CHAIRMAN’S AWARD
Presented by Patty Greene
Most of the time, we recognize people who are front and center in our activity–the ones behind the microphone and visible. The reality is that there are many people doing lots of jobs behind the scenes for us, especially during our Conventions to make things easy for YOU.
For those of you who were presenters; did you have to set up your hall for sound and recording?
Or were most of you able to just walk into your hall and do your thing? Did any of you man the Registration table or volunteer to set up or take down the Ways and Means or Registration table?
Are you enjoying this Convention? Have you been able to relax and only worry about getting to your sessions, take a snooze, and get to bed early?
This year for the Chairman’s Award, I would like to shine a light on some unsung heroes in our activity who work tirelessly to make YOUR Convention a success. In this case, our award recipients willingly perform behind the scene’s jobs with a smile. They volunteer to come in early, stay late, deal with all of our personalities and quirks, get us settled in, schlep equipment, answer our questions, and keep track of us. They are incredibly valuable resources to the Executive Director. I would venture to guess that without them, our Conventions wouldn’t be nearly as successful.
Dennis served in the Army and the Reserves. He was also employed at the Civilian Civil Service Department of Army as Director of Information Management (Computers). Judy worked in Public Works as Director of Housing Inspections. The Grossnickles served as Chairman of Social Events for the 57th National Square Dance Convention in Wichita, KS and served several terms as officers and on various committees of the Kansas Square Dance Association. They were inducted into the Kansas Square Dance Hall of Fame in 2015. Judy once noted that one of her favorite CALLERLAB Convention session was attending the Definitions Committee meeting.
Tom and Cindy Hollinberger started their square dance calling careers around 2013. Dana invited them to attend the 2014 Reno Convention to help indoctrinate Tom with his calling education while assisting the Home Office with the various Convention tasks. Tom and Cindy became enthused with the Convention and have asked to assist each year thereafter. Tom is retired Navy and worked at Fort Riley with the Corp of Engineers and later as a professor at Kansas State University. Cindy has worked as a Para at elementary schools.
The Hollinbergers and Grossnickles have served as volunteers for every CALLERLAB Convention starting in 2014, and we are beyond lucky to have them in our corner!
Each of them are enthusiastic and ready to assist in any way they can to make the Convention much less stressful for the Executive Director and other staff members. They field questions, run interference, spend a lot of time in the office and run here and there doing what’s needed. It gives me great joy to award this year’s Chairman’s Award to Dennis and Judy Grossnickle, and Tom and Cindy Hollinberger.
On behalf of all of us, I would like to say “Thank you for being an integral part of our CALLERLAB family.”