The Kansas City chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (KC/IABC) received a Chapter Management Award for financial management, as well as a commendable achievement award for website of the year, at the annual IABC Leadership Institute conference in Orlando in Feburary 2009.

As chapter president, I’m especially proud of these awards. I can’t take credit for either one, but I’m still proud.

These annual awards recognize leadership abilities, management skills, creativity and teamwork of outstanding leaders from more than 100 IABC chapters worldwide. The judges praised KC/IABC’s overall fiscal responsibility and management of large-scale events, including the annual Bronze Quill awards program and the chapter’s annual Business Communicators Summit.

KC/IABC’s recently updated website was selected as the best website of the year. Judges cited adherence to brand, use of graphics, ease of functionality and member resources content. The site also received recognition for its new social networking and member directory content.

(Thanks to board member Melanie Deardorff for developing the new site on behalf of the chapter. She’s pictured above on the right along with me on the left, IABC chair Barb Gibson and Dan Dillon, last year’s prez.)

The entire board of directors for KC/IABC was thrilled to be recognized at the conference. We were also energized to enter next year and hopefully will win even more chapter awards in 2010! Especially since KC/IABC is a five-time winner of the International Chapter of the Year award… it might be time to bring back that honor to KC.

For more information on IABC’s Kansas City chapter, visit www.kc.iabc.com.