State
of TWNA
Glossary Update
Non-Profit Status Update
Bylaw Update
Marketing Committee Update
2006 Communication Awards
Kolman's Korner
The State Of TWNA
Currently there are 153 members in the organization. The marketing
committee is working on ways to increase membership as well
as the overall visibility of the organization.
Glossary Update
Work still is being done on the TWNA glossary, Sherry White
has found someone who is interested in covering the cost of
printing the glossary once it is in final form.
Not-For-Profit Status
The board had to take action on several items in order to be
in compliance with the regulations for 501C(6) not-for-profit
corporate status. This includes a banking resolution authorizing
certain board members and TWNA's executive director to disperse
funds from TWNA's accounts. In addition Tom Kelley was named
TWNA's business agent in a separate resolution.
Bylaws revisions
Thanks to those of you who voted on the recent changes we needed
to make to the TWNA bylaws. Both resolutions passed.
Section IX of the
bylaws gives the TWNA board of directors the authority to make
minor changes to the bylaws as long as they don't change the
scope or mission of TWNA.
Section V-C changed
the minimum number of responses needed to make bylaw changes.
The new wording of the section changes the definition of a quorum
from 30% of the Press members and 15% of he Associate Members
to simple majority of those Members who participated in the
balloting, provided that all directors and at least 10% of the
members participate in the voting.
Marketing Committee Report
The first meeting of the TWNA Marketing Committee took place
May 25th to explore ways to better promote TWNA. Committee members
include Paul Abelson, Eric Berard, Tom Berg, Tom Kelley, Denise
Rondini and Derek Smith.
Two primary objectives
were established for the committee: to grow TWNA membership
and to enhance the image of TWNA (as well as trucking in general).
Initially, the committee will focus its efforts on member recruitment.
A number of marketing strategies were discussed to this end,
including improved and more frequent trade show presence, a
membership benefit package, and direct mail and e-mail campaigns.
The committee decided
on two projects to help launch the membership drive. The first
is a direct mail postcard, with an e-mail counterpart, that
will be sent to prospective associate members. The second is
a TWNA meeting at GATS for current and prospective members that
will include several seminars or tutorials aimed at promoting
benefits of TWNA membership and best practices for promoting
a company and/or product to the trucking media.
The TWNA Marketing
Committee will meet again later this month. If you have any
ideas or suggestions you would like to contribute, please contact
any of the committee members.
2006 TWNA Communication Awards
Now that the
2005 TWNA Communication Awards are committed to history, it's
time to get things started for 2006. At the beginning of our
fourth year for the awards, some of our members still haven't
become familiar with how the program works.
Over the next few
months, we'll try to more thoroughly explain various aspects
of the program, along with providing a persistent reminder that
it's not too early to start organizing your entries for 2006.
A few folks have
asked why we have so many categories.
To ensure that our
program reflects the diverse nature of the industry's communication
methods and topics, we use both divisions (magazine, web, radio,
marketing/PR, etc.), and categories (editorial, historical,
regulatory, press kit, brochure, etc.) to identify each entry.
Within any one category,
the entries are judged against a standard scale, not against
each other. Just having entries in a category does not mean
there will be winning entries in that category. Because the
entries are judged against a standard scale, it's possible to
have none of the entries receive an award, or to have all of
the entries score the points needed to receive a gold award,
or any combination between those two extremes.
While an entrant
may submit two entries in each category, each entrant can only
receive one award per category. This encourages entrants to
submit a variety of their best work.
During the judging
process, writing will be evaluated on accuracy of information,
simplicity of presentation of technical information, style,
quality of writing and editing. Graphics will be evaluated on
quality of design, typography, illustrations, reproduction,
and overall effectiveness. Video, CD/DVD and radio entries will
be evaluated on pacing, music (where applicable), story development,
photography, quality of research (technical or historical),
and quality of editing. Additionally, web entries will be evaluated
on timeliness, user friendliness and functionality.
The scoring at the
category-level is as follows:
97-100 Points =
Gold Award
92-96 Points = Silver Award
85-91 Points = Bronze Award
0-84 Points = No Award
The division level
is where the entries begin to compete with each other. Only
those entries scoring 98 points or better are eligible to compete
for "Best of Division." If there are no entries scoring
at least 98 points in a division, there is no "Best of"
award made in that division. If there are multiple 98 point
and above entries in a division, the highest scoring entry wins.
The overall award
for "Best of 2006" is selected from the Best of Division
winners.
Unlike many other
journalism and communication award programs, TWNA's Communication
Award program is conducted and administered by a completely
independent organization that has no ties or business relationships
with any of the entrants.
Kolman's Korner
Writing letters
of recommendation can be a dangerous task. Tell the truth and
you might get sued if the contents of the letter are negative.
Here are some virtually
litigation-proof phrases than can be used in letters of recommendations.
They come from a collection of such phrases, called the Lexicon
of Intentionally Ambiguous Recommendations (LIAR), developed
by professor Robert Thornton of Leigh University.
- To describe an
inept person: "I enthusiastically recommend this candidate
with no qualifications whatsoever."
- To describe an
ex-employee who had problems getting along with co-workers:
"I am pleased to say this candidate is a former colleague
of mine."
- To describe an
applicant not worth considering: "I would urge you to waste
no time in making this candidate an offer of unemployment."
