The ceremony opening and agenda

Welcome, everyone! Thank you for being here today for the Library of Professional Coaching’s award ceremony honoring our dear colleague, Rey Car. We will be recording today’s session.

I’m Suzi Pomerantz, one of the founders and stewards of the Library of Professional Coaching, which Bill Bergquist and I have been building and stewarding for the coaching community for 13 years now, and which has just crossed the threshold of over 1000 vetted documents online that anyone can access.

To set the context for today’s ceremony, we must remember Lee Salmon: 5 years ago, the Library of Professional Coaching established the Lee Salmon Sustainable Leadership Award, in appreciative memory of our dear friend, Lee, an exceptional colleague who contributed to the sustainable leadership of the coaching profession. Lee passed away after serving as one of the leaders of the professional coaching movement of the first two decades of the 21^st century. Lee was noted for his stewardship of this field and for always pointing to the ultimate purpose of an effective professional coaching practice – sustaining our world.

We are excited to honor Rey Carr because his own work and vision is directly aligned with that of Lee Salmon. Rey is also a steward of our field, offering both support and criticism when needed. Like Lee, Rey cares deeply about the world in which we live and the often-wounded human beings who populate this world. Rarely, do we find someone with as much heart and wisdom as Rey Carr. That is why we wish to pause for a few moments to let Rey know that we think he is wonderful! His work and research and publications in the fields of coaching and mentoring have contributed tremendously and had an impact on the coaching world.

When my partner Bill proposed that we present the Lee Salmon award to Rey, it was a stroke of genius. I have had the distinct pleasure of knowing Rey through his Peer Resources Network, his Peer Bulletin, as a collaborator at the International Professional Coaching Publications Association, and his many contributions to (and support of) the Library of Professional Coaching. His wickedly fun sense of humor and kind heart are only surpassed by his incredible intellect, and we are delighted to present this award to Rey day.

I’m sure we could all speak for hours upon hours about our dear Rey, but we know many of you have set aside only one hour for today’s ceremony, and we will do our best to honor that time commitment. We will however keep going beyond the hour for any additional comments anyone would like to make.

Here’s how today’s ceremony will unfold:

First, we will present the award to Rey.

Second, we will hear a few words from those of you who submitted (and I will manage our time as best I can so we have time to hear from everyone). We have about 8 people that I know of who would like to say a few words:

• Steve Goldberg
• Ida Abbott
• Cy Charney
• Vikki Brock
• Carter McNamara
• Sally Glover
• Edgar Gallardo
• RuthAnnHarnisch

Rey Carr will have the opportunity to say whatever he wants to say to all of you.

Then, I understand some of Rey’s family members are here as well, and we will open it up to any additional informal comments afterwards.

After today’s event, we will be creating a special segment of the LPC for Rey’s award that will include the video of this session, so if you need to leave early, that’s not a problem. Once it’s posted on the LPC, you will be able to comment on the site directly, and we invite your comments there as well.

Now I’d like to hand it over to Bill to present the Lee Salmon Award to Rey with our official proclamation.

Please keep our comments succinct so we have time to hear from Rey after all our comments.

Our first speaker on Rey’s behalf is Steve Goldberg

• Ida Abbott
• Cy Charney
• Vikki Brock
• Carter McNamara
• Sally Glover
• Edgar Gallardo
• RuthAnnHarnisch

Rey comments

Open it up for additional comments (22 people remain)

• Bill Dueease
• Carolyn H
• Betska K-Burr
• Garry Schleifer
• Anneli Driessen
• Sarah Carr
• John Lazar
• Ron Jorgenson

Officially close: Thank you everyone for your heartfelt comments and support of Rey’s work. Especially, thank you Rey for everything you’ve done for the coaching world. We love you.

Open it up for additional comments (9 people remain)

• Karen Ledger
• Rey Carr
• David de Rosenroll

-Rey’s Facebook post,  Sept.8, 2020 –

“In a fabulous Zoom ceremony today I was given the Lee Salmon Award for sustainable leadership in the coaching field. The Award is determined by the #LibraryofProfessionalCoaching.

Many of the people I’ve worked with over the years, who have become near and dear to me, contributed their perspectives on my work during the ceremony. Many were people I’ve mentored or have mentored me (or both), and I worked with when peer helping was in its infancy. Beloved family members also attended and made the event even sweeter.

Today’s ceremony was exceptionally moving and powerful, and I’ll be dancing and singing all week. One person even gave me the accolade of being a “mensch,” which in my family meant someone of great esteem, compassion and caring.

I encourage everyone to find a way to gather together your friends and colleagues and have such a ceremony BEFORE you’ve left this world. The power of the comments is so up-lifting. Such a gathering reinforces the fact that you’ve become the person you always wanted to be.”