The Chairman’s Award
Presented by Ted Lizotte
The Chairman’s Award was first presented in 1981. I enjoy this award, because there are so many individuals working hard daily for the greater good of the activity. Not everyone achieves Milestone or Gold Card status, but that by no means diminishes their contributions. The fact that I’m allowed to take a few minutes to recognize some of these people, to me is an excellent use of this platform and our time.
For this presentation, I only want to keep you in the dark for a short time. When I decided to recognize this individual, I had to learn to jump through a few hoops that I knew nothing about.
For that I needed to reach out to the only person I thought could help me… Paula Swift.
Now unfortunately, through no fault of their own, Paula isn’t with us this weekend. She does send her congratulations and really wishes she could be here, but tonight’s recipient thought there was a more important role Paula needed to play by manning the home office due to the end of renewal season. Through it all, Paula kept my secret, which is remarkable as she’s worked undercover for over the last 6 months. She’s aware she’ll probably get a stern talking to at some point as well, and she’s good with that.
Once Paula was on board, I needed another accomplice, I mean assistant. Enter Jack Pladdys. I called Jack, told him my idea, and that Paula was on board. I explained how he could help, and Jack being Jack, was all in. I appreciate his willingness to aide and abet. Thank you, Jack.
Lastly, I needed someone to read this (show the pages), and to do an open and honest critique of it. Because let’s face it, I couldn’t really ask our recipient to do it. Enter Shelly. Well, she didn’t need to enter, she was already there, but you get the idea. As the recipients “other mom”, I also needed to swear her to secrecy, and she has fulfilled her role beautifully as usual. Thank you, Shelly.
If you haven’t figured out tonight’s recipient yet, you’re not paying attention. Let’s unpack a little about her with a quote from her own website site.
Quote – Teresa, beloved daughter of Frank and Elisa Berger, grew up in the square dance activity and began calling in 2010. She calls and teaches square dancing through Plus, cues rounds through phase III and teaches line dances. She is a member of CALLERLAB and a life member of the Indiana Dancers Association (IDA). She records for Rhythm Records.
Teresa currently serves as the Executive Director of CALLERLAB, the International Association of Square Dance Callers, and as the Executive Secretary for the CALLERLAB Foundation for the Preservation and Promotion of Square Dancing. End quote.
And it is to this last paragraph that I will be focusing on.
Teresa began as an assistant executive director in 2018, and in 2020 took over the job of Executive Director from Dana Schirmer, which were big shoes to fill. Let’s face it, while there have been 26 different chairs of this organization, Teresa is only the 5th Executive Director. Kaltenthaler, White, Reed, Schirmer and now Berger. First, we had four almost or mostly retired older gentlemen. Now we have a young lady in this historically male dominated role and she shines, people, she shines.
I’ve always tried to be cheerleader / protector of her, though she’s never asked, and honestly probably doesn’t need me to be.
I’ll pause briefly here to mention the “Waiter Rule,” which suggests that a person’s true character, empathy, and kindness are revealed by how they treat service staff. Many of us are familiar with this idea.
I want to acknowledge that I have read and responded to some of the emails sent to Teresa, and I’ve also heard about a number of the phone calls. Some of the messages have been disappointing to read and/or hear.
I encourage everyone to remember that words matter and that the way we communicate reflects who we are. Due to the respect, I have for this organization and office I currently hold in it, my responses to these events have been tempered with restraint. But as I’m leaving, I thought a reminder that we should all hold ourselves to a higher standard and choose our words and actions more carefully was warranted.
As I said, I’ve tried to spend some of my time as chair championing what we do as an organization, and what this lady does in particular. Make no mistake, this job has grown and changed since its inception, the pay however has not kept up.
Let’s really think about this for a moment. If we were going to run an ad looking for a candidate to take this position, besides the lines that say “willing to work for peanuts” and “an ability to handle/assist and deal with aging boomers and inflated egos”, what would we ask for? Here’s a just a few things to consider:
- Square Dance Involvement
- Must understand and “speak” the square dance language. Ability to call is necessary. Ability to call well is preferred.
- Secretarial Skills
- Must be able to type quickly to keep up with a blabbering Chair, EC and BOG
- Office Manager
- Must handle all functions of a small office team, including HR, payroll, hiring/firing, training, scheduling, facility management, janitorial services and all communications such as email, phone and yes, snail mail.
- Oh, and also at times pest control
- Merchandising Coordinator
- Must handle creative conceptualization, implementation, acquisition, marketing, sales, and distribution of all items including the chair’s “You know what would be cool?” ideas, like T-Shirts and yearbooks, etc.
- Public Speaking
- Will be called on often to speak to many different organizations domestic and abroad. Must be comfortable speaking slowly and be deeply knowledgeable about the organization’s roots and beginnings
- Event Planner
- Need to scout pristine and inexpensive locations, deal with hotels, vendors, and Visitors Bureaus. Negotiation skills a must and the ability to squeeze every last drop out of a budget are paramount
- Audio Visual Mastery
- Acquire and utilize equipment and software necessary to provide members with in depth understanding of all things CALLERLAB, though in reality many will choose to ignore it
- Social Media Manager
- Understand and utilize social media platforms such as Facebook and You Tube to reach membership and the general public to keep this organization relevant in the 21st century
- Webmaster and Database Guru
- Must be exceptionally competent in Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, MailChimp, Drop Box, Canva, Google Groups, WordPress, Adobe, Zoom, Chat GPT and other platforms as needed. Ability to run and maintain multiple servers and firewalls a must
- Librarian
- Must catalog, update, review and maintain all existing, historical, and future documentation – constantly.
- Membership “Gopher”
- Must be at the beck and call of what feels like literally everyone, all the time. Preferably with an enduring smile and a ready “its fine”
- Must handle all functions of a small office team, including HR, payroll, hiring/firing, training, scheduling, facility management, janitorial services and all communications such as email, phone and yes, snail mail.
Look, I could add lines for Paralegal, Insurance Agent, Historian, Cheerleader, Referee, and keep going but let me wrap this up and get serious for a minute.
I realize that I only know a fraction of what Teresa has to deal with and accomplish for this organization on any given day. And I can’t understand how she does the things I know about, much less the things I don’t.
Most Chairs work a full-time job and call, which means the time to easily reach me is outside of her normal business hours. Teresa gives this organization almost 24/7/365 attention. Just because the office is closed or she’s overseas, she’s still knee deep and getting everything done.