by Riney Jordan Author, Motivational Speaker TSPRA Member since 1981
Oh, my goodness! Sixty years! TSPRA has been around for 60 fast-paced years! The year was 1962 when a handful (make that a small handful) of visionary school public relations practitioners gathered together and decided to make a Texas chapter of the National School Public Relations Association. I wish I had been there, but as the Texas bumper sticker says, “I got there as quickly as I could.” The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees decided in 1981 that the district was big enough to create a Department of Communications. Because I had spent seven years in radio during high school and college, they called me in, told me about the new position and said, “Son, you’ve got the job.” Experience? None. Qualified? No way. Excited about the possibilities? Oh, yeah! I’ll never forget talking to the superintendent the next day. “What do you see as our most immediate need?” I asked. “Morale. We’ve got a morale problem. See what you can do to fix it!” he snapped. I thought at great lengths about how to solve this morale problem. 38
Winter 2021 | www.TSPRA.org
