Secure PRactitioners members' mandate; seek an early, quiet signal of support from the Minister of Communications; identify the independent Chair; invite all exploratory conversations into one Working Group.
Members' mandate and ministerial signal in hand; parallel conversations brought into the room.
Convene the founding Working Group; run the pre-mortem session; commission the independent benchmarking review of existing credentials including APR.
Agree safeguards before drafting governance documents.
Test the draft standard and tiers across all principal bodies and the wider profession; confirm the participation threshold; pursue MOF/MAMPU procurement recognition.
Sufficient participation confirmed; procurement signal secured.
Incorporate the not-for-profit Council; seat the independent board; license the founding Partner Bodies; appoint Patron.
Governance and funding in place.
Open the Legacy Equivalency window for APR holders and experienced practitioners via the published Equivalency Mapping Matrix. Commission a mandatory Independent Pilot Audit to externally validate the assessment process. Only on a clean audit are the founding cohort credentials publicly conferred and the first register published.
Independent Pilot Audit passes — first credentials conferred and the standard is live.
Two parallel demand channels — so the credential builds market value whether or not any single gatekeeper moves first.
MOF / MAMPU recognition; accredited practitioners cited as a recommended reference in public-sector communications procurement.
Bursa ESG disclosure pathways, listed-company governance frameworks and Recognised Accredited Employer commitments — independent of government timelines.
Structured briefings to agency CEOs and corporate HR directors, so demand-side awareness moves in step with supply-side accreditation.
Critical mass of organisations publicly committing their function to the standard — the first proof that the credential is sought, not just supplied.
Accredited practitioners cited as a recommended reference in a public-sector communications procurement notice.
Funding, equity and accountability — designed in from day one.
A per-capita levy — RM 30–50 per accredited member annually — ties sustainability to practitioner quality, not donor preference.
A constitutional minimum of 15% of annual levy income is held as a Strategic Reserve — a financial floor that absorbs a bad year without compromising independence.
Two permanent board seats reserved for Sabah and Sarawak, plus the Regional Satellite Assessment Strategy, ensure the standard is national in fact, not only in name.
A public disciplinary register — Active, Suspended, Struck Off — and the independent Ombudsman ensure misuse has consequences.
A Legacy Equivalency Pathway via the published Equivalency Mapping Matrix during a 24-month founding-cohort window.
Year-one establishment costs are met by a defined founding contribution target of RM 150,000–250,000 — seed capital, not a recurring dependency. From accreditation onward, the per-capita levy sustains a lean professional secretariat, with annual independent audit and a public annual report.