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The Northeast Conference Service Award has been presented on very few occasions. It is given at the discretion of the conference chair. Often, it acknowledges work in one specific area related to conference production. This year, however, Conference Chair Laura Franklin, seconded enthusiastically by both the entire Board and staff of the organization, has chosen to recognize an individual whose contributions have taken so many different forms and have found expression in so many different areas that it would be easier and quicker to list aspects of the organization where he has not had a positive, enduring and much-appreciated impact! With this award, we honor the outstanding service of Jack Henderson and express our heartfelt but inadequate thanks for his transformational work on our and our constituents' behalf.
Professor John S. (Jack) Henderson is a Bates College graduate with a PhD from Brown University. Most of his professional life was spent at Dickinson College where he taught French from 1966 until his retirement in 1998. In 1973, Dickinson asked him to create the Office of Off-Campus Studies in order to coordinate and centralize all study-abroad ventures. As Director of Off-Campus Studies until retirement, he advised students about study abroad and assisted faculty colleagues in the development and management of Dickinson's numerous study-abroad programs worldwide. Under his guidance, Dickinson's global education initiatives gained national acclaim.
Jack's initial involvement with The Northeast Conference was as faculty adviser to a Dickinson student intern who undertook the creation of a web site for the organization in the fall of 1995. In those early years of web design, Jack deftly managed the myriad delicate situations arising from the competing needs of the student and the organization. He continued to confer informally with NECTFL about the site until after his retirement in 1998, at which point he took over full-time responsibility for NECTFL's growing presence on the Internet. One of his first tasks was the redesign of the site. Under his tutelage, it has grown from a humble one-page beginning to its current total of nearly 2,800 files serving the many and diverse constituents of the organization. He and Associate Executive Director Sue Shaffer have coordinated numerous expansions of the site's scope and content over the years, as well as extensive improvements to its design.
The webpage's integration with and support for our annual conference cannot possibly be overstated. In past years, for example, communication with Board members, state association leaders, and session and workshop presenters was dependent upon "snail mail." Now, each group has its own page on the website, and updates can be made in seconds providing everyone with accurate and timely information. Jack's thoughtful and creative suggestions for advertising special events, celebrating achievements, and offering services to registered and prospective conference attendees have proven invaluable. He and Exhibits Manager Cindy Murphy developed an interactive floor plan for the exhibit areas that has received the praise and admiration of both exhibitors who find it indispensable and fellow association leaders who envy its user-friendliness.
The ten years of Jack's tenure as webmaster have witnessed almost unimaginable improvements to the website, many of which "to our dismay" are now too easily taken for granted. Likewise, after ten years, it requires a deliberate but necessary effort to notice that Jack has had to become fluent in four languages beyond html code: Becky-ese, Sue-ish, Cindy-an, and Cheryl-ic (although it must be admitted that the latter language is much less foreign than the three others to a web expert)! He has done so with all the cultural sensitivity, daily practice, and attention to detail that are required when learning any new language. Merci mille et mille fois!
Jack's association with NECTFL has also included serving as Articles Editor for the NECTFL Review from 1998 to 2002, when he turned over those responsibilities to Bob Terry in order to devote his full attention to the needs of the web site. From 2004 through 2008, Jack also served as Conference Photographer, taking hundreds of digital photographs annually for use in NECTFL's numerous printed publications as well as on the web site. His talents have been recognized by the many requests for photos from individual award winners, conference chairs, and others.
Jack and his wife Mary Jane make their home in Phippsburg, Maine overlooking the Kennebec River. They have three grown children and two grandchildren. Everyone at NECTFL invites the 2009 conference attendees to join us in thanking him (and his family!) for years of unstinting commitment to the organization and in wishing him well as he embarks � finally! � on a true retirement. He leaves behind a healthy, lively website still full of possibilities and potential as his legacy, along with a model for friendly and professional partnership with the Board and staff that we shall use as a standard for years to come.
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