An Undated Ribbon NEEDS DATE AND A NAME
I just won another ribbon at Toastmasters. I immediately wrote the date and place on the back. I noted in my diary that I had won a ribbon. I had noted in my diary the club which I was visiting. Add the country, if you travel to other countries. On the day you know where you are. Six months or years later you will be looking at awards and wondering, where was that from?
TEACHER'S CREDENTIALS
TRAVEL WRITERS
I went to a travel writing course at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. The course leader proudly said that she had published more than 100 travel articles. I wondered how many I had had published. At about ten a year for ten years that would be at least a hundred, probably more. But I had no record. Her statistics gave her confidence and enabled her to inspire confidence in the audience.
SPEAKER INTRODUCTIONS
We are often told at Toastmasters International speakers' meetings that the audience won't warm to you if you start by boasting of your achievements. Also they may feel discouraged. How can they compete?
You have to show them that you started from zero and ended up a hero. (Over what time span?)
At that point I had no record.
PUPILS AND PARENTS SEEK CREDENTIALS
On the other hand, parents looking for a teacher for their children are impressed by qualifications.
EMPLOYERS SEEK CREDENTIALS & EXPERIENCE
You need credentials when you are competing for attention in an advertisement offering a jo to candidates, or as a service provider or teacher. You also need to present your credentials in a CV (resume) when you apply for a job and at the job interview when there is only one position but several candidates.
LOSING COUNT
I started winning ribbons at Toastmasters for the best Topics speaker (impromptu speaker) best speaker and best evaluator. After I won fifty ribbons I started to lose count. I put them up in pictures frames around the house and ran around counting them. I made a list. I wrote large in my diary: I WON A RIBBON FOR ... AT ...
I wrote a white label on the back of the label.
PHOTO RECORD
One speaker did not keep a count of his trophies but showed a photo of himself surrounded by trophies. He told me, "I showed that photo to reassure the audience that they had not wasted their time and money. They were listening to an award-winning expert."
Add Your Names
Looking at my ribbons, which had the date and place, I realised an essential was missing. I knew it was my ribbon. But if I were to keep it all my life, I needed to note my name on it for my descendants, executors and others. I had inherited many items which had no name, wedding photos, even poems.
Finally I remembered to add my own surname (family name). I initially wrote merely my first name, Angela.Then I added my surname. If I ever get a grandchild or daughter in law named Angela, other people will be confused. If I were to drop the item or lose it on a plane, nobody would be able to track me down and return it.
If you found awards in the family of a relative who had died with no name attached, you would not know whether this was an award to granny, her father, her husband, her emigrated son or daughter or a pretty or historic item she had bought in a shop.
Story Of A Delayed Funeral Due To Unlabelled Medals
My friend 'B' was in Korea in his early days and when he died his family found Korean war awards. At his funeral we had a delay because his son thought father had won awards in the Korean war and displayed the medals on the coffin and wrote about them in the funeral speech.
However, an irate aunt said they were not the deceased man's medals because he was in a commercial service, the merchant navy, not the military. She suspected the medals were merely sentimental souvenirs probably bought from a shop or on line. She told me, "It would be an insult to my father, who was awarded medals in the war, denigrating his achievement and honour, to display the medals as if somebody not in the war had won them!"
The moral is, label everything.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I just won another ribbon at Toastmasters. I immediately wrote the date and place on the back. I noted in my diary that I had won a ribbon. I had noted in my diary the club which I was visiting. Add the country, if you travel to other countries. On the day you know where you are. Six months or years later you will be looking at awards and wondering, where was that from?
TEACHER'S CREDENTIALS
TRAVEL WRITERS
I went to a travel writing course at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. The course leader proudly said that she had published more than 100 travel articles. I wondered how many I had had published. At about ten a year for ten years that would be at least a hundred, probably more. But I had no record. Her statistics gave her confidence and enabled her to inspire confidence in the audience.
SPEAKER INTRODUCTIONS
We are often told at Toastmasters International speakers' meetings that the audience won't warm to you if you start by boasting of your achievements. Also they may feel discouraged. How can they compete?
You have to show them that you started from zero and ended up a hero. (Over what time span?)
At that point I had no record.
PUPILS AND PARENTS SEEK CREDENTIALS
On the other hand, parents looking for a teacher for their children are impressed by qualifications.
EMPLOYERS SEEK CREDENTIALS & EXPERIENCE
You need credentials when you are competing for attention in an advertisement offering a jo to candidates, or as a service provider or teacher. You also need to present your credentials in a CV (resume) when you apply for a job and at the job interview when there is only one position but several candidates.
LOSING COUNT
I started winning ribbons at Toastmasters for the best Topics speaker (impromptu speaker) best speaker and best evaluator. After I won fifty ribbons I started to lose count. I put them up in pictures frames around the house and ran around counting them. I made a list. I wrote large in my diary: I WON A RIBBON FOR ... AT ...
I wrote a white label on the back of the label.
PHOTO RECORD
One speaker did not keep a count of his trophies but showed a photo of himself surrounded by trophies. He told me, "I showed that photo to reassure the audience that they had not wasted their time and money. They were listening to an award-winning expert."
Add Your Names
Looking at my ribbons, which had the date and place, I realised an essential was missing. I knew it was my ribbon. But if I were to keep it all my life, I needed to note my name on it for my descendants, executors and others. I had inherited many items which had no name, wedding photos, even poems.
Finally I remembered to add my own surname (family name). I initially wrote merely my first name, Angela.Then I added my surname. If I ever get a grandchild or daughter in law named Angela, other people will be confused. If I were to drop the item or lose it on a plane, nobody would be able to track me down and return it.
If you found awards in the family of a relative who had died with no name attached, you would not know whether this was an award to granny, her father, her husband, her emigrated son or daughter or a pretty or historic item she had bought in a shop.
Story Of A Delayed Funeral Due To Unlabelled Medals
My friend 'B' was in Korea in his early days and when he died his family found Korean war awards. At his funeral we had a delay because his son thought father had won awards in the Korean war and displayed the medals on the coffin and wrote about them in the funeral speech.
However, an irate aunt said they were not the deceased man's medals because he was in a commercial service, the merchant navy, not the military. She suspected the medals were merely sentimental souvenirs probably bought from a shop or on line. She told me, "It would be an insult to my father, who was awarded medals in the war, denigrating his achievement and honour, to display the medals as if somebody not in the war had won them!"
The moral is, label everything.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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