As promised, I will summarize a wonderful month, including two conferences with professional speakers and three events for farmers.

A highlight was having Will Rogers honored as a Legend in Professional Speaking on Aug. 24. This was recognition for the real Will Rogers, although I had some fun pretending it was me. It was a “posthumous” award; I mis-read it as “post humorous.” The Will Rogers Memorial Museum, Claremore, Oklahoma, prepared a 6-minute video of Will for the occasion. His great-granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers Etcheverry, accepted the award, by video, on behalf of the family.

Will Rogers was honored as a Legend by the Veteran Speakers Network, along with four top professional speakers (who are very much alive) at their annual retreat at Herndon, Virginia. It’s a fun group who are mainly, shall we say, mature professional speakers. Eight former presidents of the National Speakers Association attended, plus several who have received the top honors from NSA.

The month began with the annual conference (called Influence) of the National Speakers Association, in Denver, Colorado. Plenty of educational sessions to help us become better presenters for the meetings business. Topics included storytelling to add impact, audience involvement, and of course, AI.

For me, a highlight was taking an official photograph of the “Tall Women Speakers.” I was asked to take their photo in 1996, and I’ve only missed 4 or 5 years since. The only requirement is to be at least 6-ft tall, but most have outstanding speaking careers. We have had as many as 20 in the photo, with “no back row.” (In school, these gals were usually taller than their classmates and were stuck in the back row of group photos. They didn’t like it. So now they line up in one wide row.)

Shifting to my other life, in agriculture, I helped with three educational events focused on how to build soil health for improved production of corn and soybeans. These were spaced across Ohio and included hands-on experiences out in the field. Farmers learn about the value of adding organic matter to the soil (carbon from the air) and how to do it by skipping tillage and adding cover crops in the down time between cash crops. In addition, I attended a big event at the Ohio State Fair that named four outstanding individuals to the Ohio Ag Hall of Fame. One honoree was a colleague for many years, a pioneering no-till farmer, David Brandt, who died last year. Yes, I knew it was a posthumous recognition. In addition, I wrote two monthly columns, one for National No-till Farmer magazine and the other for Ohio’s Country Journal.

While in Colorado, I got to drive the winding road up the side of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs to see the “Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun.” It was constructed by Spencer Penrose, who earlier built the famous Broadmoor Hotel. It is a granite tower, 114 feet tall, overlooking the city. I climbed to the top. Oh, and I ate lunch with my oldest granddaughter. (She works remotely as a nutrition specialist for a hospital. Her husband is in the new U.S. Space Force.)

I’m not telling you all of this to brag. Rather to point out that an old retired agricultural engineer and a slowed down “Will Rogers” impersonator can still find plenty of useful pursuits. And I have a few more of those in September.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

       “Tomorrow is Labor Day. I suppose set by act of Congress. Everything we do nowadays is either by or against acts of Congress. How Congress knew anything about labor is beyond us, but any how tomorrow is Labor Day.” DT #967, Sept. 1, 1929

Randall Reeder
614-477-0439