The Conference Communications Ministry Team receives six awards at the recent meeting of the United Methodist Association of Communicators. The five were first place and one second place commendations were presented at a ceremony that featured remarks by Bishop Grant Hagiya of the Pacific Northwest area.
At the two day meeting, which preceded the pre-General Conference briefing in Portland, Oregon, Dr. Arthur McClanahan, Iowa Conference Director of Communications, was re-elected Chairperson of the Leadership Team for 2016-2017.
The first place awards included:
• “Electronic coverage for the 2015 Annual Conference Session” in the “electronic publication” category to the team of Arthur McClanahan, Liz Winders, Lisa Bourne, and Courtney Glienke.
• “Iowa Conference Website” in the “website content or blog” category to the team of Arthur McClanahan, Liz Winders, and Roland Minshall.
• “Iowa Conference Mobile App” in the “mobile app” category, to the team of Arthur McClanahan, Liz Winders, and Roland Minshall.
• “Hurricane Sandy Recovery Efforts in the New York Conference” in the “video news story” category to Arthur McClanahan and three persons from the disaster response and communications teams from the New York Conference.
• “Audio archive, Iowa Conference” in the “podcast of internet stream” category to Arthur McClanahan
A second place award in the “ePublication” category was presented to the Communications Ministry Team of Arthur McClanahan and Liz Winders for The REPORTER.
“Innovation at Work” was the theme of the 2016 gathering of the United Methodist Association of Communicators. Featured keynote presenters included Dan Krause, new General Secretary of United Methodist Communications, Mark Katches, editor of The Oregonian/Oregon Live, Wilson Smith III, a lead designer at Nike, who has work with athletes including Serena Williams and led a community-school-faith community partnership to turn around a decaying, neglected at in inner-city school to raise the esteem of the learning environment and as well as the athletic facilities. Jerry Edling, news editor for KNX radio in Los Angeles moderated a panel that included Brooke McMillan from the LiveStrong Foundation, Gil Hanke, General Secretary of the General Commission on United Methodist Men, and Mark Doyal, director of communications from the Michigan Area. That group focused on “Walking the Tightrope – Communicating Tough Issues.”
An innovative aspect of the event, which drew over 100 communicators from across the denomination, was the “6-20 round tables.” Participants had an opportunity to sample a quick twenty minute intensive on such topics as “How to Create a Newsworthy Event,” “Beyond Selfies: Using Our Imagination to Produce More Compelling Images,” Seven Lessons from Surviving Eight Years of Blogging,” “Five Hot Tips for Social Media Strategy,” and “Capturing the Sounds of Ministry,” which was led by Arthur McClanahan.
The United Methodist Association of Communicators is a group for persons working with annual conferences, general boards and agencies, local churches, and related ministries. In addition the annual meeting UMAC offers resources and fosters a collaborative network that supports effective, excellent communication.
