Cultural Resolution

Just learned last night that international executive board member Paulo Soares, who is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has achieved his ABC accreditation. The first of many more, I am sure, as IABC grows in South America.

Congrats to Paulo! And thank you for your leadership. Accreditation will help us to elevate the communication profession, but to have that influence requires that more senior communicators step up.

Anybody else inspired to take the ABC Challenge?

This month’s podcast is all about Accreditation.  Anybody else ready to take the Accreditation Challenge? 

Breaking news:  IABC has ten new Accredited Business Communicators — in Shanghai, China.  You can get the whole story on the IABC News Centre , but I’d like to be among the first to congratulate our newest ABCs:

Doreen Cheung, ABC

Shirley King, ABC

Lucia Wang, ABC

David Shoval Wong, ABC

Xu Jun, ABC

Zhou Xu, ABC

Juliana Zhu, ABC

Ling Wang, ABC

Vivian Fung, ABC

Liu jie min, ABC

This is a huge accomplishment, both for the successful candidates, and for the Accreditation volunteers who made it possible.  It’s the result of more than a year of work.  So I’d also like to thank those who played a part to help establish Accreditation in China,  including traveling to Shanghai to provide mentoring, grading portfolios, proctoring exams, grading exams, and probably much more. 

 Volunteers and their roles:

1^st group of mentors who traveled to Shanghai in October 2007:

Eric Bergman, ABC

Mark Estes, ABC

Warren Bickford, ABC 

Practice Exam Graders:

Linnea Maxwell, ABC

Ned Lundquist, ABC

Wilma Mathews, ABC

Tamara Gillis, ABC

Claire Watson, ABC

Nick Durutta, ABC

Brent Carey, ABC

Alice Brink, ABC

Mary Hills, ABC

Shelley Aylesworth-Spink, ABC

Connie Eckard, ABC

David Himme, ABC

Meryl David, ABC

Jo Langham, ABC

Carmelle Boston, ABC

Mary Ann McCauley, ABC

Sandra Beatie, ABC

Jacqui d’Eon, ABC 

Exam proctors (for March 2008 exam):

Nick Durutta, ABC

Wilma Mathews, ABC 

Exam Graders:

Bill Murphy, ABC

Brent Carey, ABC

Connie Eckard, ABC

Donn C. Richardson, ABC

Jacqui d’Eon, ABC

Jennifer Wah, ABC

Joy Lovejoy, ABC

Kim Zitny, ABC

Nance Harris, ABC

Shelley Aylesworth-Spink, ABC

Tamara Gillis, ABC

Mary Ann McCauley, ABC

Claire Watson, ABC

Meryl B. David, ABC

Update:  Additional credits are due to Accreditation Council Chair Anna Willey, ABC, and Glenda Holmes, ABC, who both put in a great deal of time making this all come together, as well as to the entire Accreditation Council.  Thanks to you all, and sorry for the oversight in the original message. 

Congratulations to you all!  It would be great to hear from Warren, who was in the lead throughout the last year, and from any of the others who took part in this inaugural program, about what you learned from the experience, so feel free to comment here or provide links to your own blogs.

Was just scanning around IABC eXchange for interesting sites and came across an all-time first — Camille Krug (http://camille.x.iabc.com/) has set up a site to post her Accreditation portfolio.  It’s especially interesting to me in light of the discussions we’re having, examining all aspects of the program.  It’s always seemed a bit don’t-look-behind-the-curtain, and here’s someone gutsy enough to throw back the curtains, publishing her best work for all to see.  Wow!

Camille is also really enthusiastic about this new IABC offering, and the opportunity to experiment with eXchange.  The more I play with it, the more I share that enthusiasm.  If you’re experimenting too, tell me about it.  I think this can only get better, and we can learn from each other.   How can we make this a really powerful extension of the association.  Are there problems it could help solve, opportunities it could open up?  I sense that we’ve only just scratched the surface, and that we’re going to find this is one of the best member offerings we’ve done in awhile. 

Congrats, Camille, on going for your ABC!  Let us know if we can help.