Our History

SHRM Portage County began in the fall of 1966 under the leadership of Russell Shuster from Lamb Electric, Division of Ametek of Kent, J. Arthur White, General Electric Ravenna Division and James L. Oster, Samuel Moore Company of Mantua as the Portage County Personnel and Industrial Relations Management Association (PCPIRM). PCPIRM submitted an application for affiliation to the American Society for Personnel Administration (ASPA) and was approved on May 21st 1967 as Region IV, Chapter #089 affiliate member. In 1989, ASPA became the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).  In November of 2005, under the leadership of Claudia Amrhein, PARTA, PCPIRM applied to the State of Ohio as a formal business entity operating under the name Portage County Human Resources and, in 2010, requesting 501 (c) (6) status; changing the name to Portage County Human Resource Association (PCHRA).  Although our legal entity remains, we are now operating under the brand name SHRM Portage County.