Reel benefits of IABC membership

By Mirko Petricevic 

Sticker shock prevented me from pulling out my credit card the first time I saw the cost of IABC membership dues. It was about a decade ago. I was thinking about shifting gears from a decades-long career in newspapers to work in corporate communications.

A former colleague who had already made the jump recommended IABC to me. But I had never paid more than a hundred bucks for professional membership dues and I wasn’t about to splurge on something I (wrongly) thought was little more than a social club.

Alas, wasted years ensued.

Years wasted on stumbling through work challenges that I could have confidently overcome with the help of professional development resources including, primarily, the advice of experienced professional communicators.

And while my learning accelerated soon after joining IABC, I didn’t expect the benefits of membership to spill over into my part-time passion — advocating for local journalism.

Although I chose to leave the newsroom nearly a decade ago, I have never stopped appreciating the value of professional journalism.

It’s the reason I joined with ex-newsroom colleagues to create the grassroots advocacy group ink-stained wretches.org

Since forming in the wake of pandemic lockdowns in early 2020, we have been conducting campaigns in an effort to build a culture of appreciation for local journalism.

Our main target has been municipal councils across the country because, although many people appreciate good journalism, too few Canadians value it enough to pull out their credit cards.

So, our scrum of ex-news workers has been urging elected leaders to voice support for professional journalism and to help us recognize the United Nations’ annual observance World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

But elected leaders aren’t the target of our newest project — our audience is anyone who loves democracy, journalism, and getting together with friends for a movie.

And our project wouldn’t have come together so smoothly if I hadn’t joined IABC. While at a Waterloo chapter networking event in 2022, I met fellow member Peter West CMP ®️ .

In addition to serving on the local chapter board, Peter is a board member of the Grand River Film Festival .

After sharing that I wanted to start a journalism film fest, Peter set aside time, looped in one of his GRFF colleagues and we explored how the wretches might stage the festival.

Fast-forward to this past March for the premiere of The Journalism Film Festival at the Apollo Cinema in downtown Kitchener. So far, we’ve screened three of four films in the lineup . Our next movie, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, is the classic film Network.

The screenings are proof that IABC is more than just a forum for professional development. In my case, it’s helping build community.

Mirko Petricevic CMP ®️ is the co-ordinator of the grassroots volunteer advocacy group inkstainedwretches.org See the film fest lineup at journalismfilmfestival.com