By Karin Calloway
I’m not a competitive person. Ask anyone who knows me well and they’ll agree. If you say, “I bet I can beat you at…” my response will most likely be a big “high five, you win,” even before the competition begins.
But, as much as I’m not competitive, I’m a zealous team player. I find it exhilarating to be part of a team, to brainstorm ways to do things better, to make big plans for future goals.
The team-player side of me trumped the non-competitive side in mid-April, when the Parenting Media Association held its annual conference. Each year the conference closes with a Saturday night awards ceremony for their Editorial and Design Awards Competition. They usually post the results online the following Sunday morning and you can bet this non-competitive girl is refreshing the PMA awards page repeatedly until the new awards list appears.
Part of me is always nervous because I want our Augusta Family Magazine team to fare well. Fortunately, I’ve never been disappointed with the results.
This year we received six national awards. That’s one more than we received last year.
Congratulations to our graphic artist Michael Rushbrook who received a gold award for Interior Illustration for his “Techno Talk” illustration in the September 2015 issue.
Jennie Montgomery, who writes our Mom to Mom family humor column, won a silver award and Cammie Jones, author of our family matters column called Smart Mom’s Guide, received a bronze award. Writer Lucy Adams also received a bronze award for her feature in the July 2015 issue about coping with your child’s athletic coaches. Lucy and John Harpring were also recognized for their outstanding work on the Spirit of Nursing Special Section in the May/June 2015 issue, taking a silver award for Special Section Within a Publication.
The final award is one that has been more fleeting to our publication, as it is an overall award in a very competitive field. We’ve won it in the past, but not for a few years. This year I’m proud to report that we received a bronze award for Overall Writing. This one is a big deal for us editors (even us non-competitive types) as it attests to the work we’ve done coming up with interesting story ideas and finding talented writers to write about them.
Thanks to my excellent team! I’m proud to work with you all.
Until July,
Karin
This article appears in the May – June 2016 issue of Augusta Family Magazine.
Did you like what you read here?
