Meeting/Event Information

The U.S. Constitution recognizes and protects the First Amendment in regard to the freedom of the press and its responsibility to report all news. The First Amendment contains five basic freedoms including freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Freedom of the press is the fundamental principle that communication and expression is a right to be exercised freely through various media including print and electronic.

The First Amendment belongs to every one of us, and we are all enriched and empowered by it. The First Amendment gives us the right to criticize our government. But how can we exercise that right if we don’t know what our government is doing? Access to information is key. Bureaucracies are naturally secretive, and the public must constantly defend its right to know. Transparent, accountable government is not a partisan issue – it’s a core value in a democracy. 

The purpose of the New Mexico Foundation of Open Government (NMFOG), a 501(3)c non-profit organization, is to advocate, educate and litigate to help New Mexicans protect their rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution. NMFOG helps the general public, students, educators, public officials, media and legal professionals understand, obtain and exercise their rights and responsibilities under New Mexico “sunshine laws.”

New Mexico’s sunshine laws include the Inspection of Public Records Act, Open Meetings Act and Arrest Record Information Act; their rights under the federal Freedom of Information Act; and their First Amendment rights. A key to democracy is information and today, more than ever, we live in an information age. 

Join New Mexico Public Relations Society of America for its next program, New Mexico FOG: Living in the Information Age, on Thursday, September 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

Join NMFOG interim executive director Melanie Majors as she guides us through the ins and outs of New Mexico’s sunshine laws, how they apply to you and what you need to know as a communications and public relations practitioner to protect your client and yourself.  

About our guest…
Melanie J. Majors has an extensive public relations and communication background with more than 35 years in the industry.  She is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico’s Communications and Journalism Department. Majors was a print reporter for seven years and later was an assistant assignment editor and a producer for KOB-TV 4. 

She is the current executive director of the 30-plus-year-old New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, an organization focused on advocating, educating and litigation on behalf of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act and the Open Meetings Act. She also conducts media training in conjunction with the New Mexico Broadcasters Association and is a past president of the New Mexico chapter of PRSA.

Majors has vast experience in strategic planning, crisis management, employee management, as well as the research, writing and distribution of news releases; writing and producing new promotions; public service announcements and advertising sales commercials.

Her past clients have included the U. S. Department of Energy, U. S. Trade and Development Agency and the U. S. Department of Commerce as well as ABQ Health Partners, Devon Energy Corporation, Forest City Covington NM LLC, Lovelace Health Systems, New Mexico State Engineer, New Mexico Department of Transportation and the Albuquerque Police Officers Association. For these and other clients, Majors had specialized in speech writing, planned media, writing and distributing news releases, advertising and other media relations.

She is the recipient of numerous awards from the New Mexico Press Association, New Mexico Press Women, the Associated Press Managing Editors and the New Mexico Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, which honored her with the Vista Award in 2008. 

For more information, visit New Mexico FOG.

Luncheon Costs

• Tickets are $30 for NMPRSA members and students, $35 for non-members, and $10 for virtual all attendees (members, non-members, students).