally comfortable with, or even aware of. Learning to listen is crucial, and it's not something that came naturally to me.
As a long time member of nonprofit/associations, including PRSA, and a member of PRSSA before that, I have seen management ideas come and go, and come around again. Although a naturally impatient person, I have developed the patience to know that even in the instant-demand and gratification world the Internet has created, some initiatives take time to implement and be accepted, no matter how much I would wish it to happen right away. There is always something that can be learned or used, even from failure. I've learned a lot over the years, sometimes more than my fair share, or so I've thought.
Teaching college students at DePaul has had an unexpected benefit for me, in that it gives me a completely different perspective into the profession and the value of organizations. I have benefited immensely by being able to see the world from their perspective, particularly when it comes to understanding what they view as necessary to develop their careers - because this is what PRSA needs to know for the future.
Volunteer Commitment
Stepping up to serve as a PRSA director is something that I have considered for several years, but the time was never right, personally and professionally. In the early 2000s, my mother came to live with us, and I needed to make her my priority. Later, when I no longer had that responsibility, I planned to step up, but my local chapter was experiencing tough times and needed my attention, so once again I put my plans aside. I have spent the last year preparing for this step, organizing my personal and professional life so that I would have the time to dedicate to serving PRSA as a director. I have no one at home needing my care, except for a husband and my dogs, and I have an excellent pet sitter who takes care of the fur kids when I travel. I am self-employed and set my own schedule, except for the classes I teach on an adjunct basis during the school year, and the occasional absence is covered by fieldwork assignments I have developed over the years as a substitute. Over the past two years, I have slowly been reducing my role within other organizations in preparation for devoting more time to PRSA.
Position Statement #1
Prompt: The lines continue to blur among the disciplines of public relations, marketing, IT and customer service, and the need increases to create more collaborative teams and hybrid professionals. PRSA has continued to evolve and respond to these issues in support of our members, partners and colleagues. What do you believe are the strongest components of PRSA’s strategic plan that will help our members address these challenges, and how will PRSA remain relevant and sustainable for the future?
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, "The plan is nothing; planning is everything." While I don't necessarily agree that a plan is nothing, I have learned enough over the course of my career that there is a lot of wisdom in Robert Burns'
statement that "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ gang aft a-gley." In short, life happens. In PR, it happens frequently, and we have to be prepared as individuals, as professionals, and as an association for the next thing that comes down the pipeline - because the only sure thing is that SOMETHING is coming. PRSA's 2017-2019 Strategic Plan does a good job of analyzing where we are as a profession and as an organization, particularly in painting a coherent picture of what is driving the evolution of the profession. It sets the foundation for where we as an organization are going - now it's up to the members to put up the framework and continue the building process.
I consider the strongest part of the strategic plan the focus on expanding the membership community, in particular the list on page 17 where it states that one of PRSA's focuses is to "create a package of deliverables for Chapters, Districts and Sections that will help attract and retain target members." This is an area I have focused on in my efforts to return PRSA Suburban Chicago to solid footing. We hear over and over that people join PRSA because of the networking and opportunities at the local level. To continue to grow and provide what our members need, today chapters need to successfully compete with other sources of professional development that didn't exist when I first joined PRSA as an associate member back in 1989. Chapters need to provide members with services and resources at the local level as part of their chapter dues, services that they don't have to pay additional for, or that they can obtain from PRSA national. These "local only" benefits will help increase the number of members opting to join or maintain their chapter membership status. We need to remain relevant to these members in order to sustain the organization into the future and this is one way we can do that. There are other ways we as an organization can give local chapters the tools to compete, and we need to be talking with these chapters' members to get those ideas back to the national organization.
Position Statement # 2
Prompt: PRSA has become more complex and diverse in recent years. While the Society must become nimbler, we also are cognizant that we must help prepare our members to meet tomorrow’s challenges as leaders at every level. The role of the communications professional will continue to evolve, and PRSA will anticipate future trends, and support our members at every stage of their career. As a member of PRSA’s national board, what do you see as your role in contributing to helping our membership meet tomorrow’s challenges as leaders?
The role of a director on the PRSA national board, my role is assist the elected chair in furthering the aims of the organization to advocate for the profession and those who work as PR professionals. The chair comes into that position with a vision for what she or he wants to achieve, and as a director, it is part of my role to assist the chair and the other national officers to achieve that vision, to provide information and advice, and, on occasion, to provide constructive criticism and an alternative to accomplishing what needs to be done. At the same time, it's my responsibility to represent the voice of the member in the affairs of the organization. I must keep an eye on the future, recognize the opportunities and challenges that future is bringing to the national executive team and to the members of the organizations, and help PRSA develop the training and tools to enable members to successfully navigate what the future brings.
Although elected from a specific geographic area, it is my responsibility to work for and represent all of the members of the organization, whether from my specific geographic area or not. However, at the end of the day, it is my responsibility as a director to be a contributing member of the PRSA team, in whatever capacity I am needed.
Debra Bethard-Caplick, APR
Category
Midwest District Director