TOCA President Ed Hiscock

By Ed Hiscock, TOCA President

As we head toward Election Day 2008, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard some candidate’s ethics called into question. Maybe
this is warranted, maybe not, but I have found myself thinking that perhaps we should build covered walkways that lead from the county courthouse, the statehouse and Congress directly to a building run by
the state or federal penal system. It just seems like it would save so
much time.

All cynicism – justified or not – aside, when elected or appointed officials make poor ethical choices it’s up to the people – represented by our governmental and legal institutions – to sit in judgment and determine if the infraction was an understandable mistake or something more sinister.

But who watches us – individually? The answer, of course, is that we’re all alone in our ethical decisions. No one else makes them for us; no one else would want to. However, we are known in the world by the decisions we make on ethical questions, and if you’re like me you can name at least a couple of people from your professional life who are known for consistently being on the wrong side of professional ethical choices.

It’s with this backdrop that TOCA over the last year has been looking at professional ethics – or in our parlance, professional communications standards. The topic was on the minds of attendees at last year’s annual meeting in Savannah, and although there was disagreement as to whether such standards are necessary, the board determined that a board subgroup should look into it.

The first step was a survey of the membership this spring that elicited attitudes toward professional communications standards. Prepared by TOCA board member McGavock Edwards and Carrie Antonelli of the Catevo Group and with input from the board, the survey revolved around “Green Industry communications and the different roles editorial, advertising, etc., should play.”

The survey revealed that 60.5% of responding TOCA members believe that the association should lay out a set of professional communication standards. As a result, the subgroup is now examining existing codes of ethics and professional communication guides from organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America, American Business Media, the American Society of Business Publication Editors and others. The group will reconvene in late September to discuss adopting specific examples from these codes that may be applicable to TOCA, or whether the association should create its own set
from scratch.

We’ll keep you posted on this effort, and any code will, of course, be brought to the membership
for approval.

In the meantime, keep in mind TOCA’s GIE+Expo breakfast reception, sponsored by Bayer, and set for Friday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 a.m. in Room C109 of the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.
And remember, it’s not unethical to take a second bagel.