ACCA salutes top co-op



or his three decades of commitment to cooperatives and communications excellence, Paul Wesslund, vice president of communications for the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, has been awarded the H. E. Klinefelter award.

The award is the Cooperative Communicators Association’s (CCA) top honor, recognizing individuals whose work has helped to further the cooperative business system and raise the standards of cooperative communications.

The award was presented in June during CCA’s annual communications institute in Portland, Maine.

Jim Duncan, CEO of Sumter Electric Cooperative (SECO) in Florida, won the CEO Outstanding Communicator award. Marian Douglas, manager of publications for Flint Energies in Warner Robins, Ga., took home the Michael Graznak Award, which honors excellence in co-op communications by a person under age 36.

Susie Bullock, who is stepping down after serving as CCA’s executive director for 18 years, was honored with a special award and tribute, recognizing her efforts to advance the organization and the state of co-op communications.

Wesslund strengthens REC system
Following four years working for daily newspapers in North Dakota, Wesslund began his cooperative career with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) in 1979. During a 16-year tenure with the Washington, D.C.-based organization, he rose steadily through the ranks to become associate department director of communications services.

In 1995, Wesslund moved on to the Kentucky statewide REC, where he also serves as editor of the association’s member magazine, Kentucky Living, which has a circulation of 400,000.

“Paul has spent much of his career bringing meaning to cooperatives in ways that clearly speak to their advantages and strengths,” said nominator Jeff Almen, a coworker of Wesslund’s during his years at NRECA.

“Paul has been a mentor, confidant and friend throughout my career,” added Darryl Gates of the Alabama Rural Electric Association of Cooperatives. “I find myself studying the successful programs he has created, and trying to find ways to duplicate those efforts in my state.”

Wesslund is the 50th winner of the Klinefelter award, named for a CCA founder and longtime editor at MFA Inc., who died in 1957.

Duncan communicates ‘co-op difference’
Duncan was saluted for championing the cooperative difference at SECO, which he has led since 1990. Evidence of this is manifested in every communications vehicle SECO uses to interact with its various constituencies, both internal and external, said award presenter Janet Schoniger of CoBank.

SECO is one of the nation’s largest electric co-ops, serving 165,000 member/customers in a Central Florida service territory the size of Delaware.

“What has evolved, by design, is a total communications program that constantly reinforces the seven cooperative principles, philosophy and way of doing business,” said Schoniger. “More than that, it encourages two-way communications and generates a sense of empowerment where employees, customers and other constituencies are concerned.”

His leadership skills in the electric industry communications arena has led to the co-op receiving some of the highest American Consumer Satisfaction Index scores in the country for a co-op of its size.

Douglas: innovative communicator
Nominators said Douglas is an energetic and innovative communicator whose impact has included “more focused connections with members, more effective methods with employees and more engaging avenues with the community.” Douglas has more than 14 years’ experience in public relations, including 10 years serving the electric cooperative industry. While working for an advertising agency in South Carolina, she managed advertising and public relations for 21 electric cooperatives in South Carolina and Georgia.

Her resume also includes a stint as community relations manager at Santee Electric Cooperative. While there, Douglas successfully managed the cooperative’s crisis communications efforts during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. She also previously served as executive director of a chamber of commerce.

“Marian came to Flint, and to Georgia, in late 2004 with respect for cooperative tradition, as well as a fresh perspective and innovative mind that would consolidate and exploit our communication tools and opportunities," recalled nominator Robert Ray Jr., CEO of Flint Energies.

The award is named for a young Missouri cooperative communicator who died while on assignment.

Bullock takes final bow
Bullock announced last year that she is retiring from her CCA post to devote more time to assisting her husband, Jim, who was recently named vice president for academic affairs at Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W. Va.

Bullock, also a past Klinefelter award winner, joined CCA (then the Cooperative Editorial Association) in 1975, just after graduating from college. Ten years later, during the organization’s business meeting in Chicago, Bullock recalled lobbying for the name change to CCA.

“The word ‘communicators’ rather than ‘communication’ not only humanized the organization, but it was more descriptive of CCA’s multifaceted role in telling the cooperative story,” Bullock said. “The name still accurately reflects the involvement of not only writers and editors, but of photographers, broadcasters, marketing specialists, public relations directors, graphics designers, advertising managers and Webmasters.”

Changes made at CCA during her years as executive director included: establishing CCA’s six-region membership structure; developing its first website; establishing the board liaison system of managing committees; computerizing bookkeeping; moving the newsletter and membership directory online; creating a number of new awards and fellowships; developing a policy and procedures manual and creating the Master Cooperative Communicator program, among many others.

“I encourage all of you to dive headlong into CCA activities,” said Bullock. “Get involved and make your own mark on CCA’s history.”

Contest winners
Best of Class award winners in CCA’s annual communications contest were: USDA’s Rural Cooperatives magazine won four awards in the contest, including: First place for serious or investigative feature writing, won by contributor Catherine Merlo (for “When a Co-op Dies” about the closing of a California cotton cooperative); First place photo illustration, won by Assistant Editor Stephen Thompson for a piece of art in which he transformed a milk bottle into an ethanol fuel pump; Second place for serious or investigative feature writing, won by Editor Dan Campbell (for “Thinking Outside the Carton,” about Fruit Growers Supply co-op in California); Honorable mention for Writer of the Year, also won by Campbell (for a portfolio of articles).

For more information on CCA and how it helps co-ops improve their communications efforts, visit: www.communicators.coop.







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