Speaker - March 2007

Speaker: Within NSA you have frequently encouraged open discussion about diversity. How did you become interested in diversity issues?

Patricia Ball: My extended family was from a small town outside of Little Rock, Ark., called Benton. I was born there. People in Benton had very specific views about “outsiders.” It was only as I got older and started traveling to other places that I began to meet people who differed from me in numerous ways. It was also exciting to discover that often we weren’t as different as we thought. Once we got to know one another, there were many similarities, such as the things we were concerned about like raising kids, values, respect of laws and rules. We were more alike than we thought. It just took getting past the thin veil of what made us different that enabled us to relate to others.

Speaker: You've been a member of NSA for a long time. With regard to diversity, tell us about what it was like when you first joined.

Patricia Ball: I joined NSA in 1975 and visible diversity was almost nonexistent. There were approximately 100 members and of that number, only about 10 were women, which included founding members Susie Sutton, Dottie Walters and Merlyn Cundiff (co-founder of NSA with Cavett). It was hard for a woman getting started because we weren’t always taken seriously. Many times, in those early years, I was told that I was the first woman speaker the organization had ever hired.

Speaker: I understand that you had a lot to do with the formation of the Diversity PEG. Why did you think such a PEG in NSA was important?

Patricia Ball: It was important to have this happen for three reasons that still apply today: First, more speakers speak on the broad topic of diversity—or areas that cross over into diversity. As members of NSA, they need and demand guidance and information from their professional association. Second, our

atricia Ball, CSP, CPAE, is a communications specialist, focusing on power, gender, and diversity exchanges among people and groups. She served as national President of NSA from 1996 to 1997. During her term both the Diversity PEG and the International Federation for Professional Speakers (IFPS) were established. She later served as the third president of the IFPS. In this issue of Speaker magazine, editorial board member Francine Ward, JD, talks with Patricia about how diversity has evolved within NSA and why it’s important to continue to address—and represent—differences in the industry.

audiences are more diverse. In the past, speakers spoke to groups who were like themselves. For example, southerners spoke to southerners, white men spoke to white men and black women spoke only to black women.

Today it’s different. Many speakers find themselves before audiences who are filled with people who are quite different from them. People from all walks of life are speaking to people from a variety of backgrounds. Third and, most importantly, it is necessary to have diversity as part of our association’s mission because we are changing.

The face of NSA has changed dramatically. The days are long gone when NSA consisted of mostly middle-aged white men and a handful of white women and focused on keynote speakers. Today we have trainers, motivational speakers, authors, coaches. We have African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities. Today, our membership is truly eclectic.

Speaker: Was there controversy within NSA over the creation of a Diversity PEG?

Patricia Ball: Absolutely. My greatest challenge was that people asked me “Why diversity?” They couldn’t understand the need for a focus on differences. They said speakers were speakers, yet, apparently from the makeup of our organization, we didn’t value speakers who were different, evidenced by the fact that we had so few.