Puerto Rico Public Relations Association

NEW YORK, NY (July 21, 2004) - The Universal Accreditation Board (UAB) has announced that its 10th member organization has joined the association. The Puerto Rico Public Relations Association (Asociación de Relacionistas Profesionales de Puerto Rico), a group of 200 public relations professionals, 20 of whom are Accredited, has joined the UAB this year. The Puerto Rico Public Relations Association has its headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Spokesperson for the Puerto Rico Public Relations Association Gigi de Mier, APR, Fellow PRSA, said, "We wanted to join the UAB for various reasons. First, as a national association, we wanted to represent ourselves on the Universal Accreditation Board. Also, there is a growing demand locally for Accreditation and we feel we might be able to help develop the examination in Spanish for there are quite a few Latin American organizations interested in the Accreditation Examination.

"The Puerto Rico Public Relations Association also is an active member of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and through that association promotes an alliance between these organizations on the need for Accreditation in public relations," adds de Mier.

The Universal Accreditation Board, which was created in 1998, is a consortium of ten professional communications organizations including the Agricultural Relations Council, Florida Public Relations Association, Maine Public Relations Council, National School Public Relations Association, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Religion Communicators Council, Southern Public Relations Federation, Texas Public Relations Association and now the Asociación de Relacionistas Profesionales de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Public Relations Association). Each organization contributes resources and senior-level volunteer members who represent all segments of the public relations profession. The UAB oversees the public relations profession's professional certification program. A revised Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations was launched in July 2003.