National Awards in Ficld of Public Relations

The first National Retail Lumber Dealers Association Award Program in the field of public relations met with a dealer response far beyond the hope and expectation of all those who had a hand in promoting this activity. It is an absolute certainty that this public relations activity of awarding plaques to companies with outstanding public relations programs in their own community will gain prestige and influence year after year.

The purpose oI this most successful, nationwide campaign conducted by the National with the active support of federated associations and all independent trade publications in the field is wide enough to command the interest of dealers operating in towns of all types and sizes.

The first purpose of this continuing program is to focus public attention upon the outstanding services performed by lumber and bu-ilding material dealers through their public relations programs.

Second, this Annual Award Program will focus attention of allied building industry groups upon the practical public relations being performed by the distributors in local communities.

Third, the entries already received will provide outstanding examples of good public relations and will point out to all dealers concrete means of developing an active and effective public relations program of their own.

The basis of judging the entries is outlined by the following 12 public relations objectives:

To develop prestige; promotion of products and sales; employee good will; prevention and solution of labor problems; to foster community good will; good will of the stockholders; to overcome misconceptions and prejudices against the company; government understanding and good will; good will of other industry elements; education of the public to the use of products and services; education of the public to a viewpoint; good will of customers or consumers.'

The actual judging of the entries took place at the Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D. C., October 22,. Everyone connected with the review of the dealer entries was impressed with the abundance of material that could be used in newspaper publicity and public relations work, and was further impressed rvith the amount of material that would be most effective if used in connection with any legislation concerning ,retail lqmber and building material dealers and their field of endeavor. Here for the first time, actual facts from the field had been placed in the hands of the National Association in such a way as to provide it with adequate publicity and public relations tools.

The success of this year's program made it apparent that continuation would be certain, and to enable everyone to get ofi to a head start, therefore, the deadline date for receipt of dealer material in L949 was selected as Friday, September 16. The date for judging the entries in Wash- ington, D. C., was selected as September 23,1949, and the material to be submitted by dealers should cover only activities engaged in between the dates September 10, 1948 and September lO, 1949. In January, a 4-page folder officially announcing the 1949 publi,c relations program for annual awards, together with all rules and information, will be sent in bulk shipments through the federated associations to all dealers interested in local public relations programs.

The actual presentation of Annual Awards for Outstanding Service to the Community and the Industry in the Field of Public Relations were presented during the National Annual Meeting at the Roney-Plaza Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, Thursday morning, November 11, to the following 1948 company and organization winners.

Class 1 (For lumber and building material yards operating in towns of under 1,000)-F. S. Pendleton Lumber Company, McComb, Ohio, (population 987). Award made to Lois Pendleton who wrote: "f present for your approval my favorite lumberman, Floyd S. Pendleton" in submitting this entry for her husband, lumber dealer Flovd Pendleton.

Class 2 (For lumber and building material yards operating in towns of 1,000--5,000)-sterner Coal and Lumber Company, Belmar, New Jersey, (population 3,435). Award made to Don Sterner who introduced his entry with the remark: "Departing from the traditional conception of a lumber yard's function in the community, the Sterner Coal and Lumber Company, of Belmar, New Jersey, two years ago decided to apply methods of promoting business that were heretofore only used by department stores and similar retail institutions."

Class 3 (For lumber and building material yards operating in towns of 5,000-50,000)-Richards and Krueger Company, New Braunfels, Texas (population 6900).Award made to Harvey L. Richards, who states in his presentation that "Richards and Krueger has had a hand in building 920 of the 1,790 buildings which have almost doubled the pre-war size of New Braunfels."

Class 4 (For yards in towns with populations of 5OOOO100,000)-L. Grossman Sons, fnc., Quincy, Massachusetts (population 75,000). Award made to Mr. Joseph Grossman who has given the dignity of man its proper position in public relations inasmuch as "There isn't a 'Mr.' in the company. Even the president is known to all employees by his first name." Rank here has given way to the prestige of citizenship and a job at Grossmans.

Class 5 (For yards in towns with populations of over 100,000)-The A. W. Burritt Company, Bridgeport, Conneticut (population 147,W). Award made to Arthur Clifford, who stated that one of the company's main public relations purposes was "to spread information concerning the true facts relating to our industry, particularly home building, thereby combatling propaganda for public hous-