Giving thanks and receiving praise

Paul V. Arnold, Noria Corporation

I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you.

Thank you for reading Reliable Plant magazine, our Web site content and our e-mail newsletters (Reliable Plant Mail and Lean Manufacturing Journal).

Thank you for your comments, ideas and feedback via e-mail, mail, phone and fax.

Thank you for your submitted articles, editorials and technical tips.

Thank you for filling out grading sheets on magazine articles and issues.

Thank you for the pats on the back and the kicks in the backside.

Your active involvement helps us at Reliable Plant to continually improve, strive for excellence and create highly relevant products that meet your needs.

It is through such efforts and passion that we are able to grow and build and achieve.

As fruits of that labor, I am pleased to let you know that Reliable Plant recently earned six awards for excellence from the business press and international communications industries. Of that total, we received one international award, one national award and one award for overall editorial excellence.

The American Society of Business Publication Editors honored Reliable Plant with four awards, including one National Azbee award, in its 2007 competition.

The ASBPEs are the largest competition in the business press industry. Nearly 3,000 entries were considered this year.

Reliable Plant won the national award for its cover story on the MR-50 initiative at Toyota's auto plant in Georgetown, Ky. (March/April 2006 issue). RP also won two of the three West Region awards for best case history. Those articles focused on reliability prioritization at Eli Lilly (May/June 2006) and maintenance skills training at U.S. Steel (September/October 2006). Senior graphic designer Ryan Kiker also received a regional design Gold award for his opening spread to the U.S. Steel cover story.

Writing That Works honored Reliable Plant with two awards, including one Grand Award, in its international Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX) competition. A total of 4,916 entries - from the business press; public relations; and corporate, government and professional organization communications fields - were considered for honors this year. Less than 30 percent of nominees earned an award in one of the competition categories. Just 2 percent of nominees (a total of 114) received a Grand Award. Reliable Plant won its awards in two of the premier categories.

Our Internet site was one of the winners of a Grand Award in the Web Sites category. A total of 366 Internet/intranet sites received consideration. Five for-profit Web sites were named as the best. Commenting on our site, the competition's judges stated: "This clean, well- organized, densely packed Web site offers an enormous breadth and depth of content - all well-researched and written in a clear, fast-navigating format. A first-class effort."

Reliable Plant also won an award for overall excellence in writing in the Magazines & Journals category.

In its first two years of publication, Reliable Plant has now won 11 awards for excellence. That is testament to the hard work, knowledge and skills of our writers, columnists and design team. But even more so, it is testament to the active role that readers like you play in the development, use, dissemination and review of our content.

We share these honors with you.

Thank you for your involvement and support.

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