IABC Café

Lots of scary news these days.  Stocks are losing value, people are losing their homes, others are losing their jobs.

Time for some good news.  September was membership month at IABC. We now have a record number of members–16,087.  Two of our small conferences have sold out; in fact, one sold out two months ago.  Our financial results are well above this year last time. 

IABC is in good shape right.  Be assured we are working to keep it that way.

UPDATE:

I just learned that some people objected to my good news.  And they called me “plucky” in the process.  Here is my response to those who objected to hearing about IABC being in good shape right now:

Plucky, eh? Well, that is a comment for a different post.

If my post about the health of IABC appeared to be insenstive to our members who are experiencing losses right now, I apologize. That was not my intention.

During an economic downtown, members need their association more than ever. IABC can provide its members resources on how to handle their jobs. The network can provide moral support and job leads. I did not want our members to have any doubts about IABC’s well-being or wonder whether it would be around to support them.

So, specifically, what are we doing? Next week Barb Gibson and I will be podcasting about how to deal with the financial crisis. Both CW Bulletin and CW will have content on the subject. These programs are free to all members. We will be offering a web seminar in December and possibly a teleseminar in November to give communicators more ideas about effective strategies. We have other ideas in the works.

What IABC needs to do right now is provide forums for discussion and resources for its members. That’s not being plucky. That’s doing what an association is supposed to do.

Recently, I met Henry Eason, a member of the San Francisco chapter, who told me a story that exemplifies how members can use the IABC network.  It warmed my heart.  It may not warm yours, but I hope you will follow his example, when you are looking for help on a work project.

Here’s the story:

“As public relations and marketing generalists, our firm has represented numerous industries, but sometimes we get a little rusty if we haven’t worked in a particular field in awhile.

“Recently, when we were asked to bid on a project in a field in which we had not worked for almost 10 years, we had to get up to date…fast!

“After searching the Web without much satisfaction, I knew I really need to talk to a vertical market expert.  But who?  I did not want to call a competitor in this area.

“That’s when I decided to go to IABC’s Web site and search for members in other areas of the country who had this expertise.  I visited this page.

“It worked!  Amazingly.

“I used the IABC database to search by “public relations” and the particular industry–and bingo!  Several dozen names came up.  I put in calls to five people, got voice mail and told them I was an IABC member reaching out to them.  Three of them called me back and were happy to speak to me.  One of them was incredibly knowledgeable and generously gave me an excellent briefing.”

That’s the way the IABC network is supposed to work.  I hope you are making it work for you.

I am referring, of course, to CW, or more specifically Angelo Fernando’s “Tech Talk,” which appears in each issue of CW. It recently won a Maggie Award.

The Maggies are an annual awards program through the Western Publications Association for all publications west of the Mississippi.

Entered in the category of best regularly featured department/section/column in a trade magazine, Angelo’s column beat seven other competitors, including the Stanford Social Innnovation Review and Special Events magazine.

The winning articles were “Social Media Changes the Rules” (Jan/Feb 07), “Transparency Under Attack” (March/April 07) and “The Wisdom of Wikipedians” (Nov/Dec 07).

A total of 94 awards were given to print and digital publications, for both editorial and design. Publications are judged on their readability, focus, depth of research, cohesiveness and how well they meet their objectives. The Maggie award has been around for 57 years and is considered among the highest honors in the publishing industry.

So, Angelo and CW are in good company. I hope all IABC members are regular readers.