Quick update to our board for this year, as we had a resignation before we even got underway. Let’s welcome Tim Jones, director of PR and Marketing at Pulaski Tech, as our new Vice President of Administration.
Ashli Ahrens still leads this year’s group of officers as president. The remainder of the board follows:

• Ashli Ahrens, President
• Julie Johnson Thompson, Immediate Past President
• Harper Grubbs, President-Elect
• Kelley Bass, VP of Finance
• Mike Collins, VP of Membership
• Angele Forrest, VP of Special Projects
• Tiffany Hoffman, VP of Outreach/Student Programs
• Tim Jones, VP of Administration
• Neal Moore, VP of Professional Development
• Dauphne Trenholm, VP of Communication

Wayne Woods Assumes New Role as Vice-chairman

David Martin, CEO of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods (CJRW), will remain as CEO and also assume the duties of chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee effective Jan. 1. Wayne Woods will assume a new role as vice-chairman of the board and executive committee while continuing to serve as president and director of travel and tourism.

Martin replaces Shelby Woods, one of the agency’s founders, as chairman. Shelby Woods will remain an active member of the board of directors and the executive committee, and will continue working with some of the agency’s leading tourism clients.

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by Eric Bergman, ABC, APR

As a general rule, you should take the time to prepare for interviews with reporters. To get this time, you have to negotiate the terms of the interview, which achieves two goals. It ensures that the reporter gets the most current, up-to-date information available, and it helps you prepare messages to weave into your answers at appropriate points.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. First, if you or your organization has issued a news release, you must be ready to answer questions about the release immediately. You’ve alerted the media, and you should be ready when they respond.

Second, if the reporter is looking for simple, straightforward facts, you may wish to provide that information. For example, the reporter may ask: How many employees do you have? Where are your offices located across the country? How many retail branches do you have?

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – October 27, 2009 – Lt. Terry Hastings, public affairs director for the Little Rock Police Department, was honored as the IABC/Arkansas 2009 Communicator of the Year, and the late Leroy Donald, a noted print journalist for more than 40 years, was presented with the John K. Woodruff Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Bronze Quill Awards ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at Little Rock.  Additionally, 44 awards were presented to recognize excellence in the fields of communications, marketing and public relations.

Designed to recognize and honor statewide creative excellence in business communications, the Bronze Quill Awards are presented annually by the Arkansas Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC/Arkansas). The emcee for this year’s ceremony was Neal Moore, partner and creative director of The Communications Group, a little rock public relations and advertising agency.

“The Bronze Quill Awards allow us to recognize the best work in terms of both creativity and execution in the field of business communication,” said Julie Johnson Thompson, 2009 president of IABC/Arkansas and director of communication at the Arkansas Department of Education. “In addition to celebrating the Bronze Quill winners, it was especially rewarding to honor Terry Hastings and Leroy Donald for their significant accomplishments to the industry.”

Walking away with the most awards this year was Arkansas Children’s Hospital with 18 awards. Other multiple award winners included CARTI with five awards, Aristotle Interactive with four awards, The Communications Group with three awards and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care with three awards. Click here to view the complete list of winners.

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Denver Peacock

Denver Peacock has earned the Accredited Business Communicator (ABC) designation by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).  Peacock is vice president/director of public relations at Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods (CJRW), one of the Mid-South’s largest full-service communication firms.

“The Arkansas Chapter of IABC is proud of Denver for becoming our second accredited member,” said Julie Johnson Thompson, president of IABC/Arkansas and director of communications for the Arkansas Department of Education.  “The process of accreditation not only takes a great deal of commitment and time to complete, but also must be backed with the skills and knowledge of a talented, professional communicator. Denver is definitely that.”

IABC’s accreditation process measures the strategic abilities and technical skills of a communicator and is a critical step in a communicator’s career growth. The process consists of rigorous evaluation that identifies and recognizes the highly qualified, well-rounded communicator through a review of his or her portfolio of work and written and oral examinations. Candidates meeting the exacting requirements of the process earn the ABC designation.

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Scott Schuh of LSC Marketing shows off the beaded necklace he made during arts and crafts at IABC/Arkansas Summer Camp.

More than 50 happy campers turned out for the first ever IABC/Arkansas Summer Camp in June to learn more about a variety of business communication topics. Thank you to all who participated in this fun experience!

Experts from a variety of organizations and backgrounds shared their knowledge of social media, copywriting, photography, media relations, working more creatively and even arts and crafts.

If you missed this great learning experience, don’t give up hope. Several of the presenters have made their presentations available for your reference.

• H.K. Stewart – Creativity
• Kelli Reep – Creative Media Relations
• Ed Nicholson & Michael Clark – Social Media (18 MB)

Check back as we add more presentations from other presenters.

Are you missing out on all that IABC/Arkansas has to offer because you’re e-mail inbox is too full, causing you to miss important news and special events? Or maybe, you know everything there is to know about IABC/Arkansas, but you just can’t get enough of us!

Whatever your situation, we want to keep you informed of what’s going on, so you can get the most benefit from your membership in IABC. So, we’re willing to meet you where you are, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or anywhere else. But, we need you to take the first step by joining our Facebook and/or LinkedIn groups and/or following us on Twitter. If you take this first step, we will do our part to keep you up to speed so you never miss an opportunity to expand your knowledge or network with colleagues.

Follow the links below to join or follow us in your favorite space. We promise not to over-communicate, and we promise to always respect your privacy.

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109001974304&ref=mf

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/iabcarkansas

LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?groupID=90723&sharedKey=4187DB1EDAD3

RSS – http://www.iabcarkansas.com/feed/

By the way, we’re always looking to improve our communications, so if you have other methods you want us to use, please send us a comment to let us know!