ABSTRACT
Unfortunately, there has been little discussion in treatments of public relations history of some of those institutions, such as trade associations, which are indigenous, if not ubiquitous, to contemporary public relations practice. Perhaps understandably, there are few studies of trade associations and their communication activities that employ a rhetorical perspective, although trade association executives have become acutely aware of the need to craft carefully formulated communication programs, especially in crucial areas such as adaptation to change (Smith & Tucker, 1983).
