CONTACT:  Patricia Viets       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                               11/14/97 

Colby Hostetler, a constituent affairs officer, and John Shadid, a visual information specialist, both of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have received top honors in competition for government communications awards.

Hostetler and Shadid, both with NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in Suitland, Md., have received 1997 Blue Pencil Awards from the National Association of Government Communicators. They were honored last night at the association's annual awards dinner in Alexandria, Va.

NAGC is the only professional association exclusively for federal, state, local and international government communicators. The Blue Pencil award is an annual recognition of outstanding government communications projects.

Hostetler, of Alexandria, Va., won first place for the 1995 NESDIS Report. The report, which describes NOAA's satellite programs and data centers, was the best publication for a technical audience.

Shadid, of Camp Springs, Md., won jointly with Hostetler in a visual communications category. The pair designed and entered a 1997 calendar for NESDIS titled "Four Seasons Satellite Imagery," which depicts color-enhanced full-disc images of the Earth from NOAA's geostationary satellites.