McCluskey wins top volunteer award for establishing Club on social media
A National Press Club member who established the organization’s presence on social media won the Club’s top volunteer award on Jan. 13.
Molly McCluskey, an independent multimedia journalist, took control of the Club’s Twitter account in 2015 and increased its number of followers from 7,000 to 12,500 over the course of the year. She formed a special subcommittee of the Club’s Broadcast Committee that led the effort to systematically Tweet from Club activities, such as luncheons, Book Raps and other events.
She carried out a strategic goal set by Club President John Hughes to enhance the Club’s visibility on social media.
At many Club events, “Twitter just lit up,” Hughes said in presenting the Berny Krug Award to McCluskey. “We were getting re-Tweeted hundreds of times.”
Hughes gave an example of a Book and Author Committee event about a book on terrorism. Club members’ Tweets were re-Tweeted by people in the Middle East.
“On the other side of the world, this thing is just getting all kinds of attention,” Hughes said.
He hopes that the Club’s use of social media becomes self-sustaining in a way similar to the production of the Wire, the Club’s nearly daily electronic newsletter.
“We’ve got something going that we can build on as a Club,” Hughes said. “We’re going to say that it all started with Molly McCluskey in 2015.”
The Krug Award, named after a former exemplary Club volunteer, recognizes the Club’s top volunteer each year. At the Jan. 13 event, the Club also bestowed 65 Vivian Awards to members for outstanding service to the Club in 2015. The Vivian is named after former Club President Vivian Vahlberg.
The Club also presented two other special awards. Robert Weiner won the President’s Award for creating an oped service that provides opportunities for student interns to write columns that are submitted to major publications. The Washington Times, the Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia Daily News are among the newspapers that have recently run the students’ pieces.
Mark Hamrick, chairman of the Broadcast Committee, won the John Cosgrove Award, which goes to a former Club president who remains deeply involved in the Club.
The winners of the Vivian Awards were Amy Henderson, Adam Konowe, Mike Freedman, Mike Hempen, Mark Krekorian, Jan King, Joe Luchok, Joe Motheral, Paul Minehart, Lindsay Murphy, Joan Coyle, Ken Dalecki, John Donnelly, Rachel Oswald, Delphine Halgand, Tam Harbert, Carmen Russell-Sluchansky, Gil Klein, Elizabeth Smith Brownstein, Celia Wexler, Rod Kuckro, Paul Merrion, David Vuich, Lou Priebe, Maria San Jose, Naseer Ahmad. Cary Pollak, Connie Lawn, Celie Schoon McPherson, Herb Perone, Tony Gallo, Jamie Horwitz, Darlene Shields, Al Teich, Noel St. John, Mike Soraghan, Danny Selnick, Matt Mlynarczyk, Mark Schoeff Jr., Sylvia Smith, Kevin Wensing, Angela Greiling Keane, Melissa Charbonneau, Pat Host, Kasia Klaminsinska, Jerry Zremski, David Anderson, Fay Iudicello, Jim Noone, Julia Pyper, Jen Judson, Sean McMinn, Ferdous Al-Faruque, Ellen Mitchell, Donna Leinwand Leger, Yasmine El-Sabawi, Talia Schmidt, Justin Duckham, Heather Forsgren-Weaver, Lorna Aldrich, Bill Miller, Sho Chandra, Jonathan Salant, Bill McCloskey, Tony Culley-Foster.