TWNA Financial Update
TWNA @ GATS
Communication Awards - Call For Entries
The Chairman's Corner
Positive 2007 Results, 2008 Budget Approved
The Truck Writers
of North America (TWNA) had its monthly teleconference meeting
at the end of June, and given the timing of our fiscal year,
budget topics were at the heart of the discussion.
After being reviewed by the Finance Committee the day before,
the 2007 financial results were presented to the entire Board
during the tele-meeting. Without going into all the accounting
details and putting all of you to sleep, let's nonetheless underline
that for the fiscal year ending on May 31, 2007, we generated
a surplus of $2,792. This leaves TWNA with a healthy current
account balance of $17,600 at the fiscal year end.
The budget for 2008
has been set at $33,600, with much of the expected revenue cominge
from the annual Communication Awards Banquet, held in Louisville
during the Mid-America Trucking Show. Other revenue sources
include ad revenue from the member directory and membership
dues. On the expense side, $5,000 has been allocated for eventual
philanthropy contributions and $7,500 for marketing and membership
expansion projects. The 2008 budget was accepted by a unanimous
vote of the TWNA Board.
TWNA &The Great American Trucking Show
TWNA will be holding
a meeting/media seminar event during the Great American Trucking
Show (GATS), scheduled for August 22 to 25 in Dallas. The tentative
schedule for our meeting will be Wednesday, August 22, at 1:30
PM. More details will be supplied as they become available.
Below is a tentative list of press events from the show managers.
Wednesday,
August 22
1:30-3:00 - TWNA (Room D168)
3:00-10:00 - Peterbilt (off site)
Thursday,
August 23
10:15-10:45 - Tax Planning Consultants
12:45-1:15 - TCA
1:30-2:00 - Idleaire
2:15-2:45 - National Biodiesel
3:00-3:45 - Arrow Truck (tenative)
Communication Awards - Call For Entries
For most of us, summer
vacations are almost over and the fall means big projects are
in season. This is the ideal time to begin considering what
articles or other communication projects you intend to submit
for the 2007 TWNA Communication Awards.
The program is open
to entries from both the press and marketing/PR sides of the
trucking industry. There are categories for writing, graphics,
broadcast, websites, and internal communications, just to name
a few.
The submission, scoring
and judging process is being administered, independent of TWNA,
by the organizers of the International Automotive Media Awards
(IAMA). The entries will be peer-judged against a thoroughly
refined and tested standard scale.
Judges are chosen
for their expertise, with careful consideration for their backgrounds
or affiliations, which ensures qualified judging while eliminating
the possible conflict of an entrant's co-worker or competitor
judging the entry too favorably or too harshly. Other than during
their original recruitment, once the judges have been connected
with the IAMA team, TWNA does not have any interaction with
the judges during the process.
Every entry is reviewed
twice, with no interaction or interference, then the entry's
final score is established. If, in the determination of the
award administrators, there is reason to question the score,
the entry can be re-judged to help achieve a relatively objective
result.
It's important to
remember that in the 16 years of conducting the IAMA program,
and in the 4 years of managing the TWNA awards, the award administrators
have seen and reviewed literally thousands of entries from the
best journalists and communicators in the automotive and trucking
world. This means that even if there is an error by a judge,
the design of the program and the expertise of the administrators
ensures that any errors are caught and mitigated long before
the final scores are posted.
Over the years, the
judging process has proven to be bullet-proof. For instance,
last year's "Best of Radio" award was won by a journalist
of the CBC who isn't even a member of TWNA.
Quality and originality
are the core values of TWNA's Communication Awards and we know
that there is a lot of that among our membership. Let the whole
industry know what you are made of!
For more details
on entering, deadlines, etc., please visit www.twna.org or contact
TWNA's Executive Director, Tom Kelley, at admin@twna.org.
OPINION
Airfare Expenses
Trend A Win-Win-Win Situation
For Suppliers, Editors & Readers
By Eric Berard
Many of you probably
have noticed that, during the last 12 months or so, there is
a growing number of truck or component manufacturers that organize
press events and offer to pay for airfare, as well as hotel
expenses. This is a very welcome trend and the author of these
lines wishes it will go on, as it already is customary in the
automotive business.
Some purists might
say that when journalists are treated too well, there is a possibility
that their articles are biased. I don't think so. We all receive
gifts (some pretty costy) at different press events but is there
anybody here who ever considered making a better article because
of a nice gift or writing a more negative piece because he or
she didn't like the gift? I don't think so either.
Many TWNA members
have called or e-mailed me to tell me of much their travel budgets
had exploded in 2006 because of the pre-07 frenzy, when every
truck and engine manufacturer was inviting the press across
the continent. As a result, their publishers say they need to
cut on these expenses for 2007.
Let's face it. When
a publisher examines a travel expense, he or she is likely to
ask: "What's my return on investmen?t? And while the journalist
may be as pure as Snow White, he may never cover the event because
the company organizing it is not an advertiser.
On the other hand,
if the company pays for the travel expenses, chances are they
will get more editors at their event. And even if this presence
translates into a "mild" ½ page article, they
will have plenty for their investment. How much is a page or
½ page worth in your magazine?
Paying travel expenses
for trade journalists is a win-win-win situation. Companies
get more editors attendance, editors have more opportunities
to learn about new products and their readers are more likely
to get more complete and accurate information than from a press
kit sent by the manufacturer to an editor who couldn't attend
because of a lack of budget.
