Diane Spence, President

Webmaster's note: Diane gave the following speech at the April 2007 NBA Professional Development Conference on the occasion of her installation as NBA President.

 

President’s Message

I’m sure all of you have noticed the stars on the party favor bags and the star confetti on the tables. Well, as you can probably guess, the theme of tonight is “shining stars.” I’d like to start out by introducing you to some of the stars in my life.

I’m very fond of quotes—so in preparing for this speech, I found some quotes that are special to me. The first one is from Maya Angelo:

“Good friends are like stars ... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.”

Elaine, Rochelle, Lou, Jan, Irene, Debbie and Tiffany, you are 7 of the 24 “stars” I work with at Region 4. You are a great and wonderful group of people that have greatly contributed to my professional success at Region 4. Thank you for always being there for me… I know I can always count on you for your support and encouragement. Your passion for quality is overshadowed only by your drive for excellence.

Next, my friends on the board of NBA—ya’ll have been an integral part of my life for the last nine years. I could name each of you individually and brag about your accomplishments but ya’ll never want to accept any recognition for what you do. I only wish the membership knew how many hundreds of hours of selfless dedication you board members have given to this organization expecting nothing in return other than the desire to help transcribers across the country provide quality braille materials to students.

Now I would like to focus my attention on you, the membership.

In another quote from an unknown author:

“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don't worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest.”

As transcribers or proofreaders, you certainly know you are not in this business to become rich. Usually there is no fame, fortune or national recognition. The majority of you go about your everyday life brailling one page, one paragraph, one line, one cell, one dot at a time. You do this tirelessly, painstakingly, and meticulously, for the sole purpose of providing reading material to individuals who are visually impaired. You do this because of your belief in equal access to reading material for all. You do this because you realize students with visual impairments cannot become literate unless they can read. They cannot learn to read unless they have quality braille materials.

You are the real stars in this room tonight. As the quote above states, you shine your own light and follow your own path. There are many hours of darkness where you don’t know how to present a particular line or scansion poetry, where you try to decide whether a web address should be presented in embedded or displayed computer notation. You spend countless hours deciphering the Nemeth code to determine where the appropriate runover site should be or painstakingly research what that funny looking foreign language symbol is. But do you give up? No.

You don’t worry about the darkness of uncertainty because you know you will persevere; you can contact an expert, research the question through the many resource braille code books or make a phone call to a colleague who can help you find the answer. This is when your star shines the brightest…and the stars of those dedicated transcribers around you shine the brightest. We are all in this together.

You must never lose sight of the fact that what you do will have a significant impact on the lives of braille readers forever. It is only through your diligence to produce quality braille materials that true success for all can be achieved.

Any recognition of me tonight should be passed transparently through me, and back to you—for it is through you and your efforts that we all shine together.

During my term as president I plan to focus on the following:

• Improve the lines of communication between the Board, the National Office and the membership
• Expand professional development opportunities to transcribers, proofreaders, teachers, and school braillists for the production of error-free braille
• Build partnerships with other professional organizations in a cooperative effort to provide quality materials to braille readers

In summary—in a quote from Amy Tan,

“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place, next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”

We are in good company together, sparkling in the constellation of heaven forever.

I pledge to you that I will give everything I have to the board and membership of NBA—but it is only through our work and cooperation together that we can make a difference. Thank you all for everything you do. You are the real stars here tonight.