2008 NSA-WI Chapter Award Winners

by Jason Kotecki
Professional Member

Our June meeting featured an array of awards and acknowledgements. Here are the highlights:

Sally Anders, who is leaving the board, was presented with a token of our extreme appreciation for her many years of service, including her tenure as Chapter President.

Gayle Zynda received the Rising Star Award. The Rising Star Award was created to recognize an individual who has achieved great success in the speaking industry early in their career and/or an individual who has shown great dedication to NSA Wisconsin and the speaking industry. The meeting was in the midst of a busy week, but her son Adam did a good job of making sure she was there, ensuring a huge surprise for Gayle.

Eliz Greene was awarded Chapter Member of the Year for her outstanding service, most notably her role in the development and implementation of Speaker U, which has blossomed into a very valuable program to help emerging speakers jump start their career. Eliz’s enthusiasm and willingness to volunteer her talents at the drop of a hat have made a big difference to many people.

Finally, Robert Ian, our outgoing Chapter President (see here with NSA National President Mark LeBlanc), was presented with the Visionary Award. The Visionary Award is not an annual award category. This award is only given when a rare leader emerges. A visionary award winner is a person of unusually keen foresight, a dreamer. This person moves forward, with enthusiasm with little regard for what is actually possible. Robert completely fits the bill for this award. He has been instrumental in developing our website, which is the only NSA chapter site to feature videos of their members. He has also been a phenomenal leader as president, spearheading a variety of important projects, like Speaker School and Video Day, and has generously shared the knowledge he has gained in a successful career hat has spanned decades.

Here Robert accepts the Visionary Award from Kim and Jason Kotecki.

Congratulations to all of our award winners, and thank you to everyone who has helped make this chapter so rich, rewarding, and fun!