IGRC Communications garners eight UMAC awards
10/21/2011
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The IGRC Communications team won eight awards, including an Award of Excellence at the 2011 United Methodist Association of Communicators annual meeting Oct. 20 in Albuquerque, N.M.
“I am proud of the IGRC Communications Team which collaborates to tell the stories of faith within our conference,” said IGRC Director of Communication Ministries Paul Black. “The fact that four different team members were recognized by UMAC speaks of the high quality of work that is done on behalf of the conference.”
Black won an Award of Excellence for The Current Week in Review e-newsletter. Judges commented that the weekly e-newsletter, which has a circulation of more than 2,000 subscribers, is “well-designed and has a good use of color in its design.”
Black joined his assistant Michele Willson in earning a Certificate of Merit in the blog category for On the Journey…With Jesus, the Lenten devotional series published both in e-newsletter form and in the blog section of the IGRC website.
“The design is clean and serves it purpose,” judges noted, as the 40 days of devotions were contributed by a variety of writers in the IGRC community.
Graphic designer Natalie Rowe and Black picked up a pair of Certificates of Merit for redesign of the conference monthly publication, The Current and Got Spirit? -- the 2011 IGRC Camping supplement.
The judges, looking at the March 2011 issue of The Current with the cover story, Letters from Liberia, noted that the publication was “designed well from cover to cover” and supported the “strong first person accounts” that told the story of the February trip to Liberia.
“The publication was highly effective, highlighting the IGRC summer camps,” judges wrote about Got Spirit? “Well designed and camping information was explained in an age appropriate way.”
Rowe picked up a third award in visual design for her design of the 2011-12 Liberia calendar. Utilizing photos from persons who had traveled to Liberia on mission trips, Rowe designed an 18-month calendar which was sold at the 2011 Annual Conference.
Video production manager Suzy Burns also was recognized for three awards. Burns won two awards – one for motion graphics and one for video production of Discipleship in the IGRC, a series of three vignettes produced for the 2011 Annual Conference.
Utilizing a different question for each day of conference, each vignette provided responses from persons in IGRC congregations. “An excellent script and content,” judges noted.
Judges were equally complimentary of Burns’ production of Buzz the Mosquito animated cartoons which were shown at the 2011 All-Conference dinner. Several IGRC churches requested copies to use as promotion of Imagine No Malaria in their Vacation Bible Schools.
“Customized animation such as this is a distinctive step forward for any conference,” the judges wrote. “An effective and memorable fulfillment of purpose.”
The United Methodist Association of Communicators is a voluntary, professional organization designed to:
- provide recognition, fellowship and vocational enrichment for professional and volunteer communicators of the church;
- plan, participate in and support training and continuing education events;
- develop standards and seek to enhance the professional quality of the work by United Methodist communicators;
- assist in keeping members informed about developments in the communications industry and in promoting dialogue and discussion on technology and communication advocacy issues.
