The importance of winning something

Well, that was quite a weekend. The B.C. Yukon Community Newspapers Association held its annual Ma Murray Awards gala at the River Rock in Richmond on the weekend, and it was a fine do.

The Daily News, in the days before it was a daily, was a longstanding member of the BCYCNA. We were able to rejoin last year when the organization extended its membership to include B.C. dailies. We were fortunate last year to pick up a half dozen awards, and we did alright this year, too.

It’s easy to say awards don’t matter, that it’s all about the satisfaction of doing good work but, let me tell you, there’s nothing like a little recognition and a very nice trophy to make you feel good about what you do.

The Ma Murrays are one of the best-run awards galas I’ve ever been to. It moves fast, is highly entertaining, and the tension is high as the award categories come up one by one. You can’t help but feel nervous as your turn approaches.

Susan Duncan, our city editor, scooped the best columnist award, as well as the community booster award for The Daily News Boogie. Photographer Murray Mitchell and I came up just a bit short in feature photo and editorial writing respectively, but coming second among all of the people who work for all of the newspapers in B.C. is nothing to complain about.

By the way, Maxine Rashinksy of the TRU journalism program was at our table, and her passion for journalism always provides for some great discussion.

And, dammit, some day I’m going to come out ahead of Susan when it comes to awards. I must give her credit, though, not only because she deserved to win, but for a couple of very good acceptance speeches.