The Pilgrimage to #SHRMVLS

I haven’t gone back and counted, but I would bet that I have written at least 10 of these posts, “Headed to SHRM VLS.”

One might ask why do you keep coming back?  I guess the short answer is because I can. The event is a wonderful event for the fully engaged or want to be fully engaged SHRMies.  The conference is attended by chapter presidents, state directors and many of the other key chapter and state council board members.  In short, we come together and drink the SHRM Kool-Aid. 

For the long-timers, now it is like a family reunion or any other get together of those friends that only get to see one another once a year or so.

There will be many newbies, i.e. first timers in town for the event as well.  So, for the rest of us, it is our charge to get them as jacked up about this stuff as the old-timers are.

Early Thursday morning the event starts with trip to Capitol Hill. It is typically comprised of  400+ of the faithful going to The Hill and representing SHRM and the nearly 300,000 HR pros that make up the organization. I have made this trip numerous times, and I will tell you that it feels very empowering.  If you attend the event this year and did not go. next year, plan to do so.  As a SHRM board member you need to do this at least once.

Hank Jackson and me at #SHRM17

Back to the hotel for the opening event after The Hill visit, and it will be a special day. We will hear from SHRM CEO Hank Jackson for the last time.  Hank is retiring.  He will be missed. In my opinion he has done a stellar job leading the organization through good times and bad.  If we could I would like to dedicate Friday 11/17 to thank Hank.  So, if you tweet and you use the #SHRMVLS tag, on Friday also include the hashtag #ThanksHank as a show of support and thanks.  Hank is a quiet modest fellow and does not want much fanfare but at least us tweeters can salute our outgoing CEO.

So as the old guy leaves we are going to meet the “new guy” Johnny Taylor.  He is not new to SHRM or HR.  He has been the chairman of the board in the mid-2000s.  I was around then, and I can tell you he is a charming, witty, engaging leader. I will be most interested to hear from him and his plans for the organization.

Friday and Saturday are meetings and SHRM business. Enjoy this. This is the purpose of the whole event.

Other thoughts on the event.

·       Learn

·       Network connect with as many people as you can

·       Immerse yourself in the event

·       Share

·       Sleep as little as possible

·       Smile

And if you haven’t met my friend Steve Browne (SHRM Board Member and Pizza guy from Ohio) seek him out.  Steve always says he wants to meet EVERYONE at any event he attends.  He is not kidding.

-Dave Ryan Director ILSHRM

SHRM 2015 VLS Wrap Up

The SHRM Volunteer Leaders’ Summit is wrapped up, and we are about to turn the page on another year.  This year I found a new and different SHRM.   SHRM is listening to its member and changing. SHRM members are not nearly as combative this year as they were in 2014.  So, IMO as we say on twitter, I think most of those who attended, came, participated, lobbied, listened and were energized, which I think is the purpose of the event.

SHRM CEO Hank Jackson at the VLS.

Gone were the distractions of the SHRM “Certification”.   Changes were announced to the Volunteer Leader’s Resource Center (VLRC), we saw changes in the name and the styling of the entire event now call VLS (even though the hashtag #SHRMLead) still remains, and this is strictly a personal observation of mine, but I saw a new and different CEO.  The Hank Jackson we saw in 2015 is the guy who runs SHRM.  He is totally comfortable with that, and that he has a bunch of Human Resources Pros around him at the events.  Hank laughed and joked with us and even cracked a joke or two when talking about problems.  He has assumed the role and it just feels like he has become very comfortable with his staff and his membership and his role at the top.

Steve Browne at the VLS.

We also saw at this meeting where our collective friend Steve Browne made the transition to the “other side.”  No longer is Steve a chapter or state council official, he is now on the board of directors of SHRM.  Those of us who know Steve are proud of him and look to him to share our vision of HR with the board.  I am sure he will excel in this role, and I wish him well.

For those who are new to chapters or state council operations, an appropriate amount of learning and resources was offered up. The sessions I attended were spot on and offered me a lot of ideas and ways to attack problems in my upcoming role as State Director. As best as I can tell from a show of hands, it looked like about 50% of the attendees were first time attendees.  The more veteran members could work on being a little more welcoming IMO.  And we need to get more millennials at these events!! (Repeat that last sentence!)

A concept of #HR two point oh or 2.0 was rolled out. What is it? I am not sure we know. Things are changing rapidly and I feel we are being asked, to be ready, to deal with these changes.  Tom Peters spoke of these coming days in “Thriving on Chaos” in 1987; I think we are there and HR 2.0 looks a lot like that.

For me thought the best part of this, and any other SHRM conference is seeing old friends and making new ones! That is simply grand and cannot be replaced by anything else.

ILSHRM Members in the Headshot Lounge

Like most of the other attendees, I am going to head home and pour this renewed vim and vigor into my role and do my damnedest to make #ILSHRM the best we can be. The event allowed me to spend a lot of time with my #ILSHRM people and build a stronger bond with all of our board members, which is great as I am going to need their knowledge, skills and abilities to move ILSHRM forward.

I nearly forgot to mention this, the Marriott Marquis is simply over the top - top notch facility.  It is a prIivileged to stay at properties of this caliber.

Lastly for me, this is simply fun, I enjoy the whole conference atmosphere (meetings, airport delays, drinks, sleep deprivation, smiles, knowledge, being out of town, the SHRM Store… you get the drift) and I think that is why I stay involved.  Being a SHRMie and attending these events gives me something I don’t get anywhere else – so I have to keep coming back.

This is not to be patronizing in anyway, but I also want to thank all of the SHRM staff for being so engaging and making these events the way they are. By reading this you know how I feel about SHRM Conferences, and it is all of the work that you do that creates those feelings in me – and I am sure I am not alone!

Dave Ryan ISC SHRM Director Elect

ILSHRM in the Books

This year was a bifurcation point for Illinois SHRM. We moved the conference from Oak Brook to Tinley Park.  The reason for the move was two-fold.  The move was supposed to help us reduce the cost of putting on the event, and the board was hopeful that it would result in an increase in attendance.  ILSHRM also made a planned effort to go nearly paperless, opting for all information to be disseminated via our Crowd Compass on line app.

Janine Driver showing Hank Jackson the "power" handshake.

The unofficial total for the event was 553 paid attendees and a guestimate of another 150 folks, including speakers, exhibitors and volunteers. All told we had about 700 folks in the house for the two day event.  Another change was going from three to two keynote speakers.  There is no doubt that both of our keynoters knocked the socks off of everyone.  Janine Driver was our opening speaker, and she was simply amazing.  She even had SHRM CEO Hank Jackson (who was in attendance at ILSHRM) participating in her presentation.

Our closing keynote speaker Bill Rancic is a hometown boy and talked of growing up “right down the street” in Orland Park.  Bill shared some great insight into his success and how he deals with and manages people, a great message for all of the HR folks in attendance. At the close of his presentation he was doing a little Q. & A. with the audience.  When asked about his television mentor Donald Trump, Bill would only say that he liked Mr. Trump and that he was a good man.

From the conversations I had and that were overheard all of our breakout sessions got high marks.  This blogger’s opinion is unscientific, but I am sure will be borne out by the evaluations, which were completed on our conference app.  I can honestly say that all of the sessions I attended were well executed.

We also had a couple social events, both Sunday evening and Monday evening.  While both events were well done, I would have like to have seen more attendees at each.  In fact I would have like to have seen all of the attendees at both events, but that is probably not going to happen.  On Monday we had the pleasure of listening to a folk/rock grunge/blue-grass group called The Way Down Wanders. 

As was mentioned earlier, we did have a sort-of surprise visit from SHRM CEO Hank Jackson. Hank joined us on Monday morning and spoke to the crowd sharing the direction of the organization and the current hot topics.  ILSHRM is fortunate to have had Hank join us as he only has plans to attend two state conferences this year.

There also were some things we could do better.  This is my list of things I will be recommending to the board.

• ·         Ensure that the Wi-Fi service meets our needs
• ·         Speed up the Food service
• ·         More seating for lunch
• ·         Better control of room temperatures

I believe that the collective reviews will show that the conference was successful.  Whether or not the location was an improvement remains to be seen.  We will see what our attendees have to say. And once those results are in we will do our best to share that information.

To those who attended and participated in our 2015 ILSHRM Conference, a BIG THANK YOU.  To those who missed the event, we will soon have a date for you to add to your calendar, so check our website for that information.

Dave Ryan ISC SHRM Director Elect

Look Whose Coming to #ILSHRM15

Tomorrow is the pre-conference day for Illinois SHRM 2015 style.  This year we are in a new location, with a new State Director and we are trying something different things with our opening keynote speaker. So we have thrown caution to wind and are going for it, to see how this works out.

Cathy Plouzek (Past state director) with Hank Jackson

And we have one other thing up our sleeve.  We have a special guest joining us on Sunday and Monday.  The Big Guy, Mr. Hank Jackson, in the flesh.  I do not know what he has in store with his visit, but I am sure it will be enlightening and exciting, just having him join us Sunday night and Monday morning. On Monday he is going to speak to all of the attendees and share what he has for us.  You can see that Hank's connections to ILSHRM Leadership is strong, as the paparazzi has done his homework well, in the pictures to the left.  He always seems to be a good sport about pictures. Introduce yourself to him, he is actually a very friendly fellow! 

Cathy Plouzek (Past State Director, Hank Jackson
and Connie Wolgemuth (Current State Director)

Otherwise our conference planners Sabrina Baker and Julie Rischmiller have done an outstanding job of putting together a line up of sessions which will provide you information on most everything that is currently going on in the field of Human Resources. It would be at this point to where it would be appropriate to thanks them for their 12 months of work in putting this event together.

In our break out sessions, we have a number of returning favorite speakers, ones that are a hit year after year like Mike Vandervort, Broc Edwards, Lisa Callaway,  and Dwane Lay.  We also are bringing in some new blood like Heather Kinzie, Mary Faulkner and local Chicago Favorite Bill Rancic. 

On Monday evening, we are going to give everyone time to go grab some dinner and then get back to the conference venue around 6:30 to listen to The Way Down Wanders perform.

The event should be epic.  You can follow the twitter activity with the hashtag #ILSHRM15 and you can see more on our Facebook Page as well.

And if your are attending please DOWNLOAD THE ILSHRM App as this will be the guide to the event.
See you soon!

- Dave Ryan Director Elect ISC SHRM