Presented by Ken Ritucci
The Gold Card, “Life Membership” in CALLERLAB may be given in recognition of
service to CALLERLAB. It may be presented to long term CALLERLAB Members
who have provided outstanding service to CALLERLAB, and been selected by
representatives of the membership (the EC) to be honored in this way. It may be
given to callers who have retired from active calling. Under special circumstances,
as determined by the EC, the Gold Card may also be given to CALLERLAB
Members who are still actively calling. The list of those who have been given this
recognition is short. It includes people who have worked very hard and very
selflessly to enhance CALLERLAB. This organization has many ways of recognizing
its Members, and in some cases even non-members, for their contributions to the
square dance activity. The Gold Card is reserved for those who have worked to
make CALLERLAB a more valuable and successful leadership organization. The
service that our Gold Card members have given has come in many forms.
Current Gold Card Members in attendance this year are Betsy Gotta, Jon Jones,
Melton Luttrell and Mike Seastrom.
Our award winner was chairman of the Challenge Committee for 20 years. This
was a remarkable feat considering the Chairman of this committee has to deal with
multiple triennial reviews representing different dance programs: C1, C2, C3A.
During all these years, Ed has been responsible for not only the triennial reviews
but was involved with Definition changes to any other calls on the 3 Challenge
programs. Ed dedicated his time for all these years making sure the Challenge
Committee was handled in a proper way.
Ed has been a member of the Board of Governors from 1981 – 1983 and is currently
serving on the Board since 2017. Being a Board Member requires not only
correspondence on CALLERLAB business but also physical attendance at the
meetings during the annual convention. Being asked to do anything, Ed has always
been a vocal and active member of the Board, contributing throughout his tenure.
Perhaps the biggest and most important aspect of Ed Foote’s contributions to
CALLERLAB has been his continuous work as the choreographer and proofreader
for the organization. His work as Choreographic Review Coordinator has been in
existence for over a decade now. Ed always strives to work with the committee
chairman to review choreography that might be written for any particular program.
If you know Ed, one of his professional attributes for CALLERLAB is to make sure
that whatever comes across his desk in the form of choreography will be scrutinized
to ensure that when it’s published to the public, it will represent CALLERLAB in
the best possible light. Ed’s dedication to detail is truly remarkable. In addition, Ed
is currently reviewing the entire Caller Coach Currculum Guidelines for the
organization. He is going through the document including the recent updates from
Dottie Welch. This is a huge undertaking for this type of document.
Ed has represented CALLERLAB at numerous National Conventions, over the
years conducting CALLERLAB Accredited Caller Coach Seminars. Whenever Ed is
conducting these, he always represents our organization in the most professional
manner. Ed has always shown interest in what is happening in our activity and
makes sure he listens to all of the taped convention sessions to make his comments
known to the Home Office. Ed is constantly adding topics to the discussion at the
EC meeting as well as keeping an eye out for other activities and opportunities for
CALLERLAB to engage in. Ed cares deeply for our activity and has worked
throughout the decades to show that.
It gives me great pleasure to be able to present the CALLERLAB Gold Card to
someone I’m proud to call my colleague, and my friend, Ed Foote.