<p>WASHINGTON – The New York State Credit Union League's efforts to keep its credit unions and the general public informed after the September 11 attacks won one of the over 300 CUNA Marketing Council's Annual Diamond Awards this year. Using primarily its Web site but also its newsletters and quarterly magazine, the League sought in the weeks after the attack to both convey information as well as organize response in what seemed, especially in the beginning, an overwhelming story, according to Kathy Febraio Vice President of Public Relations for the League. "It was very gratifying to receive the thanks of credit unions who were able to confirm that friends and institutions that they knew in the area were safe through our efforts," said Febraio. The League won the Best Association Entry in the competition. Other "Best Of" awards included Allegacy FCU in Winston-Salem, NC for point of sale displays and newsletters. Boeing Employees' Credit Union won Best Use of Humor for a television ad campaign and Kinecta FCU of Manhattan Beach California won the Competition's Best award for the campaign surrounding its name change. Of this year's almost 1,100 entries, about 33% of them received some level of award. The council awarded 94 Diamond Awards (see chart), which recognize the best efforts in each category, and 250 Merit Awards which represented innovative ideas in each category. Michael Millis, Director of CUNA's Marketing Council defended the high percentage of awards pointing out that the awards seek to not only recognize accomplishment but to draw attention to unique marketing efforts. "When you have marketing professionals that are thinking outside the box you want to not only recognize their accomplishment but also draw attention to ideas that, while they might not be the best, should still be better known," Millis said. The Marketing Council does reserve its Best Practices awards for the single credit unions that are judged to have done the best job in Business Development, Name Change/Identity/Branding, and Sales Culture/Incentives. This year Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union won the Business Development award for adding 3,634 new members through its e-commerce efforts in campuses it serves. Kinecta Federal Credit Union, formerly the Hughes Aircraft Employees Federal Credit Union, won Name Change award for its campaign to let the public know about the name change and Bell-Tel Credit Union won the Sales Culture incentives for its employee incentive program.</p>