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VRA Awards 2014
- 1. Members and Awards Dinner Thursday March 13, 2014
- 2. • Internship in visual resources and image management
- 3. Angie Yip VRAF Internship Award 2013-2014
- 5. Ann Baird Whiteside Nancy DeLaurier Award 2014
- 8. Virgina M.G. (Macie) Hall Distinguished Service Award 2014 DSA 2014
- 9. Macie, then and now, a lifelong New Yorker fan DSA 2014
- 10. Macie’s office ca. 1996 Slide & Photograph Collection Visual Resources Collection DSA 2014
- 11. VRA President, 2006-2008 Director, VRA Foundation Board, 2010 DSA 2014
- 12. 25th Anniversary of the VRA DSA 2014
- 13. VRA Board San Diego Conference DSA 2014
- 14. VRA Foundation Board and Donors, Minneapolis DSA 2014
- 15. Having fun while keeping the board and membership informed DSA 2014
- 16. Active Conference Participant DSA 2014
- 17. Years of service: all those VRA meetings DSA 2014
- 18. DSA 2014 A leader at work as well
- 19. Macie’s office, 2014 DSA 2014
- 20. Family DSA 2014
- 21. DSA 2014 Above all, have the right priorities
- 22. DSA 2014 THANK YOU, MACIE!!
- 24. Members and Awards Dinner Thursday March 13, 2014
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Introduction of Awards CeremonyMNW First slide Welcome to the 2014 presentation of the Visual Resources Association’s Nancy DeLaurier & Distinguished Service Awards. I’m Margaret Webster, the chair of the Awards Committee. Please continue to enjoy your desert while we celebrate our stellar group of awardees. The awards committee worked hard this year and is pleased to present a Nancy DeLaurier Award and a Distinguished Service Award to a couple of exceptional representatives of our profession. We are very proud of the professional diversity exhibited by this group of most deserving honorees. I extend a big thank you to all of the members of the awards committee (Linda Callahan, Lise Hawkos, and Martine Sherrill) for their thoughtful, collegial work during the year. We are deeply grateful to our 2014 awards nominators and letter writers; they are essential to this process. Finally, I want to give you all a head’s up. I will post a call for nominations for both the Nancy DeLaurier and the Distinguished Service Awards for 2015 beginning in May. Please, while you are enjoying this awards celebration, think about those have who influenced your professional development, those who in your opinion have contributed so much to visual resources. Please consider submitting a nomination for a Nancy DeLaurier or Distinguished Service Award. The award guidelines and list of previous recipients are posted on the VRA web site. Furthermore, each member of the Awards Committee is prepared to help you with this process. Remember—no nominations equals no awards celebration. We have too many worthy potential honorees to let this happen.
- MNW Before we begin with the Nancy DeLaurier and Distinguished Service Awards, I want to introduce you to the new Kress Foundation funded Visual Resources Association Foundation Visual Resources Internship Award. The inaugural VRAF committee for this award included Maureen Burns, chair; Meghan Musolff representing the VRA Education Committee; and myself, representing the VRA Awards Committee.
- Portrait of Angie Yip MNW The VRA Foundation is pleased to announce that Angie Yip of Chatham, Ontario, is the inaugural recipient of the VRAF Internship Award in visual resources and image management. Her internship was at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and involved a collaborative image project together with the Detroit Institute of Art, Wayne State University, and the College for Creative Studies. Unfortunately Angie is unable to be with us tonight, but she sent us the following statement about her experience with her internship: “The VRAF Internship Award has provided a very rich and rewarding experience in exposing me to the visual resources area of librarianship. It has not only allowed me to work on a collaborative project between three community partners in Detroit, but has helped to develop a mentorship relationship with my supervisor at the College for Creative Studies. She has taken the time and care in helping me understand the visual resources community and its history, as well as inviting me to a VRA chapter meeting, and ensuring I learn as much as possible about visual resources, including the opportunities to do more in-depth digital imaging, and learning about embedding images. In such a short time, I have a greater appreciation, and stronger desire, to work in the visual resources field.” Angie Yip, 2/19/2014. As you see mentoring which we VR professionals are committed to both as mentors and receivers of mentoring is an important aspect of Angie’s internship. The mentor that she mentions is VRA member Marian Lambers. In fact, mentoring as a professional activity is an underlying current shaping the professional lives all of our award recipients this year. This process is not a linear or chrnological progression; I personally regard both our Nancy DeLaurier and our Distinguished Award winners as important mentors for my own career development. But, I digress. Please join me in congratulating Angie and welcoming her to visual resources.
- Portrait of Nancy DeLaurier Nancy DeLaurier Award MNW The Nancy DeLaurier Award, named for one of the pioneers of the visual resources profession, annually honors a visual resources professional for distinguished achievement in the field. "Achievement" is measured by immediate impact, and may take the form of published work, oral presentation, project management, software development, technology application, website creation, or other outstanding effort. The 2014 Nancy DeLaurier Award goes to…
- Portrait of Ann Baird Whiteside MNW …Ann Whiteside for her role in establishing and serving as project director for SAHARA, the peer-reviewed online digital image archive for architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. SAHARA, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. was developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with ARTstor. It currently contains more than 47,000 images of architecture and landscapes contributed by SAH members—architects, scholars, photographers, graduate students, preservationists, and others who share an interest in the built environment. I call upon Elisa Lanzi to make the presentation. Would Ann, Elisa, and Jolene please join me at the podium?
- Visual Resources Association Nancy DeLaurier Award Ann Whiteside March 13, 2014 Introduction by Elisa Lanzi Ah SAHARA, the name conjures up thousands of images of exotic built works, nomadic librarians creating metadata in tents, architectural historians navigating digital sand dunes on camels, all converging at the scholars’ oasis called SAHARA. And I see a woman, all in white, wearing many silver bracelets, leading the way. That woman is Ann Whiteside and tonight she is being awarded the VRA 2014 Nancy DeLaurier Award. This award honors an achievement of global significance for the image community, the SAHARA Digital Archive of Architectural Images. Ann’s leadership in bringing this important initiative forward is a consummate achievement. I am pleased to be here presenting this award on behalf of my co-nominator, Jackie Spafford, SAHARA co-editor, and myself. The SAHARA project was developed by the Society of Architectural Historians in collaboration with ARTstor. SAHARA was envisioned as a user-contributed, peer-reviewed online image archive for teaching and research about the built environment. Ann was instrumental in realizing that vision as Project Director beginning in 2008. The SAHARA project exemplifies what we do best in VRA; build bridges across communities, apply innovative thinking, and work hard to make it happen. Alison Benedetti, research librarian at UCLA, captured it best: “I witnessed firsthand Ann’s amazing ability to combine innovative thinking with feasibility and strategy. The SAHARA project team was comprised of programmers, architectural historians, librarians, and vendor representatives, all with related, but slightly different agendas and priorities. Ann was the glue that held all of this together; I really do not Know if the project could have succeeded without her.” Jackie and I have seen Ann in action in many contexts, but SAHARA is the culmination of Ann’s long-term commitment to fostering a professional environment where the architecture community works together to share high-quality meaningful images accompanied by rich metadata. When Jackie and I asked colleagues who have worked closely with Ann in the context of SAHARA for letters of support, we weren't surprised to hear the incredible praise they heaped upon her. Our letter writers witnessed the impact of this incredible resource in the architectural world. We’d like to share some of their words with you tonight. Sandy Isenstadt, art history professor and SAHARA editorial committee member said, “As a scholar, My interest in visual resources pertains to their unique aesthetic properties, their narrative content, and how they can be used as components of a historical argument. The mechanics of assembling a first-rate collection and guaranteeing its accessibility, however, are beyond me. I was genuinely dumbfounded, then, as Ann led our group to establish criteria for adding to the collection and, thus, identify gaps and opportunities for the collection; oversee and streamline a complex workflow involving image donors, librarians, content editors and technicians; introduce high standards for image quality and metadata that reconciled the divergent priorities of SAHARA’s several constituencies; manage detailed negotiations with partners and vendors, as well as the SAH membership; work within a tight timeline and budget; forge a common vocabulary to connect distinct interests and skill sets of teachers, researchers, students, photographers, designers and preservationists; and institute policies and protocols so that the resource remains vital even as its founding members move on to other projects.” Jeffrey Cohen, architectural historian and VRA member, noted, “Ann was the key figure in bringing SAHARA to the robust, flexible, and professional state it now enjoys, advancing it immensely from the idiosyncratic, midnight-coded SAH Image Exchange as it started out in the mid‐1990s.” “SAHARA’s potential is only beginning to be realized, as scholars come to appreciate its role as an archive of their photographic research. Thanks to the robust cataloging infrastructure that Ann created, the SAHARA collection can continue to expand to accommodate the scholarship both of the Kodak era and the digital age,”declared Jeffrey Klee, architectural historian, Colonial Williamsburg. Pauline Saliga, Director of the Society of Architectural Historians expressed, “Given Ann’s extensive background in managing large projects and developing cataloging standards for VRA’s Cataloging Cultural Objects, she played a key role in establishing the structure of SAHARA and devising SAHARA’s metadata fields so the data would follow established standards for describing built works. This high level planning made SAHARA’s metadata interoperable with the metadata of other online projects, an important element of data sharing and open data.” Alix Reiskind, digital initiatives librarian at the Harvard GSD added, “I joined Ann on a collection evaluation trip to look at a possible gift for SAHARA. She was both knowledgeable and diplomatic in assessing the collection taking into account the needs of the resource. Ann’s contributions have helped build SAHARA, a resource that will hopefully serve teaching for decades. Ann’s dedication to the field of visual resources and her tireless energy and giving of time deserve recognition by her colleagues and friends in the Visual Resources Association.” “From the very start of the project, Ann was an essential intellectual presence and her contributions were invaluable. She is an innovative thinker who continues to imagine and re-imagine the librarian’s role, now and in the future. She is a true intellectual partner for those with whom she collaborates, and quite visionary in her ability to look forward and imagine the new horizons that await creative librarians in their various locations,” wrote Dianne Harris, scholar, past president of SAH and former SAHARA editor. Carole Ann Fabian, director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, concluded, ”Over many years, I have observed Ann’s work on the SAHARA project and believe her achievement and contributions to this project have been and continue to exemplify a high standard of innovation and leadership.” Ann Whiteside’s commitment to the VRA mission for broad access to well‐curated visual images for the built environment is a brilliant contribution. She truly deserves our recognition as the 2014 Nancy DeLaurier Award recipient. ********************************* VRA remarks for Nancy DeLaurier Award Ann Whiteside Thank you, Elisa, for your remarks, and for presenting this honor to me this evening. I am amazed at the statements from colleagues from VRA and SAH. It is incredibly gratifying to know that something one works on and believes in so deeply is appreciated by so many other people as well. I find it hard to say how much this means to me. I was completely surprised and then thrilled when Margaret Webster called me with the news that I was being given the Nancy DeLaurier Award from the VRA. Since the phone call, I've reflected on that moment, and on my surprise and delight, and that is what I want to share with all of you. My work on SAHARA was born out of a strong belief that as visual resources curators and librarians, our roles are shifting dramatically. That is, our roles in terms of both how we do what we do and the what we do - the what being to build collections for scholarly use and research. As many of you are aware, our changing roles as professionals has been something that I've been thinking about and talking about for a long time. When I took on the role of working with the Society of Architectural Historians to build SAHARA, it was because I wanted to test out a model of both collection building and a model for how we, in our roles, integrate into the life of scholars and researchers and students. I wanted to see if my thoughts were valid, to see if we could imagine a new way of working, and a more integrated way of working in our academic institutions. At the time we began work on SAHARA, I was working at MIT and when I talked with our university librarian about wanting to spend 40% of my time on SAHARA, my argument was focused on how we need to test the new roles that we in the library and visual resources communities keep talking about; and that in the arts and architecture, the shifts in library roles would not be exactly parallel to those in the sciences; and that this was an opportunity to see what digital scholarship in the arts and architecture might be about. MIT agreed to support this work because the institution was in the process of rethinking roles of all librarians and visual resources curators and, I believe, I was proposing something MIT library administration could support. Having the opportunity to work across four organizations – an academic institution - MIT, a scholarly society - SAH, VRA, and ARTstor as technology partner to build SAHARA was an opportunity that I felt was an opportunity for me personally, but also for my colleagues in VRA. It was the opportunity to bring different pieces of our daily work together in a project that had the potential to help us all re-think our roles. One of the most important aspects of all this has been the Visual Resources Association. I believe that the VRA was fundamental to my becoming the professional I am through the professionalism of the association and the many different kinds of support VRA offers to members. The VRA first provided me with a culture in which I could learn what I needed to know to be a visual resources curator. It also provided me with an extensive network of colleagues with whom to work, and from whom to learn. Through my time in this association, I have collaborated with many of you - on committees, on sessions, on panels, on projects, and as President. Each of the activities in which I have participated in through VRA has fed directly into my work as a visual resources curator earlier in my career, and still feeds into my work today, which is now focused on leading a library, working closely with faculty, working on digital library issues, working on copyright problems, and thinking about how I can continue to grow professionally. The skills I use now I gained through my VRA membership and through working within VRA and with so many of you. I believe that as we have all worked through the transition to digital images, and as we work in a digital world, we have come to understand even more fully the importance of collaboration, within our institutions, outside our institutions, and within this association. That sense of the importance of collaboration can be viewed as a trajectory- the first time we tried to share a cataloging template, which led us to develop standards and guidelines for our cataloging; the development of image presentation tools - MDID for instance, was developed by a member of this organization, and supported by many of our institutions; the development of the many different shared cataloging tools that people in VRA created and nurtured; and the development of ARTstor within and about our community. This has all been a continuum of progress and shared development of our profession and collaborative skills. While we in the VRA were building these incredible skills and deep knowledge base, the scholarly community began to look at collaborative scholarly work in the online environment. So that when the Society of Architectural Historians wanted to build an archive of visual content, based on scholar's images, they recognized that a collaboration with visual resources professionals would be invaluable, or perhaps I should say critical, to their project. I feel that the collaboration we have built with the SAH is another step in the trajectory of collaboration. This time, however, we are stepping into the realm of collaboration with scholars, who are the drivers for intellectual work in academic institutions. Some of our colleagues have been members of the SAHARA Editorial Board, and one thing we have all agreed is that it is a true collaboration between scholars and visual resources professionals and librarians because we all bring domain expertise to the project. One of the most gratifying parts of my work with SAHARA was the outpouring of support from so many of you in VRA. When I began approaching people to get their interest in working to support SAHARA, the response was excitement and an eagerness to see how to make SAHARA something transformative. When we had our early editorial meetings, there was a complete balance in the number of librarians and scholars working together at the same table, discussing metadata fields, the use of metadata fields, editorial workflow issues; we tested the first instance of SAHARA together, and we built a level of trust amongst and across our domains that was and is inspiring. I will always be appreciative of the individuals who have participated with me in working on SAHARA to date. I am grateful to the many conference organizers over the last five years who have provided space and time in conference schedules for not only sessions, but SAHARA meetings, so that the work continues. Again, this is evidence of the commitment of VRA to support our work as professionals and to help us each grow and move in new directions. SAHARA at this point has had a good beginning and it will continue, but requires commitment from all of us as well as SAH. I encourage you to talk to anyone connected with SAHARA to see what your level of interest might be. I am so proud to be a member of this organization, and honored to have been mentored and encouraged by so many of you through the years. Thank you so very much for this honor tonight.
- DSA Initial Slide MNW Each year the Visual Resources Association honors an individual who has made an outstanding career contribution to the field of visual resources and image management. Nominees must have achieved a level of distinction in the field either through leadership, research, or service to the profession. Nominees who have shown outstanding innovation, participation, or project management may also be considered. In fact, our Distinguished Service Award winners are typically distinguished in multiple areas of expertise and have demonstrated this through continuing, outstanding professional participation and contribution. This year’s award winner is no exception. The 2014 Distinguish Service Award goes to …-- next slide.
- …Macie Hall for her decades long commitment to and advocacy for the field of visual resources including but definitely not limited to her work with CONFU, her leadership as president of VRA, and her service as a VRA Foundation Director I call upon Ann Woodward to make the presentation. Would Macie and Ann please join us at the podium? Remarks by Ann Woodward It is a special honor to be here this evening with Macie, and to share with you why she so richly deserves our recognition. 18 years ago Macie brought me back into the world of visual resources, and we have worked together ever since. I thought I knew Macie very well, but when Trudy Jacoby, Rebecca Moss, and numerous other colleagues joined together in assembling this recognition it became clear that I saw only the smallest part of her substance and achievements. Macie entered the field of visual resources 26 years ago with a vision of working with faculty in history of art to enhance teaching through the use of images. Over time she began to see her role in broader terms, and became involved in understanding and developing new instructional technologies and innovative teaching strategies. Consequently she changed professions and sought out jobs that allowed her to explore these interests. As her professional role has changed, Macie has maintained her engagement with the Visual Resources Association, and continues to be an invaluable resource to the membership and the organization.
- Her career began with rigorous academic training in history of art at Princeton (her father’s alma mater) and Johns Hopkins and led to her interest in teaching and curatorial work. She started her career at Hopkins in 1987 as the slide curator in the Art History department, and served in that role until 1998. These years were concurrent with the growth of the internet, intense discussions about the role of the internet in teaching and learning, and the development of standards for digital imaging.
- During this time Macie was an early advocate bringing each new development to the attention of the Hopkins faculty, encouraging them to use it in their teaching, and making it possible for them to do so. During these years we see Macie in her “avatar” as life-long learner. She sought out the Hopkins university counsel copyright specialist and developed a working knowledge of copyright law and an awareness of its impact on image use. This experience was put to the service of the VRA when Macie became its representative and, as Kathe Albrecht explains: “..testified to the U.S. federal government in support of educational access to digital information, participated in the Conference on Fair Use and the National Information Infrastructure, helped craft VRA’s Fair Use Guidelines, and participated in numerous College Art Association town hall meetings on educational fair use of digital information.” This was a five-year commitment of time, energy, and hard work. It is characteristic of Macie that once the formal duties of this role were completed she continued to serve by participating in other related VRA committees, by speaking publicly, and by offering workshops to the membership of the VRA. Here we see Macie in another “avatar” - the life-long teacher.
- In 2005 Macie again stepped up to the plate for the VRA undertaking a series of leadership roles. Elaine Paul captured the plentiful list of Macie’s activities. She served as president of the VRA from 2006-8, and as Director of the Foundation Board in 2010.As president Macie shepherded the VRA through its twenty-fifth anniversary, and the establishment of two new regional chapters.
- Under her watch, a Professional Status Survey Committee conducted an in-depth poll of visual resources professionals, leading to a better understanding of the rapidly evolving roles and responsibilities in the jobs among VRA members. At the same time the VRA engaged with ARLIS in two joint task forces: one on long-term planning for the very successful joint Summer Educational Institute; and one on the overlap and differences between the two organizations. Both task-forces produced blue-prints for future collaborations.
- During Macie’s tenure the public face of the VRA – its website – was revamped, and both online voting and online accounting were adopted. To ensure more smooth transitions in leadership, Macie’s Board encouraged committees to produce documentation outlining their activities and yearly timelines.
- A Strategic Plan Task Force was convened and co-chaired by Macie in 2007, leading to the 2009 VRA Strategic Plan. Many of [the] recommendations of this plan have been implemented, leading to important new appointments, streamlined communications, and new modes of advocacy for the visual resources profession.
- When one considers the hours and days of work that went into completing these projects it is a pretty daunting list of accomplishments,
- and one which attests to another “avatar” as fulfilling commitments to the nth degree. Macie’s dedication to the field of visual resources and to the VRA itself is especially meaningful because she left her position as curator of the Hopkins collection in 1998, well before she became president of the VRA. Now, as a Senior Instructional Designer in the Center for Educational Resources at Hopkins her job is to partner with faculty and graduate students to extend their instructional impact by connecting innovative teaching strategies and instructional technologies. Here she is a leader as well.
- Macie’s efforts developing new courses and programs at Hopkins are well recognized on campus. Professor Erika Schoenberg writes “Five or six years ago, I was trying to start a new program in the Engineering School at Hopkins for undergraduates … who wanted to work on behalf of the disadvantaged here and abroad. Surprisingly, I had a hard time convincing people that this was a good idea. On the edge of real despair, I decided to consult the people at CER to see if they could help me. Macie was, in effect, my case officer. She really saved the whole enterprise – and me. She worked with me endlessly on developing a proposal that could fly. This included developing student portfolios that could be archived on line. She guided me through a process for applying for a grant to support a teaching assistant. In a more general way, Macie helped me by being knowledgeably enthusiastic about the whole idea. I was feeling pretty beaten down and about to walk away from the whole process, but her steady support really carried me through. The result is the Minor in Engineering for Sustainable Development. [Students in the program] have produced award winning ideas for technological innovations that are sustainable economically, culturally and environmentally. [Macie] went way beyond any reasonable job description in bringing this program into being. Although this was not all about visual resources, it certainly was distinguished service on behalf of undergraduates, frustrated faculty and, plausibly, many people in great need of help whose names we will never know. “
- Professor Schoenberg’s letter touches on another aspect or “avatar” of Macie – the champion of others and their ideas. Many of the letters in support of this nomination attest to the role that Macie has played in individual careers, and in encouraging others to become involved with the VRA. I want to share an excerpt from VRA member Jen Green’s letter: “The visual resources community has benefited greatly from Macie’s dedication, but it is her exceptional ability to develop strong, collegial relationships with diverse colleagues that distinguishes her among her peers…The value that Macie clearly places on developing mutual respect with colleagues is motivating. Macie is the kind of professional that inspires me (and others) to serve within the VRA and build on the future of our profession.” Now, before we turn this over to Macie, it is time to speculate on what is in the future for Macie. The Hopkins faculty is counting on her for many more courses to come. We know she will remain active in the VRA. But what will she do in her spare time?
- The possibilities abound. Will Macie and her husband Jay, who share everything from broken bones to wonderful travels, head off to Egypt again? We can wonder about whether she will introduce her grandchildren to another avatar: the one she has in “Second Life.” Certainly she will have totally technologically proficient grandchildren, they are serious skypers already, and like their grandmother appreciate her beloved Georgian Bay island,
- and of course we know her future will include CATS galore!
- Macie, we thank you for your service which has been given with such grace, and congratulate you on being the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Service Award.
- Macie Hall – VRA DSA Remarks – March 13, 2014 Back in the middle of January, I was surprised one morning to get a call from Margaret Webster. I know Margaret is officially retired, but also know that she is involved in committees and projects and always interested in new things in the visual resources realm. I was sure that she had some exciting, emerging prospect to tell me about. So after we exchanged the usual pleasantries, I said something along the lines of, “So Margaret, what can I do for you?” And she said something like, “Oh, I think I’m going to do something for you!” When she told me that I was the 2014 Distinguished Service Award recipient, I was literally speechless. And for those of you who know me, you know that is very rare event. I continue to feel overwhelmed to be receiving this great honor from the organization that has meant so very much to me professionally and personally. I want to thank Ann Woodward for organizing the nomination process. Ann has been a true friend and valued colleague for almost twenty years. We served on the VRA Board together and she provided remarkable support and great advice during that time. I feel very lucky to have her so close at hand on the same campus at Johns Hopkins. Thanks also to Margaret Webster and the members of the Awards Committee for their work, as well as to the VRA Board for their approval. And to all of you who wrote letters in support of the nomination, I cannot adequately express my appreciation for your kind words. I want give special recognition to a few VRAers who mentored and counseled me and “had my back” over the years: Chris Sundt, Tina Updike, Trudy Jacoby, and Kathe Albrecht. There are so many other VRA members without whose time and effort I would not be here – the colleagues I’ve worked with on various groups, committees, task forces, and the VRA and VRA Foundation Boards, are too numerous to mention by name, but you know who you are! I wish my husband, Jay VanRensselaer, could be with me this evening. I am so grateful for his love, support, and willingness to stand by me through thick and thin during my term as president of the Association. There are many factors that make the VRA an outstanding professional organization. One of these is that it provides a nurturing environment for developing leadership skills. Since joining the VRA more than 25 years ago, I have been a recipient of the mentoring and professional sustenance provided by fellow members. When I attended my first VRA conference in 1991 in Washington, DC, I remember feeling in awe of those in positions of leadership – the committee chairs, Bulletin editors, members of the Board. That year Joy Blouin and Helene Roberts were winners of the Distinguished Service Award. A year later, along with some other VRA members, I attended a professional workshop in Italy led by Joy, and soon after that found myself becoming involved with all things VRA. At that first conference I certainly did not see myself as a potential leader, but over time I discovered that leaders are not born but made, and that these are learnable skills, especially when one is given opportunities to take on management at various levels, and when one’s colleagues are welcoming and accessible. And VRA provided so many terrific role models! The good news is that the mentoring and nurturing and the open opportunities for leadership are still hallmarks of our Association. Our smart, creative, and resourceful colleagues continue to inspire and challenge. For those of you who are new VRA members or members who are not so new, but may not think of yourselves as leadership material, I hope that you will take advantage of these opportunities. In this all-volunteer organization, all you have to do is raise your hand and say, “I’ll do that.” That can be a little daunting the first time, but the rewards, both professional and personal, are tremendous. By participating in and chairing committees, planning Chapter events, arranging and speaking at conference sessions, and representing the VRA in various venues, you will learn skills and gain confidence that can help you to advance professionally. Serving on the VRA Board was one of the best things I ever did in terms of professional and personal growth; it is something that I hope more members will consider. Truth be told, it’s actually a lot of fun. I know that our incoming President, Elaine Paul, will continue to make the cultivation of leadership a priority during her tenure, and I hope that all of you will step up in any way that you can to further that process, whether it be sharing your wisdom and knowledge by mentoring or simply volunteering for the first time. I truly feel that I have reaped more than I have sowed in the VRA, and I am honored to join a group of esteemed colleagues as the recipient of this award. Thank you.
- Conclusion of Awards CeremonyMNW Last slide. This concludes the 2014 VRA Awards presentation. Please join me in congratulating our award winners once again and continuing to celebrate their accomplishments.