IABC Arkansas Marks 30th Anniversary with Bronze Quill Awards

North Little Rock Mayor, Late Journalist Honored at Bronze Quill Awards as Professional Communicators Celebrate 30th Anniversary of IABC/Arkansas

North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays (left) receives his award as IABC/Arkansas Communicator of the Year from organization president Ron Standridge (right.)

Awards honoring North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Henry Hays and late Arkansas journalist John Woodruff were among the highlights of the IABC/Arkansas Bronze Quill Awards during a gala presentation ceremony held October 30 at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock.

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.)

Leading the winners this year was Arkansas Children’s Hospital with a total of 30 awards. Other big winners this year included CARTI with a total of 18 awards, Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods with a total of 17 awards and the Communications Group with a total of 15 awards. Click here to view the entire list of winners.

“The Bronze Quills Awards allow communications professionals to showcase some of their finest work, and also to provide others in the communications arena with new creative ideas and business strategies,” said Ron Standridge, IABC/Arkansas president.

This year, professional communicators from across the state were honored with a record number of 53 Awards of Excellence trophies, while an additional 59 Awards of Merit recipients were also recognized during the ceremony.

Hays was named IABC/Arkansas Communicator of the Year for 2007 in recognition of his ability to communicate and implement his vision for the recent and continuing growth of North Little Rock.

“Anyone who has worked in the governmental arena knows how difficult it can be to make major projects come to fruition, but apparently someone forgot to tell North Little Rock Mayor Hay,” Standridge joked in presenting Hays with his award.

“By effectively communicating his hopes, his vision and his plans for the city, Hays has helped to bring North Little Rock out of the shadows of the Capital City to stand on its own as a primary example of an Arkansas city ripe and ready for growth,” said Standridge.

A new award established to honor lifetime achievement in Arkansas professional communications was unveiled and named in honor of Woodruff, a longtime IABC/Arkansas member and advocate who died earlier this year from cancer. Woodruff was also named as the first recipient of the John K. Woodruff Award.

“John Woodruff was one of those special people who always made you feel good about yourself,” recalled Neal Moore in presenting the posthumous award. A principal with Little Rock-based Communications Group, Moore served as IABC/Arkansas president in 1991.

“John was always quick with a compliment and just as quick to brush aside any compliment you had for him,” said Moore. “He was a giver, a listener, an encourager and most of all, a quiet achiever.”

Dianne Woodruff, director of public relations for Sells-Clark in Little Rock, accepted the award on behalf of her late husband. Dianne Woodruff served as IABC/Arkansas president in 1990.

This year, the Bronze Quill Awards also served to commemorate the 30th anniversary of IABC/Arkansas, which was formally established in 1977. Twenty-four past presidents of the organization were in attendance, along with 11 previous recipients of the organization’s prestigious IABC/Arkansas Communicator of the Year Award.

First presented in 1985, previous IABC/Arkansas Communicators o f the Year include: Steve Arrison; Michael Blakely; President Bill Clinton; Senator Hillary Clinton; Mayor Jim Dailey; Richard Davies; John Deering; Dr. Joycelyn Elders; Governor Mike Huckabee; Robert Hupp; Keith Jackson; Charles L. Kelly; Jane McDaniel; Rex Nelson; Colleen Nick; Al Pollard; Craig Rains; Brenda Scisson; Bob Sells; Steve Stephens; Joe Swaty; and Larry Woodard.

Bronze Quill nominations are open to both IABC members and non-members, and entries are judged by IABC-member panels from across the United States. Scoring is based on a seven point scale, and awards are presented at two levels: awards of excellence and awards of merit.

IABC chapters from California, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas evaluated a total of 176 Arkansas Bronze Quill nominations submitted this year for consideration.

IABC/Arkansas is an educational and networking organization for professionals in all aspects of business communications in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Current members represent such varied career fields as public relations, advertising, marketing, publishing, writing, graphic design, web development, broadcasting, printing, volunteer and events management, fundraising, healthcare, government, education and the arts.

Bronze Quill Winners