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Midwest communicators win honors at national conference

Sisters United News (SUN), a consortium of Catholic Sisters of the Upper Mississippi Valley, was selected as one of eight recipients of the “Best Practices” awards by the National Communicators Network for Women Religious (NCNWR) during the 2006 conference in San Antonio, Texas. Cristeen Custer, director of communications for the FSPA, also received an individual award at the conference.

SUN received the award for Collaborative Project/Special Event Planning for their collaborative work with leadership teams in planning and implementing a symposium on women’s leadership. The symposium commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Representatives of SUN presented a synopsis of the project in San Antonio, demonstrating how communicators worked hand-in-hand with leadership representatives to develop and publicize the symposium.

This is the third consecutive year that SUN has received the Best Practices award. Earlier awards recognized a public relations initiative urging people to vote with civility and a billboard campaign that encouraged tolerance for immigrants.

Cristeen was awarded the Best Practices award in the Commemorative/One-Time Publication category. The award recognized the architectural walking tour, Heritage Tour of a Franciscan Neighborhood, which had been developed for the centennial celebration of Mary of the Angels Chapel.

The selection committee indicated the project had been selected because it represented a new idea that could be applied by others. In her presentation Cristeen emphasized key aspects of the project that could be transferred to other settings. The key aspects include collaborative project development, creating an experiential event, involving a broad base of constituents, highlighting a key value (in this case hospitality), linking the mission with tangible outcomes and generating new connections with the public.

SUN members are the Sisters of Charity, BVM, the Sisters of the Presentation, the Sisters of St. Francis, Sisters of the Visitation and the Trappestine Nuns, of Dubuque; the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Cedar Rapids; the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, Davenport; the Carmelite Sisters, Eldridge; the Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton; the Sisters of St. Benedict, Rock Island, Ill.; the Dominican Sisters, Sinsinawa, Wis. and the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse.

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