South Bay History Book Firm Earns Three Awards, Receives Kudos from Trade Journal
– Credit Union Times Calls Volume 'Extraordinary' –
Redondo Beach (June 14, 2007) – A book written by two South Bay authors detailing the 75-year history of California's fourth-largest credit union has earned three Awards of Distinction in the 13th Annual Communicator Awards and rave reviews from a leading credit union industry trade journal, the Credit Union Times.
"Thirteen Men, Sixty Five Dollars, Seventy Years Later," a history of Wescom Credit Union written by Mary Blake and Craig Horning, earned the awards in the book category and in the writing and design categories. The Award of Distinction is given for projects that exceed industry standards in production or communication skills.
The Communicator Awards is an international awards competition that recognizes outstanding work in the communications field. Entries are judged by industry professionals who look for talent that exceeds a high standard of excellence and work that serves as a benchmark for the industry.
The book was written, designed and printed by MB Writing & Consulting Group, a Redondo Beach-based firm that specializes in history books and marketing projects for credit unions.
A leading trade journal, the Credit Union Times, also praised the volume when it was published late last year.
"Wescom Credit Union is taking its history and culture to heart in a big way by publishing an extraordinary 100-page anthology filled with photographs and memorabilia from the CU's 75-year history," according to the publication.
Darren Williams, Wescom president, believes understanding the credit union history is paramount to linking employees to the organization's purpose. "The Wescom history book is the culmination of a project intended to celebrate the rich history of not only our credit union, but of the entire credit union movement as well," he said. "We're very pleased to be able to share this insightful record with our staff and volunteers."
"We wanted our history to be a story about people," noted Joe Schaeffer, Wescom senior vice president. Mary and Craig did exactly that and captured the warm relationships
that developed over the years between our members, our employees and our volunteers."
Laura Porter, author of a history of the California Credit Union League and a source for the Wescom book, says the authors brought to life what might have been a prosaic recital of dates and figures and have raised the bar for industry memoirs.
"The reader has a sense of being there, in the middle of a great adventure," said Porter.
Mary Blake, owner of MB Writing & Consulting Group, and history partner Craig Horning interviewed numerous past and present credit union management, employees and members for the historical account. As well, they reviewed hundreds of documents, annual reports and board minutes from Wescom and its founding sponsor, Pacific Telephone. Additional research was conducted at the AT&T Archives and History Center in San Antonio, Texas. Both authors have extensive financial services experience.
"We worked to ensure that we captured the personality and culture of Wescom, not only in the structure and writing, but with the book's design approach," Blake said. "Wescom is one of the most progressive credit unions in the country and is doing a lot of things right to take financial services to a whole new level, so that made this a very engaging project."
In 2001, MB Writing & Consulting Group produced a history book for Manhattan Beach-based Kinecta Federal Credit Union under its founding name, Hughes Aircraft Employees Federal Credit Union. The firm recently began its next project, a 75th year commemorative history of the Santa Ana –based Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union.
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