Press Releases

June 28, 2005, Edgewater, MD: The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) recently won an Award of Excellence for it's web site, www.abycinc.org in the 2005 Best in Maryland Awards Competition. The non-profit standards writing organization received the award on Thursday, June 23, from the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

The Best in Maryland Awards are presented annually to those organizations that have successfully addressed a communications challenge with exemplary professional skill, creativity and resourcefulness. This year's winners were selected from 133 entries that were submitted for all categories, and were judged by a panel of senior-level practitioners from the PRSA Los Angeles Chapter. Single piece entries, such as the ABYC web site were judged using six main categories: planning, content, creativity, quality, technical excellence and results.

Elaine Mahaffey, ABYC's Director of Business & Technology said, "We are honored that our web site was recognized by the PRSA Maryland Chapter through this annual competition." "In today's ever-changing technological environment, it is important to have a strong yet flexible web site that reaches your audience on several levels," concluded Mahaffey.

Janet Busch, ABYC's Web Site Coordinator stated, "We have worked hard to not only enhance the look of ABYC's web site, but to expand it's utility as a communication channel, and use established features to accommodate the technological capabilities of our web site visitors."

ABYC's user-friendly web site offers visitors online event registration, a Members Only site, downloadable documents, searchable rosters and directories, a news and events area, an online Ship's Store that offers standards dissemination, marine publications and ABYC apparel/merchandise, and much more.

ABYC has been developing, writing and updating the safety standards for boat building and repair in the United States for over 50 years. ABYC is actively involved with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as well as education and certification programs for marine technicians. These standards are available on CD-ROM, online (Web-STIR) and in printed form. Membership and general information can be requested by visiting the ABYC web site at www.abycinc.org.