Five Co-op Communicators Take Top Honors at CCA Institute
From
left: Walt Payne, CEO Communicator of the Year; Alison Cummings, Graznak Award
Winner; Susie Bullock, Klinefelter Award Winner
The Cooperative Communicators
Association (CCA) recently honored five outstanding communicators - along with CEO Walt
Payne - with its top awards. The winners were recognized during CCA’s annual
Institute, held June 6-9 in Santa Fe.
Susie Bullock, CCA’s executive director
since 1990 and a member of the organization for 23 years, received its highest honor: the
H.E. Klinefelter Award. This prestigious award, named for a pioneering cooperative
communicator, "recognizes contributions in furthering the cooperative system and
spirit while raising the standards of cooperative communications."
Bullock began her career as director of member
and public relations at United Farm Industries in her native Plainview, Texas, and
subsequently worked for Virginia Tech University and Dairymen, Inc. Prior to becoming
CCA’s executive director, she was director of communications for the Farm Credit Bank
of Texas. She has been published in a host of magazines including Progressive Farmer,
Southeast Farm Press, and Farmshine, and was editor of the Virginia State
4-H newsletter. In 1975, she earned a bachelor of science degree in agricultural
communication. She completed a master's degree in extension agriculture science at the
University of Maryland in 1982.
Alison Cummings, senior publications editor and
webmaster with Harvest States Cooperatives (now Cenex Harvest States) in St. Paul, Minn.,
received the Michael Graznak Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions of a young
cooperative communicator. The award honors the memory of Graznak, a writer and
photographer from Farmland Industries who died while on assignment for the cooperative.
While at Harvest States, Cummings was
responsible for planning, editing, and designing the cooperative's member and employee
publications, and managing the web site. She has a bachelor's degree in English, with a
minor in French, from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and a master's
degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota with emphasis in visual
communications.
Cummings left Cenex Harvest States July 8 for a
position as web site development manager for a Twin Cities printing firm. She hopes,
however, to maintain her long relationship with cooperatives and the Cooperative
Communicators Association.
Contest Winners
Each year, CCA conducts a communications contest in writing, photography, and special projects to provide members with the opportunity to have their work critiqued and ranked against their peers.
This year's winners are:
CCA, headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, is a
professional organization comprised of more than 400 communicators who work for
cooperatives throughout the world. 
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