2008 CASLPA Awards Banquet Acceptance
Speech Remarks
Promotions
Award
André Lafargue
First of all I want to thank my colleagues from
New
Brunswick, one of whom is here today, who nominated me for this
award. I am really flattered to have been considered and I appreciate
the honour. In fact, Alberta is a very lucky charm for me as
I had the pleasure in 1999 in Edmonton to receive the Honours
of the Association award at the same time as Norma Wood; a very
dear friend of mine who has done so much for the profession.
I accept this award with great pride but with a touch of humility
as I truly believe that I should share this award with many,
many people. I want to thank CASLPA for having given me the
incredible opportunity to get the thrill of a life time, that
being able to share, along with Linda Rammage, the podium of
the press room on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. That same room
where all the biggest announcements are made… I cannot
describe to you the feeling of adrenaline rush I felt, to be
able to speak for 20 minutes on a topic which has been my passion
for the last 20 years of my professional practice! That of the
negative effects of poor classroom acoustics and the impact
on student's performance and teacher's vocal health!
Finally!
I was given the opportunity to share my passion with the rest
of the country in both official languages. And guess what? It
worked! Luckily it was a slow "news day" and the media
gobbled it up! We were swamped with requests for radio, TV and
newspaper interviews. The word got out and millions of Canadians
heard about the importance of proper acoustics and good soundfield
amplification in our schools.
Now that is my story but I said I wanted to share this award…
I want to share this award with Rhonda Rubin, my dear friend
and colleague in N-B and her co-researchers, Catherine Aquino-Russell
and Joan Flagg-Williams, whose dedication to this issue through
their study, enabled us to have a launching point for our media
blitz. You
can read their study on the CASLPA website. You see,
unless you have a credible announcement, the media does not
bite! And this time the news breaking story came out of little
N-B.
I also want to share this award with the team at the CASLPA
national office who already received two awards of their own
for the wonderful job they did in PR over the last year. They
deserve your recognition. Ondina, Angie and Chantal and their
team were simply outstanding.
I also want to share this award with my colleagues who, over
the years, have inspired me to be persistent and who have taught
me techniques to employ to use the media to get my point across.
As an example, Eileen Keating, who is here tonight, taught
me to be prompt and efficient in responding in a timely fashion
to anything that was published in the provincial newspaper that
related to what we did in our professions. Many, many times
during her tenure as President of NBASLPA Eileen responded to
letters to the editors, wrote countless letters to members of
the house assembly and members of parliament to defend a point
of view or act on behalf of one of our clients. The hardest
thing was for me to follow her steps and to keep up with her
when I took over the presidency of the provincial body!
I want to share this award with every person here tonight who
in the last year: (here I will ask you to stand up and be acknowledged)
a) has participated in a radio or TV interview related to our
professions;
b) has written an article published in your local, provincial
or national press;
c) has participated in a May Month activity which highlighted
our professional roles or an issue dear to their heart;
d) has met with their local MP or Member of the Provincial
legislative;
e) has spoken at a school board meeting or parent teacher group;
f) has spoken to a group of benevolent association members
like the Elks, Lions or Rotary Club;
g) has written or participated in a blog on a topic related
to the professions
Please give yourself a hand!
Now comes the interesting part…
I am going to call this the KANANASKIS
Challenge…
I challenge each and every one of you here tonight to:
a) Pick a cause or activity dear to your heart
b) Pledge formally that during the month of May, recognized
as Speech and Hearing Month, you will initiate or participate
in an activity which will put forward the cause of audiology
and speech-language pathology.
c) Finally since we are all very keen on outcome measures,
you will report your activities
to CASLPA and indicate to her that you are fulfilling
your KANANASKIS pledge and that you are reporting the outcome.
Indicate how many people were reached by your action?
Furthermore I challenge each and every one of you to motivate
at least one of your colleagues, who is not here today, when
you get home, to do the same.
Think of the cumulative impact of your action for the professions
and your clients! Think of the collective impact of all of our
actions. The power of one is exponential.
Hopefully CASLPA will be able to report to us an exhaustive
list of your activities.
In conclusion:
The recipe to PR success is simple -
a) Pick your passion,
b) Stick with it and use every opportunity to get your point
across…
It may take a while but it is well worth the effort.
If YOU don't do it…then WHO DO you think will do it???
CASLPA is a great organization… We individually and collectively
can impact change. Over the last 32 years I would not have been
able to fulfill my professional goals without the support of
Lynn, my wife of thirty years, and our daughters, and without
you my friends and colleagues. For that I thank you.
Thank you again for this great honour and the opportunity to
once again say what I had to say!
André Lafargue
CASLPA 2008 Promotions Award winner
..............................................................
