If Wendy Davie can put a little trumpet blowing, so can I. At our end-of-year function for National Speakers Association Christchurch chapter, we had our annual awards presentation.
And....yours truly received the President's Award for commitment to the chapter.
What did I do to deserve it? Well, I've been Education Director, and on the national working party reviewing accreditation and membership (sometimes a background as a lawyer specialising in corporate governance issues comes in handy!) I have also been active in preparing business plans, sourcing and working with our event management team for a one-day conference next March 5th, called Speaking Professionally.
All of that has taken a huge amount of time, and I don't begrudge one minute of it. The NSANZ Christchurch Chapter is a group of hugely energetic, creative, active and inspiring bunch of people who I continue to learn from. The more I get involved the more I benefit. It is nice to get the award, but it isn't half so much a reward as I've got from getting involved in the first place.
I also competed on the night in the Orators competition. I've been focussing on bringing more gravitas to my speaking. I have been told I have a light and entertaining style. I never need to try and be comic - my timing just takes over and suddenly people are laughing at places I didn't plan for them too, which inevitably lightens things up. I put a bit of work into my speech, listening to the great speeches of the world, including Barack Obama's recent speeches, and trying to make my style more oratorical. I'm proud of how I spoke - I did a good job.
I also had the joy of watching Ralph Brown speak. After about 15 seconds I knew I wouldn't win. Ralph is my speaking idol - the consummate professional, without being at all flashy or over the top. He was a deserved winner. Congratulations to Ralph, and to all the other award winners this year. I'll post my thoughts on the topic: "the magic of words", along with the video, some time soon.
The other awards on the evening (copied from Wendy Davie's blog) went to:
Unsung Hero Award and People's Choice - Wendy Davie
Congratulation everyone, and let all our trumpets sound.
1 comment:
Great write up Rachel, and yes you are most definitely the most deserving of the Presidents Award, I was thrilled you were the recipient.
Your Orators was also awesome, I thoroughly enjoyed it and certainly scored you highly.You are a true star in my world.
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