Macon: Office of Communications brings home national awards

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The Brookdale Resource Center Communications Plan and Trash Talk have placed in the Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards from the National Association of Government Communicators (NAGC). Our own very own Chief Communications Officer Chris Floore and Public Relations Specialist Olivia Walter attended the NAGC Conference in Louisville, Kentucky this week and were able to accept the awards. The Brookdale Resource Center Communications Plan took home second place and Trash Talk was given the Award of Excellence. This awards program recognizes superior government communication products and those who produce them.

Trash Talk was a video series put together as part of the solid waste collection services transition to help let people know about the changes and the best ways to use the service. The videos in the series were short, informative, and engaging, and earned widespread recognition and support online and in the community.

"The quality and amount of communication Macon-Bibb put in place for this major transition was stunning, and Trash Talk had us recognized around the community," says Ryland Environmental Managing Partner James Lanier. "This series was able to show people the best way to place items on the curb, and we have seen the results of that during our weekly collections."

The Brookdale Plan was recognized in the Public Affairs Outreach Campaign category and included efforts to let people know of the services provided, how they could help (whether by volunteering or donation of funds and/or supplies), and, most importantly, stories of people using the services. The plan included media relations, e-newsletters, video features of partners, social media, infographics, branding, partner relations, and more.

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"We, as a community, must help the people who need us the most, and that's what we did with the Brookdale Resource Center. We needed a strong communications effort to make sure people know how to get those services and how our community could help," says Mayor Lester Miller. "I'm proud of the work staff at the Center have done and will do to help people, and I'm proud of our Communications Office for the role they played this past year."

"Chris and his team found a caring and proactive way to tell the story of what we were doing and how people could, and that made a huge difference in the success of this effort," says Emergency Management Agency Director Spencer Hawkins, who led the overall effort for the first year.

The Brookdale Resource Center Communications Plan was recognized nationally in March 2022 by PR News in its Nonprofit Awards program by being named the the winner in the Crisis Campaign category and earned an Honorable Mention in the Advocacy Campaign & Lobbying Efforts. PR Daily also recognized it in December 2021 with Honorable Mentions in two categories of the PR Daily Awards for its Brookdale Resource Communication Plan: Cause-Related Marketing Plan and Crisis Communication Plan.

About the National Association of Government Communicators

The NAGC began among federal communicators in Washington, D.C., shortly after World War II, and it was officially founded in 1976, with David Brown as the first NAGC president. The first national communications school was held the following September and during the next year in 1977 under the leadership of Joseph J. Carvajal.

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The NAGC is dedicated to advocating, promoting, and recognizing excellence in government communication. NAGC is dedicated to providing opportunities for individual professional development and career advancement, enhancing effective communication with constituents, and advancing the profession of government communication. The principal purpose of NAGC is to advance communication as an essential professional resource at every level of local, state, tribal and national government.

About the Office of Communications

The Office of Communications includes Chris Floore, Edna Ruiz, Rachel Gambill, and Olivia Walter. Their charge is to find the best ways to let people know what the government and its partners are doing to improve the community through strategic communications, media relations, video & photography services, a weekly e-newsletter, event planning, message development, social media, online content, crisis communications, and more.

These recognitions follow several others earned by the Office of Communications in the past several years, including:
  • Earning an Honorable Mention as PR News' Nonprofit Team of the Year, making them one of the top five in the country;
  • Chris being named Government Communicator of the Year by PRNews in 2022 and 2019, PR Daily in 2019 and 2018, and the City-County Communications & Marketing Association (3CMA) in 2015, and being named part of PRSA Georgia's inaugural 40 Under 40 Inductees in 2019;
  • Chris being a finalist for the top communication award by PRNews in 2018 and by the National Association of Government Communicators two years in a row;
  • four awards from the National Association of County Information Officers (NACIO) for the Solid Waste Services Change Infographic, the Public Affairs Annual Report, Tropical Storm Irma Debris Collection Infographic, and for departmental logos;
  • two from PR Daily for the Women of Macon-Bibb Instagram Campaign and Public Affairs Annual Report;
  • A national award from 3CMA for Macon-Bibb County's Forward Together Strategic Plan.

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