ShoutOuts has been on hiatus for awhile, but they’re back now. And you are invited – no, encouraged – to publicly recognize a docent, volunteer, or staff member who has exhibited one or more of our Core Values: Collaborate. Continue Learning. Respect and Integrity. It’s easy: click on Core Values ShoutOuts at the bottom of the Quick Links column on the home page of The Bridge, then tell us who you are recognizing and why. Already have someone in mind? CLICK HERE for the form.
Let’s hear it for our newest group of Core Values ShoutOuts recipients.
Ronnie Jo Sokol – Collaborate
This really isn’t the most accurate description, words like Generosity or Empathy seem more accurate. When I sent out a desperate last minute plea for a River Cruise sub, Ronnie Jo Sokol responded in a minute. A New York minute, actually. Early that morning, my husband and in were in an Uber headed to the police station on the west side to recover our car, which had been stole from Evanston. The police had apprehended the perpetrators, one of whom had a gun, and thought they were going to use it in a drive by. Didn’t know how long this would take, if I would make Cruise in time, and was so upset didn’t know if I could be effective. Ronnie Jo took care of it all, letting Lexie know, in supportive and concerned emails to me. – Cynthia Bates
Box Office Women – Respect, Collaborate
Often as I’m signing in, I hear or notice or experience something that needs help. What I’m discovering is a very alert, attentive, respectful, helpful, thoughtful, kind, capable group of women at the Box Office desk in the main lobby. Thanks to each of them for the things they do that make a docent’s day better. – Joan Johns
Lisa Ciota – Collaborate, Continue Learning
Lisa, a member of the Communications Committee that produces The Bridge every week, invited the committee to meet at the Downers Grove Library. Following our June meeting, she led us on a tour of the Sears Kit homes in that suburb. The tour was fascinating despite the very hot temperatures that day. Lisa even created a booklet with a map and a general overview of the homes, the models available, and the process of procuring and assembling them. What a fascinating morning for all of us! Thank you, Lisa! – Emily Clott
Diane Wagner – Collaborate, Respect
Diane Wagner is long overdue for a ShoutOut. Since 2011, she has been the primary copy editor for our CAC docent/volunteer publications. This means that nearly every Feature article we’ve posted on Docent News. Docent Quarterly, and The Bridge has been reviewed by Diane! She checks each feature article for clarity and readability, proofs for grammar and punctuation, consults with authors when changes are needed, helps the author to shape a story if it has gotten a little out of focus, and always tries to maintain the author’s “voice.” Although she doesn’t fact-check, Diane will bring an inconsistency or question to the author’s attention for clarification. Thank you for more than 10 years of service to docents and volunteers who write for our publications. – Leslie Clark Lewis
Jill Carlson, Emily Clott and Ellen Shubart, Collaborate, Continued Learning
These three were instrumental in helping to bring us all together this past year, the Year of the Docent. Nearly every week on The Bridge during 2021, this trio provided an engaging story, interview, video, trivia, poem or profile celebrating the 50 years of the CAC docent program. The work was remarkable in and of itself, but in the second year of Covid, it provided critical connections to our docents and volunteers, and to the organization. And it was fun! Trio members sought out docents from our earliest classes for their memories about docent life ‘way back when’. (Hy Speck’s mini-memoir brought tears to many an eye.) They rounded up former and current docent managers for perspectives on their work with the organization. Each month, there was a well-researched trivia contest centered around the docent program over the years. There were fun ‘looking-back’ columns surveying and illustrating the docent program through our five decades. (Remember those outfits from the 1970s?) No element of docent life went unexamined: docent training, docent awards, tour development, DAN – and more. Thanks to these three, we have a more complete record of our docent and volunteer programs. – Leslie Clark Lewis
Lisa Tallman, Collaborate
Thanks to Lisa Tallman, who took the Oak Woods Cemetery tour early so I didn’t have to travel south and find out there weren’t ‘enough people for two docents. I appreciate her thoughtfulness. – Ellen Shubart
If you’d like a refresher about the Core Values ShoutOuts program, CLICK CHERE to read the initial program introduction.
CLICK HERE for more stories on The Bridge.