It is with deep gratitude that I receive this inaugural award, which honours master coach and pioneer of our profession Thomas Leonard. It is with deep regret that I cannot be in Orlando in person to share the magic with those who have bestowed this honour upon me, but long-standing commitments to coaching clients make it impossible.
Yet I am surely there virtually and collaboratively, and for that I give thanks to Sarah Dolliver, for reading this for me, and to fellow Vancouverite and Coachville Study Group member Jan Marie, who is receiving the award on my behalf.
Indeed, it is Coachville’s virtuality and dedication to collaboration that enables it to be the fine coaching organisation that it is, providing for its 45,000 members an international home in which, together, we improve the quality of coaching worldwide. I know I speak for all of us when I say Thomas lives on, inspiring us daily to be better coaches, be it through his collaboratively created proficiencies, his modelled coaching excellence on which we draw through the resource-filled virtual organisation he launched in 2001, the learning communities which make up our Ville, or the wonderful leaders he attracted and who now keep his vision alive under the presidency of Dave Buck.
I am truly honoured to be a recipient of a “T Award” and to be associated with you all through Thomas Leonard’s Coachville and I especially thank my Vancouver Study Group and Chapter colleagues for their enthusiastic words of support and heartfelt collaboration over the past three years. Long live Coachville, longue vie Thomas Leonard.
© S Fuller 2004