IABC Arkansas is proud to once again present our annual IABC University program on Feb. 24, 2012 at 9 a.m. at the Arkansas Studies Institute in Little Rock.

IABC University is an opportunity for college seniors studying advertising, public relations, marketing and communication at Arkansas colleges and universities to participate in skills-building workshops, network with communication professionals, and participate in job shadowing with seasoned “advisors” from corporate, non-profit and freelance sectors.

Registration is now open, and the cost is just $30. Space is limited to 40 participants with preference given to seniors, however, all registrations must be complete by Feb. 17, 2012. Register as soon as possible!

Confirmation of participation will be emailed with further information regarding the event by Feb. 20.

Workshop topics include:

• Ethics in communication
• Freelancing in the field
• Social media in the field

Click here to download the flyer for more information.

Click here to register.

IABC University is an important part of the IABC Arkansas calendar each year. As always, we are looking for members to volunteer to host students following the luncheon on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012.

Please sign up today to let us know how many students you can host.

Metroplan is soliciting proposals for qualified consultants to implement an ozone awareness and public outreach campaign for the Central Arkansas 2012 ozone season (the five month period from May through September when excessive levels of ozone, or smog, are most likely to form). Work is scheduled to begin on or about April 2012. Required submittals must be received by 11:00 a.m. February 7, 2012. Click here to download a copy of the RFQ/RFP, preliminary scope of work, and Notice of Nondiscrimination or download it from www.metroplan.org or contact Marsha Guffey at 501.372.3300 (hearing impaired may dial 711).

A new year means new leadership for IABC/Arkansas. Leading this year’s board is Mike Collins, owner of Write MC. Mike Mike begins his third year on the board of directors.

Mike Collins, 2012 President of IABC/Arkansas

President
Mike Collins, Write MC

President-Elect
Angele Forrest, Iberia Bank

Immediate Past President
Harper Grubbs, Heifer Foundation

VP, Professional Development
Neal Moore, The Communications Group

VP, Communication
Tim Jones, Pulaski Technical College

VP, Membership
Sara Reynolds, Acxiom

VP, Special Projects (i.e. Bronze Quill)
Susan Van Dusen

VP, Outreach (i.e. IABC University)
Tonya Oaks Smith

VP, Finance
David Wise

VP, Administration
Melanie Jones, World Services for the Blind

Ron Robinson

Kerri Jackson Case’s Damn You, Little Rock blog recently featured Ron Robinson’s moving acceptance speech at the 2011 IABC/Arkansas Bronze Quill Awards ceremony. Robinson was presented with the John K. Woodruff Award for Lifetime Achievement at the event.

Read the blog post and the full text of Robinson’s acceptance speech here:

Ron Robinson: We Only Go Around Once

It’s not often we have a Supreme at our monthly meeting, but our Nov. 17 meeting featured one. Associate Justice Robert L. Brown spoke at our special Thursday-the- week-before-Thanksgiving-meeting.

Justice Robert L. Brown has served as associate justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court since 1991. Before serving on the court, Justice Brown was in the general practice of law. He worked in Washington, D.C., as administrative assistant for Congressman Jim Guy Tucker in 1977 and as a legislative assistant for Senator Dale Bumpers in 1975. He served as legal aide to then-Governor Bumpers from 1972 to 1974, and was a deputy prosecuting attorney for the Sixth Judicial District in 1971-1972.

Brown is the author of the book, Defining Moments: Historic Decisions by Arkansas Governors from McMath through Huckabee, University of Arkansas Press, Nov. 1, 2010. He has also written numerous articles, including: “Live Video of U.S. and State Supreme Court Oral Arguments:  Is it Just a Matter of Time?,” Journal of Appellate Practice, Fall 2007; “From Earl Warren to Wendell Griffen:  A Study of Judicial Intimidation and Judicial Self-Restraint,” UALR Law Review, 2006; “Expanded Rights Through State Law: The United States Supreme Court Shows State Courts the Way,” The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process, Fall 2002; “From Whence Cometh Our State Appellate Judges: Popular Election Versus the Missouri Plan,” UALR Law Journal, Winter 1998; and, “The Second Crisis in Little Rock: A Report on Desegregation Within the Little Rock Public Schools,” Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, June 1988.

Among Justice Brown’s significant opinions are his opinion striking down term limits for U.S. senators and representatives, which was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995, his 2002 opinion holding public school funding for the State of Arkansas unconstitutional, and his 2011 opinion holding Initiated Act I unconstitutional.  He is a frequent speaker on a variety of legal and judicial subjects.

Justice Brown received his B.A. in 1963 from the University of the South, his M.A. in 1965 from Columbia University, and his J.D. in 1968 from the University of Virginia.    He was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of the South in 2006, and the Col. Ransick Award for Excellence in the Profession from the Arkansas Bar Association in 2007.

Click the image above to check out the photo gallery! View and order prints from our photographer Jason Burt.

Phyllis Brandon, veteran journalist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, was honored as the IABC/Arkansas 2011 Communicator of the Year, and Ron Robinson, chairman emeritus of Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods marketing and communications firm, was presented with the John K. Woodruff Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Bronze Quill Awards ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 20, in Little Rock.  Additionally, 68 awards were presented to recognize excellence in the fields of communications, marketing and public relations.

Designed to recognize and honor statewide creative excellence in business communications, the Bronze Quill Awards are presented annually by the Arkansas Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC/Arkansas). The emcees for this year’s ceremony were Neal Moore, partner and creative director of The Communications Group, a Little Rock public relations and advertising agency, and Athena Coleman, actress, model and voice-over talent.

Click here to view the photo gallery and order prints from our photographer, Jason Burt.

Read the rest

David Kistle

David Kistle, ABC, will be IABC/Arkansas’s September speaker on Friday, Sept. 30, speaking about his experience in public relations and business communication in different cultures around the world. Over the past eight years, Kistle has taught public relations in Thailand, and earlier this year, he led an IABC accreditation workshop for Unilever in Dubai with participants from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. He will share these experiences with us and discuss what he has learned about business and the global economy in the process.

Kistle is currently the Chapter Services Director for IABC’s Southern Region, and he will be with us for an official visit at a Membership Month reception on Sept. 29 and our Friday lunch meeting on Sept. 30.

Kistle retired from a 37-year career in communication and public relations in 2008 to devote his full attention to education. He joined Padilla Speer Beardsley, a public relations firm headquartered in Minneapolis,  in 1981 as an account supervisor.  He retired as senior vice president responsible for research and measurement 27 years later. He was 2004-2005 chairman of IABC and chairman of the IABC Research Foundation 1999-2000.  His teaching career began in 1995 at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication.  Since 2003 he has also been an online instructor for Webster University and a classroom teacher at Webster’s campus in Cha Am, Thailand.

Kistle has served on the boards of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation, IABC, Tubman Family Alliance and The Advocates for Human Rights.  He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1969, from the University of Illinois with a master’s degree in advertising and marketing communication in 1971, and was accredited by IABC in 1990.

Nathania Sawyer

The July IABC/Arkansas program featured Associate Head for Special Projects with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Nathania Sawyer, who shared the colorful history of the Arkansas-grown political satire show known as the Farkleberry Follies.

Produced in alternating years by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Farkleberry Follies began in 1967 and prospered through its final performance in 1999. Off-color, bawdy and irreverent, the Follies enjoyed a reputation for roasting the political and social establishment in inventive and hilarious ways.

Leroy Donald

Fortunately for the Butler Center and for posterity, the center received the archives of the late Leroy Donald in 2009. Donald was a veteran Arkansas journalist, and his work as the head writer and producer of the Farkleberry Follies is the stuff of legend. Donald was awarded the Woodruff Award by IABC/Arkansas in 2009.

The Butler Center, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System, recently débuted “Hello Folly! A Brief History of the Farkleberry Follies,” a DVD featuring interviews with participants interspersed with vintage footage of the show. Attendees at the luncheon enjoyed a sneak peak at the DVD.

Donald collaborated with a cast of hundreds over the Follies’ run of 30-plus years. The DVD includes commentary from Arkansas media and communications standard-bearers such as Ben Combs, Craig Douglas, Helaine Freeman, Neil Gladner, Eric Harrison, Bill Lancaster, Debra Mathis and Rex Nelson, to name a few. The results are laugh-out-loud funny.

Sawyer prefaced her talk with a nugget of wisdom that communications professionals should heed.

“Public relations efforts are an important part of the historical record,” she explained. “Your media releases, annual reports and the like are important archives. If something wasn’t archived, it didn’t happen.”

Likewise, the Farkleberry Follies chronicled the times, year after year. Fortunately, Leroy Donald subscribed to Sawyer’s “anywhere but the dumpster” philosophy of archival diligence.

The “Hello Folly! A Brief History of the Farkleberry Follies,” DVD is available at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in exchange for a charitable donation. The Butler Center is located at 401 President Clinton Avenue in Little Rock. (501) 320-5700.