Perhaps it wasn’t noticeable, but in newsletters since the outbreak of the pandemic, we haven’t seen much of you. We love including photos in the newsletter from our events and station visits, because, well, who doesn’t like to see photos of your fellow broadcasters?
Thankfully, many of you were gracious enough to share photos with us from your community activities during the pandemic and of the new workspaces you created in your homes.
However, I’m thrilled to report that we’re finally (finally) back to publishing photos from two in-person WBA events!
You’ll find photos inside the newsletter from our WBA Summer Conference held Aug. 25-26 at the beautiful Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan and the award-winning Broadcasters Clinic held at the Madison Marriot West. These events were truly wonderful opportunities to reconnect in person.
We had great attendees, inspiring speakers, and honored our amazing Local Broadcast Legends and WBA Hall of Fame inductees. We recognized Terry Stevenson, our first ever Young Professional of the Year award recipient and Dick Zaragoza, the recipient of the WBA Distinguished Service Award. It was a full two days. We also hosted NAB President and CEO Senator Gordon Smith who provided our keynote address.
Thank you so very much to our sponsors who made it possible.
While we won’t gather in person again in 2021, we’re excited to get back to a “normal” schedule in 2022.
Speaking of photos, if you attended the Summer Conference, you might have noticed our video photo display near the registration table. The slideshow featured 677 photos from the WBA’s huge photo archive. We recently digitized thousands of photos dating back to at least 30 years ago. We were happy to share these glimpses into the past as part of our celebration of 70 years for the WBA.
While we welcome more faces back to our newsletter, we’re also welcoming new faces to your WBA Board of Directors. I would like to highlight our incoming chair, Don Vesely, who takes over for Chris Bernier who served a rare 19-month term as chair. We also said thank you to outgoing board members Dean Kallenbach, Jeff Welton, and previous board chair Steve Lavin. Thank you all for your service to the WBA Board.
Your new WBA Board was named in August and already held its first meeting in September. We’re excited to welcome Marta Bechtol, Anne Brown, Randy Hawke, Suzanne Hoffman, and Chris Palmer.
A special thank you to Scott Trentadue for his many years of service to the WBA Foundation Board as he’s retiring from the Foundation Board. Chris Bernier was elected to Trentadue’s seat on the Board and the Foundation Board welcomed Colleen Valkoun who will take Beriner’s seat on the Foundation Board as a representative from the WBA Board.
We’re grateful for everything you do for your local communities. Keep sharing your local service stories with us so we can continue sharing your inspiring acts of public service with everyone.
And be sure to smile for the camera!
