Outgoing APSE president Dan Spears gave his farewell speech during the Awards Dinner of the annual APSE Summer Conference on Saturday night, June 28, in Minneapolis. Here’s his speech, in its entirety.
When I was named the winner of the election for second VP, I figured I better start taking notes.
And, apparently y’all are like me – I like taking notes.
So I pulled out the Colts notebook we got in our goody bags from Indianapolis – thank you Malcolm (Moran). The first page has notes from a Zoom call about student chapters. Even three years later, all things old are new again.
Through Year 1, I went through 19 pages. Year 2, which included the contest, 44 pages. Year 3, ending today, 63 pages. There’s to-do lists and Cliffs Notes of conversations. Contest groups and phone numbers. A lot of people who want to do good things for this organization.
I’ve been able to speak to a lot of folks in the past year, just because I’m the president. Some of them were conversations you want to have, others not so much. There are people I wished I had made more time to speak to, and also the realizations that I did as much as I could.
What did we get done?
We updated a dormant APSE ethics policy and have it on our website – thanks for handing me that one on a platter, Naila (Meyers).
We created an email specifically for the APSE president moving forward so you’ll get far less of that information to your normal work email. And believe me, Paul (Barrett), you’ll be thankful for it.
We had discussions with the Big 12, WNBA Players Union, US Basketball Writers Association and the Big Ten on media issues. Some more productive than others.
We’ve restarted the volunteer signups for APSE committees. We had four region meetings for the first time since before the pandemic.
That wasn’t everything on my original to-do list. Just like any of our reporters, the budget changed with the urgency of the moment, things got added, others went away. But we did a lot of great things. And that is a whole-hearted “we.” Paul, Perryn (Keys), Tony (Maluso), Bill (Eichenberger), Glen (Crevier) … thanks for everything you’ve done to make it an enjoyable year as president of this organization. Erik (Hall), welcome to that group. To John (Bednarowski), welcome back, just in a different chair.
I’ll leave you with this: Being an editor remains important.
Natalie Pierre in Louisville and I were talking about women’s sports and she said something that stuck with me – so much so I didn’t even have to write it down in my notebook. “We used to be unicorns,” she said of us as sports editors.
I’d argue we still are, with even more superpowers. Don’t any of you ever hesitate to use them.
As I look out at this room, I see an all-star lineup of reporters and editors young and old, new to their station or a local legend, all the variables that we can control are here.
Your passion and skill are inspiring.
As I become a past president, I’ll still be around. I mean, I’d far rather spend time with y’all than doing more work with my HOA.
And I urge you all to keep the momentum.
Keep tooting our horn. Keep collaborating. Keep being present. Keep reaching out to others.
Paul, it’s your show now. I can’t wait to see what your chapter in this story looks like.
Thanks to you all.
