Administrative Professionals Day, smack in the middle of Administrative Professionals Week. But it's catching on a lot quicker than we thought it would. The organization, based in Kansas City, Mo., founded the day in 1952 to honor secretaries, encourage others to take up the occupation and lure women who quit working after World War II back into the job market. But times change, and so do titles. But in the last 10 years or so, they have become office managers, information specialists, administrative assistants.
Some places just call everyone in the office associates.
We felt this was a better blanket term to describe our profession. The year 2000, Mr. Stroud says, seemed the ideal time to update the day that honors them. We've been trying to tell the public that secretaries are more than typists or message takers, and this is one way to do that. To reinforce the name change, the IAAP sent out news releases, organized local chapter campaigns and, perhaps most importantly, got greeting-card companies on board. We picked up on the fact not everyone is called a secretary.