Extractable, a San Francisco digital specialist, and Michael Hamm, an Albuquerque-based accreditation specialist, have been retained by the International Association of Business Communicators, a teleconference was told this morning.


Hamm and Extractable logo
Participants were told that the next financial report will be the audit that is released to the annual conference in June 2013. Requests by this website for a nine-months report were rejected.

Callers asked several times why 16 people had to be fired at the same time and exactly what were the skills that they lacked.

Chair Kerby Meyers and executive director Christopher Sorek said there could be no description of the specific skills involved because to describe them would be a criticism of those who had been let go.

For the same reason, there is no current description of skills needed for 11 jobs that are to be filled.

Leaders and staff refused to answer all questions involving the costs of the layoff, including severance pay and total amount cut from the payroll.

The 2011 IRS Form 990 of IABC showed $1,981,970 invested in “publicly traded securities” at the end of 2011 but Meyers would not say how much was invested in common stocks or other specific securities except to say the investments were “very conservative.”

Long Search for Consultants



Meyers and Sorek
Sorek said that Extractable and Hamm were picked after long and thorough searches. IABC has announced a commitment to digitizing with the aim of being more responsive to members.

The group’s bimonthly magazine, Communication World, will be digital-only after the Jan.-Feb. 2013 issue.

Extractable says it has worked for more than 125 companies in a variety of industries and has won 60 WebAwards of the Web Marketing Assn.

It says it has a “diverse team of user experience practitioners that includes strategists, user experience architects, brand specialists, visual designers, engineers, and account and project managers.”

Says its website: “We consult with our clients to enrich their relationships with consumer and business audiences by making their sophisticated digital brand platforms valuable, relevant, and engaging. We specialize in creating and maintaining websites, applications, social and mobile experiences for transactional, educational, lead generation, support and entertainment purposes. Our data-driven methodology blends user-centered design approaches with behavioral analytics to create proven results. Recent clients include Micron, Visa, Safeway, LeapFrog, John Muir Health, Sunset Magazine, and ACE Group Services of Hamm Assocs."

The website of Hamm says the firm helps to develop new, effective credentialing services including certification and accreditation, and provides cost-effective solutions to improve current credentialing services.

Hamm is a Certified Management Consultant, a credential that he says has been earned by less than one per cent of management consultants.