From the President: Convention Wrap-Up, Update on What's Next

e-mail to SCASD membership, 2008.09.15:

Dear SCASD Members:

I would like to personally thank each of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to make the 2008 Speech Communication Association of South Dakota Convention such a tremendous success. Many of the presenters commented how strong the participation was at their sessions. On behalf of the committee we would like to thank you for all of your support this year.

We would also like to thank Teresa Fester for her past 2 years of service as President of SCASD. Her leadership in organizing the past two conventions has been exceptional. The committee, especially the new president, are very grateful for the foundation she has laid over the past two years and will do our best to live up to her example in the years to come. Thank you Teresa.

We would also like to congratulate Tara Melmer, SCASD Outstanding Young Speech Teacher of the Year, and Sharon Prendergast, SCASD Distinguished Service Award. These are both truly well deserved and it was a pleasure to hear the wonderful things said in honor of you. Congratulations once again.

We also had the honor to see Leo Kallis, SDFCA Coach of the Year, Paul Harens, SDFCA Assistant Coach of the Year, and Bryan Haag SDFCA Interp Coach of the Year receive the awards they so deserve. Even though a blizzard delayed their receipt it seemed fitting to honor these individuals in front of, as Paul so eloquently said, “family”.

A final congratulations goes out to Linda Haar, NFSD&TA Award recipient. Another truly deserved award for a wonderful member of our community.

As you begin your year we want you to know the committee (Josh Westwick, Cory Heidelberger, Bryan Haag, Bob Jackson, Jen Bergan, Melanie Sittig, and Kevin Sackreiter) is here to make this organization what you need it to be. We want to support you in your activities by allowing the convention to be the professional development opportunity you feel you need to enhance the wonderful things you already do for your students. In that spirit we have created a blog that we would encourage all member of the SCASD Community to join. The site is: http://scasd.blogspot.com/. Please visit this site on a regular basis and engage in discussions, post articles that you feel may benefit your colleagues, and help to make this a valuable tool for our community.

Finally, on a personal note, it is my hope to stay in communication with the membership throughout the year. Look for monthly email updates about what is going on with the blog, the convention, the membership, and the organization. I also would like to see the 2009 convention in Chamberlain grow. We need your help with this. Encourage your colleagues in the communication community to become active in the organization and attend the SCASD Conference. Consider presenting at the 2009 Conference. Think of an idea for the GIFTS (Great Ideas For Teaching Speech, Debate, Theater, Interp, etc.) session to be held in Chamberlain. I would love to see a strong and active membership in 2009 and look forward to working with all of you for the next two years.

Sincerely,
Kevin Sackreiter
SCASD President
sackreiterk@northern.edu
1-605-626-7706