News

Maurice Chaney, an award-winning strategic communications professional with over 24 years of combined experience in the public and private sectors, was awarded the 2024 Paul B. Clark Achievement Award by CAPIO on May 15 in Indian Wells during the CAPIO Annual Conference and Awards Dinner.

In his current role, Maurice is the Public Information Officer for the City of Roseville. He manages public relations and outreach and oversees a hands-on learning center for Environmental Utilities, a suite of community-owned utilities for a community of nearly 160,000.

Nominations are now open for CAPIO’s annual special awards!  New this year, CAPIO has added a Rising Star award celebrating the achievements of an individual who has 5 years or less experience in the field of government communications.  This award joins our special awards line up including the Communicator of the Year Award, Frank Potter Cowan Crisis Communications Leader of the Year Award, and the prestigious Paul B. Clark Award.

Jennifer M. Cabral has been the voice of the Orange County Sanitation District (OC San) for over 20 years. She oversees the Public Affairs Office and Board Services, a joint staff of 15 people, managing marketing communications, community relations, public affairs, legislative and government affairs, branding, stakeholder relationships, event planning, media relations, and board relations for the third largest wastewater treatment facility west of the Mississippi River.

Jennifer has become the sounding board for OC San’s executive management team and has gained a seat at the decision-makers’ table. Her value to the agency is demonstrated by the trust, confidence, and respect she has earned from her staff, peers, management, and Board of Directors.

CAPIO is now welcoming nominations for our three individual honors. The Paul B. Clark award - recognizing s a 20+ year career of excellence in communications.  The Communicator of the Year award – recognizing a recipient for a stellar year of work in 2021.  And the Frank Potter Cowan Crisis Communications Leader award - recognizing a team or an individual demonstrating exceptional leadership during a crisis. Nominations are reviewed according to a rubric under each category.

by Sheri Benninghoven, APR and Scott Summerfield, Principals, SAE Communications

CAPIO members were deeply involved in pandemic response and emerged better prepared for whatever may be around the corner, according to the results of a membership survey conducted this summer.

CAPIO members – join us for our June regional meetings where you will have a chance to connect face-to-face (virtually) with colleagues in your area.  This quarter’s meeting will focus on networking on key topics to provide you with connections to reach out to throughout the year.

CAPIO has added a new Community Forum board for members to share their RFPs / RFQs with our affiliate members.   

HOW TO ACCESS THE RFP BOARD

Access the forum by first logging in to our CAPIO Website www.capio.org

Then either access via the MEMBERS DISCUSSION FORUM or through the VIEW MY MEMBER PROFILE page.  Select the RFP/RFQ Forum under the Community Forum link.

The power of virtually connecting is more important now than ever.  In light of this, we have established a members only private Facebook group where we can commiserate, share best practices, vent and enjoy a group of people who understand who we are as government communications professionals.  As we emerge into the re-opening phase throughout the state, this will give you an opportunity to share your successes and challenges that your agency has during this time.

At our annual conference in April, CAPIO was excited to unveil our new brand. Since then, we’ve been working closely with our project partner, Digital Deployment, to design a new, innovative website that integrates our new brand into a more dynamic, user-friendly website experience for current and prospective members.

We’re professional communicators, so we all know the reason why the traditional media have experienced a slow and painful descent: Advertising revenue has gone elsewhere, or purely DIY for business owners. That’s left little funding to pay for good journalism. I don’t see this turning around. Do you?

I started my career as a filmmaker and storyteller because I like exploring relationships between people and explaining how things work. After working in the public sector for a few years, many of the myths that I had learned about public relations (that it was all about marketing or that it was “spin”) were dispelled. I learned that PR was about helping my organization foster better relationships with the community. Since I wanted to do a better job of fostering those relationships, I decided to pursue the APR.