AS part of my periodic meetings with each department of the bank's regional headquarters, I was scheduled for a meeting with the Public Relations Department. My meetings with branches were not limited to visits, as they extended to include each department alone. Before any meetings with any department, my secretary used to collect all the data about the department of which I was going to meet the head and the personnel. Those data included the organisational structure of that department within the bank's general organisational structure, the job description of each employee, the objectives required to be realised by the department during this year and the extent to which such objectives were achieved, in addition to the inspector's report prepared in respect to that department, the response of the department on that report, and the minutes of previous the meeting with the department. My meetings with the other departments used to result in many accomplishments and solutions, after identifying main problems and obstacles facing those departments when completing assigned jobs. I also got acquainted with the department's relations with other departments. Some departments of the regional headquarters were bankingrelated, such as the credit department; and some others were technical such as the IT department. Others were administrative, such as the administrative affairs department. The public relations department was assigned administrative tasks. However, it was completely different from the marketing department to which the marketing of all bank's services, activities, and products was assigned while the public relations department was responsible for improving the image of the bank towards others, and continuing in creating a positive corporate image towards all parties with which the bank is dealing. It is a department reporting directly to me so that it can fully complete the tasks designated to it and immediately overcome all the obstacles it faces when completing those tasks. According to the scientific definitions of public relations, it is considered the art that is based on scientific bases to examine the most appropriate ways of dealing between the bank and its clients, whether locally or abroad, to achieve the bank's objectives while taking into account the values, social norms, laws and public morality which must govern ways of dealing. It was also defined as the management, which is in charge of realising mutual understanding with all the parties the bank deals with. This includes conducting surveys on the opinions of those parties on the bank's performance and acceptability of its activities, services and products, and then permanently working, according to survey results, to the satisfaction of the people who deal with the bank. I referred to the minutes of the previous meeting conducted with that department to find out that I had defined, during that meeting, the tasks of the director of public relations in general and in accordance with the job description card, that the director must develop a plan for connection means with all parties the bank deals with. He also must deal with those parties as a spokesperson on behalf of the bank, and work to establish good relationships with all employees in the bank, and with current, potential, or targeted customers, as well as with all those the bank dealt with. Moreover, he must co-ordinate with other departments concerned with issuing the bank's annual reports, as well as publishing the bank's positive news in newspapers, magazines and specialised periodicals. Part of the annual duties of the Public Relations Department was organising the annual gala hosted by the bank for all of the bank personnel, during which the bank's achievements for the previous year are reviewed, and its targets for the next year are identified. The director of public relations had always been the star of this event in terms of preparation, follow-up and presentation of the gala's programme. The department is also responsible for overseeing the bank's advertising campaign and selecting the promotional materials that the bank distributes as gifts at the end of each year to its customers and to all the parties the bank deals with; and dealing with printing houses in designing andprinting brochures and manuals for the bank and its products. The functions of public relations at banks have developed and had other significance other than that known previously as work expediting department.
