PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
By Shannon Frederick, ABC, IABC/Tulsa President
There are only a few moments in my life where I’ve truly been shocked:
- At age 15, after a brutal spill on my bicycle that resulted in some nasty injuries.
- The night my husband got down on one knee and popped the big question.
- A few weeks ago, when IABC/Tulsa not only received its third, back-to-back Small Chapter of the Year Award, but was also recognized as the International Chapter of the Year.
Now don’t you be shocked because, yes, you read that right: IABC Tulsa is the best IABC chapter in the whole wide world!
This is the first time in history that our chapter has received this distinction – and, it’s worth noting, this is a distinction that isn’t often given to smaller chapters.
The big reveal of our awards came during IABC’s annual Leadership Institute (LI) conference. Each year during LI, IABC holds its Chapter Management Awards (CMAs) ceremony. For those who aren’t familiar, the CMAs recognize leadership abilities, management skills and creativity of chapter leaders around the globe.
Chapters can receive awards for their efforts in various areas, and those that exhibit the best work across the board are recognized with the Small Chapter (less than 75 members), Medium Chapter (76 to 200 members) and Large Chapter (201 or more members) of the Year Awards. From those winners, one chapter is selected as the International Chapter of the Year.
That’s us!
And the fun didn’t stop there. The Tulsa chapter was also recognized with Awards of Merit for our work in Leadership Development and Financial Management, and Awards of Excellence for Communications and Professional Development.
In other words, we cleaned up.
But back to the shock … IABC Tulsa was well represented at LI. Angela Byers, Ginger Homan, ABC, Rachel Wagner and I were all in attendance. With the four CMA awards and the Small Chapter of the Year designation, the four of us had spent a lot of time on the stage with IABC International leaders. Yet, when they called out “IABC Tulsa” for the big International Chapter of the Year award, I still couldn’t register what was happening. A few seconds had to pass before I could react with pure joy. Here’s a picture that captured the moment pretty well.
The fact of the matter is that I shouldn’t be shocked that we won. None of us should be shocked. There are amazing things going on with IABC Tulsa, and we’ve been doing lots of award-winning work for several years now.
It’s just nice to finally see the rest of the world recognizing us for what we already knew: that we are the best of the best.
Thanks for all you do to make this possible.