ILSHRM - HR people helping HR people

Cathy Plouzek

Hey ya’ll!  As our Blogger in Chief – Dave Ryan so eloquently put it…he has a new boss at ILSHRM!  The torch has been passed, the guard has been changed!  Welcome to another year.  I am really excited about this new “gig”.  We’ve got an enthusiastic team ofHR professionals  on the board and we are eager to get started.  Before I get into what’s new with ILSHRM, allow me to formerly introduce myself….

I’ve been an HR Pro for over 25 years.  Yes, for those of you counting, I started in HR when I was 10. In addition to my new ILSHRM responsibilities,   I just started a new “paid gig” as IntegratedHR Solutions Advisor for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.  

At the 2008
Chicago marathon. 

I’ve also served on Chapter and State Council boards for… let’s just say, a LONG time.  At the Chapter level, I’ve held positions of SHRM Foundation Chair, Membership Chair, President Elect, President, Past President, and Treasurer.   I joined the State Council board in 2010 as Conference Co-Chair.  Yes, I’ve no doubt drank the SHRM Kool-Aid!  

In my spare time, I run marathons for fun.  My husband and I enjoy hitting the pavement on our 26.2 mile runs for some “quality” couple time.  Who said running marathons is not FUN.

In his last post, our Blogger in Chief subtly suggested I use this space to share a few comments about our organization and my plans for the next two years.   For me, ILSHM is HR people helping HR people.  A few years ago, someone asked me why I volunteer for ILSHRM.  My answer was – NETWORKING, NETWORKING, and NETWORKING!  The friendships that I have made (both personally and professionally) while serving on the local and state boards are “second to none”.  It is a very comforting feeling to know that anytime I have a question or a challenge or a new project to tackle, that help can be found by phoning a colleague, sending an email, tweeting, Facebook posts, making a LinkedIn connection…  the list is endless.  That’s what I want us to focus on – building our ILSHRM network.  We have over 11,000 HR Pros/SHRM members in the State of Illinois – let’s get connected! 

On Sunday, January 27^th, the ILSHRM core board will hold our Strategy and Planning meeting where we will refine our vision, mission, and strategic priorities.  I’ve also asked the board to come prepared to discuss 3 chapter/at large and 1 state council initiative(s) that they want to tackle in 2013.   These initiatives will be recorded on a scorecard with deadlines and deliverables to help keep us on track.  On Monday, January 28th, volunteer leaders from all over the State will join us at our Annual State Leadership Conference.  The agenda for this conference is packed with workshops and breakout sessions to help us connect with each other and share best practices.  We will also present our scorecard and ask for feedback.

Well, that is a little about me, ILSHRM and a glance at where we are headed in the next couple of years.  Now, I’d love to hear from you.  What is ILSHRM to you?  Contact me on Twitter, LinkedIn or email  Share your ideas, stories, goals – and let’s get connected! 

-Cathy Plouzek - State Director ISC SHRM

New Leadership at ILSHRM

Hey y'all, as the Blogger In-Chief for Illinois SHRM, I am happy to report I have a new boss.  No, no, no --it's a good thing. It is not like the stuff many of us deal with on a day to day basis where we have bosses come and go.  This is a planned, orderly transition.  It is the Change of Guard.  Donna Rogers has completed her two-year term as State Director and passed the torch on to Cathy Plouzek.  While you don't find Cathy out here in the blogospher yacking about this or that, she does have a presence out here in what I will call the HR Social Space as you can find Cathy on LinkedIn and on Twitter as well.

Cathy lives in the Peoria area and has been active in the Heart of Illinois SHRM Chapter for many years.

I will, as subtly as I can, suggest to Cathy that she could take some of this space and share a few comments about our organization and just where she plans on taking us. So for the meantime consider yourself informed of our leadership changes.

And as an FYI Donna Rogers has taken a position on the SHRM Mac Council, I guess I need to get her to write a post about that!.

-Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM

I Am Thankful For.....

Well, it’s come and gone. I hope that most all attendees at the 12th annual Illinois SHRM Conference (ILSHRM11) had the amazing time I had. We had a record crowd, cutting edge speakers and very intense but invaluable networking and I hope a little fun. I sit here trying to write a thank you post but have so many to thank I don’t know where to start and if I can keep it the length of a post and not a book, because it would not be hard to do.

First let me start with our keynotes, pre-conference speaker and our emcee. Our opening keynote, Ryan Estes, kicked us off with a very motivating and moving presentation that set the tone for the entire conference. Talent Anarchy (Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt) did what many keynoters fail to do and that is took the tough after lunch spot and they OWNED it. Testify. China Gorman gave our final keynote as only China can, informative, entertaining and classy. As I said in introducing China, when I took on ILSHRM11, I had a short list of 3 keynoters I wanted and I was blessed enough to get all three, China being top of that list. Whew. Jessica Miller-Merrell came in and led our first ever pre-conference session and did everything I thought she would do and more. And what can I say about our first ever conference emcee, Charlie Judy, but WOW. (Already got him committed to ILSHRM12).

Next, I have to thank our concurrent presenters. I wish I could list all 30 of them but space does not allow it (we run into that book length problem). The only complaint I have heard so far is that we didn’t have bigger concurrent break out rooms (we are working on that). They engaged, entertained and educated all of you. If you attended one (or five) great session, I encourage you to reach out to the speaker and connect with them to thank them and network. They are easily findable on the internet and if not, let us know; we will try and hook you up.

Next, our Social Media folks who came in and shared the conference with the world in ways I never thought possible. The number of over 3.8 million internet impressions just staggers me. Thank you Robin, Geoff, Maren, Kristi, Bryan, William, Jennifer, Dwane, Mike, Jessica, Jason S, Jason L, Joe, China and Charlie.

Thank you to the staff at NIU, Drury Lane, MCS and Chris Martin Public Relations for support and your hard work.

Thank you to our exhibitors and sponsors. You help make this amazing event possible. Please check out the list on our web site. Special thanks to our conference sponsor, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois. They have been unbelievable in their support in the last few years.

Thanks to the SHRM staff at ILSHRM. Martha and Kristine, you support us all year long so thank you for sharing two days with us, I know how busy you are. Kattie from HRCI, it was so great to meet in person and thanks to your team for sponsoring our first tweet up and the ILSHRM All Acess video recaps. Curtis, thanks. Without your interest last year, our social media reach would not be anything compared to what it is.

Thank you to all of our Illinois SHRM Board and volunteers. You made this years’ event run as smooth as glass due to all your effort and work. Special thanks go to our officers (Donna, Amy and Marianne), our District Directors (Karen, Lenore, Janeane, Melissa, Connie and especially Pattie), our technology team of Rachel and Dave. Thanks to all the chapter members and SHRM members who pitched into help. Extra special thanks to Sabrina Baker, our exhibitor and sponsor chair and Cathy Plouzek, my Co-Director. You all are super heroes in my book.

Last but not least, thanks to each and every attendee who came and participated. Your energy, enthusiasm and excitement made ILSHRM11 a huge success.

See you at the Drury Lane on August 6-7, 2012.
-John Jorgensen Conference Director ISC SHRM

Changes for 2011 - New Contributors to IL SHRM Site

It is the year’s end and at Illinois SHRM just like at many other volunteer organizations personnel changes usually take place around this time of year. At the top we have a new incoming State Director – Donna Rogers. We also have a new Director Elect Cathy Plouzek, and we have the outgoing, Past State Director John Jorgensen. While we have a number of personnel changes we also have some folks like your truly are hanging around for another year or two.


One of the things that I am going to do next year is add some new voices to this blog site. For the most part, postings so far, have come from me, Dave Ryan, the Director of the Social Media for the State Council. Having looked around at other sites and other organization I have invited more folks who are involved with SHRM here in Illinois to be contributors and give new and varied content  in regards to  what is going on in the World of Human Resources.

The three folks mentioned earlier, John, Donna and Cathy all have agree to generate 4 to 5 posts for next year. In addition to the IL SHRM executive gang, we have lined up IL SHRM’s membership director and all around great guy Jeff Williams to our crew. Jeff currently writes at his own blog site HDLeader. Our Director of Marketing and Communication Heather Hammitt will also be contributing to our blog site.

To another prospective, from the staffing portion of Human Resources, Chloe Rada, The President of Staffing Management Association of Greater Chicago will be a regular contributor to the site.

We have been fortunate to grab two more contributors who have been instrumental in creating a new SHRM chapter in the Metro East area. We are thrilled to have Trish McFarlane who regularly blogs at HRRingleader, and her co-conspirator Chris Frede who also has her own site, HRBouy, as regular contributors for 2010.

So if I go back and count up the bolded names I see nine names listed. The plan was to have 12 regular contributors. So if my math still works I need three more regular contributors. Please let me know if you would be interested in contributing.

In addition to the weekly contributions, we plan to be presenting guest posts from upcoming conference speakers, and others who are present on the HR scene. So be looking for exciting thing coming from this the Illinois State Council of SHRM and this site next year.
- Dave Ryan Director of Social Media Illinois State Council of SHRM