meeting story

The Association for Women in Communication Make Their Mark
By: Lauren Madeja
September 12th, 2010

Pullman—The WSU chapter of the Association for Women in Communication started the year off right at their first meeting last Tuesday with news of awards and aspirations of more to come.
The AWC president Erin Smith began the meeting by informing new members and reminding old members of the great honor they received by being granted the Outstanding Student Chapter award at the national AWC conference last October. The award is given to one chapter per year and is based on high quality, visible programming, fundraising activities and special community involvement.
The purpose of this announcement, according to Smith, was to show new and potential members how devoted and involved the WSU chapter of AWC is, and to keep returning members motivated to achieve excellence.
“The Outstanding Student Chapter award is a great honor,” Smith said, “We worked hard to deserve it and we wanted to show that we are very passionate about AWC.”
The women of the chapter did work hard for their award in fact, by putting on networking programs including job shadows and guest speakers at meetings, organizing fundraising auctions, and getting involved in community service such the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life.
Smith’s idea to quickly hook potential AWC members with the announcement of this award seemed to work. Alex Moji, a potential member at the meeting was very impressed.
“This is the first meeting of the year, so I thought I would just check it out,” Moji said. “But once they talked about the award and I saw how excited all the officers were about it, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.”
Though returning senior Erin Olson already knew about the award, she didn’t mind hearing about it again.
“I just get proud every time we talk about it,” Olson said, “Out of all the chapters in the nation we are the most outstanding. It makes me want to do even more.”
And the AWC will be doing more, much more in fact this year. They already had plans to set out an informational table at the WSU Student Involvement Fair at the CUB last Friday to inform students of the benefits AWC can have in their careers and lives. They were also invited to volunteer at the WSU Foundations Annual Gala September 24th at Beasley.
“We want to do as much as we can this year,” Smith said about their plans for the year. “We want to get our name out there on campus, get more people involved, and go for another award at the next conference.”
The next national AWC conference is October 2011 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to Smith, the WSU chapter has high hopes they will be recognized again if they continue on the same path. The WSU chapter has been recognized nationally nine times for excellence, including being named Outstanding Chapter of the Year five times in the last ten years.
With all of the devotion and drive shown at the meeting, it looks like the WSU chapter of the AWC will be going far.



OUTLINE
Lead: The WSU chapter of the Association for Women in Communication started the year off right at their first meeting last Tuesday with news of awards and aspirations of more to come.
A. Details of award: what it was, how they got it.
B. Purpose of announcement: attract potential members, inspire old ones.
C. Reactions of potential members and existing members (quotes).
D. Plans for this year and the future.

CONTACTS
Erin Smith: President of WSU AWC awccougars@yahoo.com
Alex Moji: Potential new member of WSU AWC 425-635-8840
Erin Olson: Member of WSU AWC