January 2016

Consensus Communications, a Downtown Orlando-based full service public relations firm, today announced Christina Morton, APR, has been elected to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Sunshine District board. She will serve as treasurer.

The Sunshine District represents more than 1,000 public relations professionals from seven chapters throughout Florida. The district is one of 10 nationwide and provides educational resources, scholarships, and professional development opportunities for the industry’s leading professionals.

Christina has served on the local PRSA Orlando board for seven years, most recently as president. This is her first officer-level position with the district board.

An accredited and awarding-winning public relations professional, Christina’s emphasis is in media relations, social media and community relations.

Consensus Communications, a Downtown Orlando-based full service public relations firm, today announced long-time Principal Dana Loncar has been appointed to the Family Homelessness Committee of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness (CFCH).

Led by long-time child advocate Dick Batchelor, the committee is charged with researching family homelessness in Central Florida and identifying solutions to help homeless families. It was created in 2014 as a subcommittee of the CFCH.

Dana has more than 15 years experience in public affairs in Central Florida. Since joining Consensus a decade ago she has focused on community relations, local lobbying and campaign management for a variety of clients. Dana’s public affairs clients include leading trade associations, industry groups, public/private consortiums, and Fortune 500 companies in sectors ranging from agribusiness to tourism and retail.

For more than 10 years, Dana has been an active voice in the community on the issue of homelessness, having served on the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida’s board for many years, including as chairman in 2011. She currently serves on the communications committee for the Coalition, the board of directors for the Central Florida Partnership’s BusinessForce committee, and the board of trustees for The Christ School.

From time to time, we like to bring you news and views from our team on what’s happening across the state. As many of you may know, Consensus Co-Founder John Sowinski is the president and spokesperson for No Casinos. He is considered a leader on what has become, and will continue to be, a hot issue for Florida. John held a press conference Tuesday in Tallahassee to outline a plan to block the expansion of gambling in the state, and we thought you might find this of interest.

Here’s what he had to say:
“… Spectrum concluded that around 95% of the money spent at proposed destination resort casinos would come from residents, not tourists.

Gambling is not economic development, it’s an economic parasite.

Money spent in the casino is money not spent in a restaurant, a bar, a movie theater, or other form of entertainment. If 95% of the people patronizing a casino spent their money at some other business, we would be better off for it, because those forms of entertainment don’t come with the crime, addiction, and corruption, that is too often associated with the gambling industry…

… It is beyond reason that anyone would look at what is happening to the casino industry and states and communities that rely on it and conclude that Florida should have a greater stake in this industry. Why would we trade what’s working here for what has become a complete disaster in almost everywhere that it has become a major player?

That’s why today, we’re here to outline our three-pronged strategy to prevent the expansion of gambling in Florida over the next three years.”
– John Sowinski, President, No Casinos

Articles of interest:

Palm Beach Post
No Casinos sees gambling deal that includes PBKC slots an “economic parasite” on Florida

Miami Herald
Gambling opponents bash compact and hope for court ruling to squelch all gaming expansion

SaintPetersBlog
No Casinos promises multi-front war on gambling

WCTV
Anti-gambling group in Tallahassee

Sun Sentinel
Anti-gambling group takes aim at Seminole deal