MEMBER SPOTLIGHTSNew member Jill Hough is a senior internal communications specialist for Intel’s Mobility Group, with six years of experience in the internal communication field. Prior to that, she worked for four years in inter-national marketing and trade promotion for the China External Trade Development Council (CETRA) in Chicago. Jill joined IABC to access national and local internal communications events and seminars that help her in her work. She looks forward to volunteering for OCIABC by developing content for various chapter publications.

Board member Debbra Palmer made a move to Intel’s Mobility Group in October. She now works on com-munications projects with a small team responsible for strategic communications for 9,000 Intel employees at 49 sites across the United States, as well as in Israel, Bangalore, Penang, and Shanghai. Before joining Intel Debbra worked for Comcast, overseeing employee communications for the Oregon/SW Washington mar-ket.

Linda Wilson-Bauer is a new OCIABC member with six years’ experience as a professional communicator. As a community relations specialist with IBM’s Site Communications group, she provides leadership and proj-ect management for state-wide volunteerism, non-profit and community partnerships, technology donations, and employee charitable contribution campaigns. Linda is also working toward her B.A. in organizational communications at Marylhurst. She joined OCIABC as another avenue to learn more about the communica-tion field and augment her education.

Bridges

OREGON COLUMBIAINTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION

OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS

Improvingorganizational

effectiveness throughstrategic communication

Oregon/Columbia IABCP.O. Box 9220Portland, OR 97207-9220

Communicator’s Tip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Building a SOLVent Non-Profit Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Member Bio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Ponderings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 J a n ua Ry 2006 • I S S u E 9

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IdE .

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PO n d E R I n G SThink about winning.

Bridges IS a BIMOnTHLy PuBLIca-

TIOn Of THE OREGOn cOLuMBIa cHaPTER Of

THE InTERnaTIOnaL aSSOcIaTIOn Of BuSInESS

cOMMunIcaTORS. Chapter Board: Glenn

Perkins, President; Tracey Barnett, Executive

VP; Jayne Nanavaty-Dahl, VP-Membership;

Mary Morris, VP-Finance; Debbra Palmer,

VP-Awards; Karen Stelter, VP-Professional

Development; Marlynn Schotland, VP-

Promotion & Community Relations; Kate

Rodrigue, VP-Electronic Communication;

Sue Brundege, VP-Print Communication/

Secretary; Barbara Kommer, Director-at-

Large. Design and Layout: Barbara

Saunders, Newsletter Associates, (503)

282-3694. Contact: For comments and

suggestions, please e-mail Sue Brundege at

newsletter@ociabc.org.

LE T yO u R cO M M u n I c a-T I O n BR I L L I a n c E SH I n E :

BE a BR O n z E BE ac O n WI n n E R !

By Debbra Palmer

More MeMber SpotlightS, See page 2

Is the project you’re working on now (or the one that’s next on your list) looking a little lackluster? A decorous polish on your work plan could re-ally make it shine! Bronze Beacons

make your work plans better. Let the Bronze Beacon be your guiding light, and your grand prize.

More bronze beacon, See page 3

Check out a sample work plan by visiting our Web site: www.ociabc.org/events/awards/CommunicatorAward_WorkPlan.pdf

A cAse of mistAken identity… We apologize to Kris Russell and Rhonda Wehler for inadvertently swapping their photos in November’s issue. Below we’ve included their correct photos and a little about them.

Kris Russell has been in communications for more than 20 years. In 2002, she took on the newly created position of communication director for family-owned Roseburg Forest Products (RFP) in Oregon. As a communication department of one, she reports directly to the owner/president, focusing primarily on em-ployee communication. While she sometimes misses the public relations and governmental affairs work for her previous employers, Kris finds her job at RFP to be the most professionally challenging and personally rewarding work she’s done.

In 1995, Focus on the Family accepted Rhonda Wehler’s first article for publication. Other magazines subsequently contracted work and over time, several of her stories were published in Stories for the Heart and various gift books. “To be paid for doing what you love tops the list of life’s unusual gifts,” says Rhonda. Her free-lance dabbling resulted in a real job as corporate communications manager at West Coast Bank, where she’s enjoyed a fulfilling career for nearly seven years.

cO M M u n I c aTO R ’ S T I PtipS for a Winning bronze beacon aWard SubMiSSion

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“One of the things I enjoyed most was judging awards from other chapters

—it’s a real eye opener!”

MEMBER BIO: pat Snyder

Pat Snyder grew up with her grand-mother, a writer, near downtown Minneapolis. As a result, Pat’s in-terests were consistently divided between her love of books and of the boundless outdoor activities available to Minnesotans. So much so that her university choice—Boise State in Idaho—had as much to do with skiing as with an English de-gree. Pat then came to the Northwest as a secondary school teacher, earn-ing a master’s in English and edu-cation at PSU along the way.

With teaching jobs scarce in the late 1970s, Pat switched to corpo-rate communications, working at the First National Bank of Oregon (wich became First Interstate Bank) for five years. Later, she was the public information officer for the Clackamas Education Service District for nine years, cultivating a broad range of skills. Currently she is the newsletter editor and trade show coordinator at Boyd Coffee Company in Portland, doing much more than even her titles would im-ply! “Balancing priorities is always a challenge, but it’s also rewarding to complete projects,” Pat said. She proudly notes that her annual trade show program came in under bud-get eight years straight.

Paralleling Pat’s “regular” job is her passion for photography, music, and the outdoors. She has done pho-tography and PR for the Northwest rock music scene, written for a local music publication, and briefly ran her own entertainment magazine. In the mid-1990s, with a passion for Latin jazz and a legal journal-ist visa, Pat made three rare trips to the Havana Jazz Festival in Cuba. Lately her camera lens has shifted from guitars to geysers, frequent-ing Yellowstone National Park as a member of the Geyser Observation and Study Association.

Pat belonged to IABC in the early 1980s, then rejoined in 1994. She finds our active, dedicated chapter a great place to network with and befriend fellow communicators, and the programs help her both learn new tactics and rekindle job enthusiasm. She enjoys volunteer-ing, particularly last year’s work or-ganizing the Bronze Beacon awards program and banquet. “One of the things I enjoyed most was judging awards from other chapters—it’s a real eye opener!”

Learn more about Pat by calling her at 503.674.0709, and check out her photography at http://home.com-cast.net/~riozafiro/.

More MeMber SpotlightS—continued

VP-Awards Debbra Palmer offers some tips for putting together a winning Bronze Beacon submission.

• Polish your work plan so it’s as good as the work itself. Judges look for a descriptive work plan that includes measurable goals and objectives, how the project was implemented, and some explana-tion of program components.

• Follow the submission guidelines. A work plan should not exceed four pages. Some judges won’t even review and consider a submission that doesn’t fit within the guide-lines.

• Treat this as your personal proj-ect exhibition. Think about how

your submission will stand out and showcase your project. Your work sample should be clear and concise, with ideas expressed effectively and convincingly. Even if you think the work speaks for itself, it’s still a good idea to polish your work sample presentation.

• Feeling a little anxious about show-ing your work to peers? Remember that entries are judged by IABC members from other chapters. So you’re still getting a good evaluation from a qualified peer group, just one not quite so close to home.

• Shoot for the early bird deadline. Save on fees and get your mojo working. If you get in a crunch, you’ll have additional time for finishing touches if you’re willing to pay the full fee.

• Add submitting an entry to your own professional development goals. With your submission, you get to check off an item on your performance review list and have something exceptional to add to your resume or portfolio!

Jack McGowan Shares Tips for Building a SOLVent Non-Profit OrganizationAt our Nov. 16 meeting, SOLV ex-ecutive director Jack McGowan passionately explained that the way to engage your audience is to truly believe in your product or service. His drive for continued growth as a communicator led him through a series of media jobs and eventually to SOLV (Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism), an organi-zation started by Governor Tom McCall.

Jack said that by giving the people you're marketing to a reason to feel good about their involvement, you create loyal and committed customers. Also, developing community partners who share a common passion helps cement a positive reputation and growth potential within a given market.

This year’s OCIABC community project will be to support the SOLV spring beach clean-up in March. Click on www.ociabc.org for more information, coming soon!

Jack McGowan receives a “thank you” tote from VP- Professional Development Karen Stelter.

Consultant Nancy Va-rekamp adopted the award application process as part of her practice. She toiled over her project work plans, think-ing about what the pieces were supposed to accom-

plish, and how the plan would execute successfully. “In the day-to-day business of serving clients and the rush of meeting deadlines, I now step back and really look at what I’m doing from an objective—from a judge’s—standpoint,” says Nancy.

For Bronze Beacon award winner Lilisa Hall, direc-tor of communications at PacifiCorp, the process makes her think about what communications success really means. “Preparing a submittal forces you to spend time recognizing that you and your team did an excellent job—and why,” says Lilisa.

Shelly Meyers, senior communication officer at Lewis & Clark College and a Bronze Beacon winner says, “I think awards competitions are a great way to find out how your work is perceived by other professionals in the

field.” She also says she learned a lot from the judg-es' comments, particularly in challenging areas such as project evaluation. “Awards do get noticed—by supervisors, hiring managers, and other folks. Not just your mother,” quips Shelly.

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Are you an unsung hero in your organization? Is the “Other Achievements” section of your résumé a bit sparse? Do you yearn for the sweet sound of peers clapping, whistling, shouting and cheering in your honor? Or would you simply like to see some measurable results for the hard work you put in all year? As you ponder these questions, you might imagine a glimmering radiance in the distance…that’s right. It’s the guiding light of the Bronze Beacon Award!

Thankfully, there are opportunities for us as communicators to showcase our good work, as well as earn recognition and awards. The Bronze Beacon Award is one such honor, bestowed upon communication professionals in the Oregon/Columbia IABC chap-ter territory.

Bronze Beacon PoP Quiz

A Bronze Beacon Award gets you: a) A promotionb) A raisec) A dated) None of the above

If you answered “d, none of the above” you’re probably right, but consider these possible outcomes as well. A Bronze Beacon earns you:a) Recognition for a project you put your heart and soul intob) Validation that your skills and talents have real valuec) Motivation to act strategically and think analyticallyd) All of the above

Naturally, “d, all of the above” is the correct answer. You also get a very good-looking trophy to display.

Why Would you WanT a Bronze Beacon aWard?If not for the validation of your work as a communicator, if not for the trophy or the satisfaction of being the center of attention at the awards banquet, then you want a Bronze Beacon award be-cause, well, frankly it makes you a better communicator.

Be a Bronze Beacon Winner — continuedhoW does iT Make Me a BeTTer coMMunicaTor, you MighT ask? Take it from some of our past winners.

More Bronze Beacon, See page 4

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hisTorical/organizaTional PersPecTive

While OCIABC has had an awards program for many years, the Bronze Beacon is a newly minted award, fitting nicely on a communicator’s prize shelf along with IABC’s Gold and Silver Quill awards. The Bronze Beacon is our chap-ter-level award, symbolic of local work that shines the brightest—good, profes-sional work that gives fellow communi-cators guidance by example.

The BirTh of The Bronze Beacon

OCIABC officially branded the new Bronze Beacon award in 2004. The sec-ond Bronze Beacon Awards Banquet will take place on Thursday, June 15 (mark your calendars!) and now is the perfect time to begin preparing your entries as you work on current com-munication projects.

Of course there’s more than one way to bag a Bronze. You can also submit entries for work that has already been completed. Entries fitting within the

time frame of April 30, 2005 to April 1, 2006 are eligible.

Members of other IABC chapters review submissions, scoring each entry based on certain criteria. Bronze Bea-cons for Excellence and for Merit are granted to entries judged to meet or exceed these established qualifications.

Thank you for The aWard. May i Please have anoTher?For you insatiable multi-taskers, now is also a good time to prepare entries for IABC’s Gold Quill international awards competition honoring com-munication management, skills, and creative achievement in 26 categories. New categories include blogs, wikis and podcasts.

And if those awards aren’t enough for your portfolio of premium output, the Pacific Plains region (to which OCIABC belongs) awards a Silver Quill for excel-lence in business communications. Visit www.iabc.com for more information

on the Gold Quill award and http://pacificplains.iabc.com for the Silver Quill award.

Beginning WiTh Bronze

So go for the Bronze! Entering our competition will improve the quality of your communication projects; help you both learn from and share wisdom with your professional peers; and earn you the recognition you truly deserve!

The OCIABC website has more information about OCIABC’s awards program. Please visit www.ociabc.org/events/awards/index.htm for details, or contact the Chapter VP of Awards, Debbra Palmer at Debbra.L.Palmer@intel.com.

Be a Bronze Beacon Winner — continued