Musings from An Outgoing State Director

Dave & Donna Mucking it up.

Today, the 17^th Annual Illinois SHRM Conference begins with a pre-conference session and a board meeting, late afternoon.  I am excited to attend. I am stoked to see all of my HR friends from around the country  world. I can’t wait to hear Steve Browne and Cy Wakeman speak.  I get to visit with my friend and presenter Renee Robson (Yeah, she is from down under – they do HR there to.)   I get to present a session with my HR Speaking partner Donna Rogers.  

I get to hold a meeting with all the wonderful volunteers who have supported me for the last year and nine months.  This is great! But at the end of the meeting, on Sunday and then again on Tuesday, I will likely be wrought with emotion, as you see my time as State Director is nearly done.   I have talked with many folks who have left this role both in Illinois and other states and they all experience this; the separation anxiety – the thought of leaving.

Then there are all the things I didn’t get done, one could call them failures or just lofty goals.

Next, I think of all of the people and organizations that I have got to touch in this role and it has been a gift.

Dave & Connie at ILSHRM

I am sad my time is coming to close, it has been a true pleasure to get to serve in this role.

To my predecessor Connie Wolgemuth, you are such a wonderful leader, and smart woman I could not have asked for anyone better in preparing me for the role.  You are awesome!

To my successor Becky Krueger, I am so proud of you in all that you have done to date, all that you continue to do and all of the successes you will have as the incoming State Director. You are awesome and I can't wait to see where you take ILSHRM.

My wife Sheila and Becky riding in the back 

of the disco lit Uber in Miami

And to Becky’s successor good luck, you have a marvelous mentor who will prepare you well for upcoming role.

For all of my life I have been an Eagles fan. One of their last recordings was Out of Eden. There was a song on album titled “It’s Your World Now.”  It is a beautiful song written and sung by founding band member Glen Frey.  In the song Glen talks about how his time is over, sadly that came all too soon.  The lyrics speak to me as to anyone who is “moving on” so I will leave you with them – and if you haven’t heard the song go listen to it.

Dave, Steve and John at VLS … a long time ago.

A perfect day, the sun is sinking low
As evening falls, the gentle breezes blow
The time we shared went by so fast
Just like a dream, we knew it couldn't last
But I'd do it all again
If I could, somehow
But I must be leaving soon
It's your world now

[Chorus]
It's your world now
My race is run
I'm moving on
Like the setting sun
No sad goodbyes
No tears allowed
You'll be alright
It's your world now

[Verse 2]
Even when we are apart
You'll always be in my heart
When dark clouds appear in the sky
Remember true love never dies
But first a kiss, one glass of wine
Just one more dance while there's still time
My one last wish, someday, you'll see
How hard I tried and how much you meant to me

Find me at the conference I am the guy, off in the distance, who will be bawling uncontrollably on Sunday and again on Tuesday.  

Two last thought... John Jorgenson (the Godfatha of ILSHRM) thanks for getting me involved with this organization.  And Lori Maher-McCombs thank you for joining our team and doing what you do, oh so well!

--Dave Ryan ISC State Director

ILSHRM Bloggers at SHRM18

 With the SHRM 18 Annual Conference being in “our” backyard, a couple of ILSHRM’s finest have been asked to participate in the SHRM 18 Blog Squad as part of the social media effort promoting the conference leading up to and during the event, those being Dave Ryan, the current ILSHRM State Director and John Jorgensen, a past State Director.

Dave Ryan

John Jorgensen

As part of the effort to introduce them to the folks who do not know them (believe it or not there are a few), Mike VanderVort, a long time social media presence and a friend of ILSHRM, had both on his Drive Thru HR blog talk radio show to discuss their involvement with the Blog Squad and SHRM in general.  This would be a good place to let those who missed them catch up via the links shown below.  In addition, there is also a link to a Facebook post each did to introduce themselves to the other Blog Squad members……

Here's Dave Ryan, aka @DavetheHRCzar on Twitter.  His DTHR interview is found here and his Facebook post:

Next is John Jorgensen, aka @jkjhr on Twitter.  His DTHR interview is here and his Facebook post:  

Please follow both of us on Twitter for our reports during the conference and on the SHRM Blog Posts leading up to the conference.  If you are going to be at SHRM 18, track us down.  It will be worth your while!

- John Jorgensen Past State Director ILSHRM

ILSHRM Looking for a New D & I Director

We’re hiring!  Yep at Illinois SHRM we have an opening.  Let me tell you a bit about the job.  It pays nothing and there are no hard dollar employee benefits.  We will ask that you perform at very high level bringing the latest thinking and creativity to a difficult job.   Sometimes it involves long hours. Still interested?

Here is the deal; we are the Illinois State Council (ILSHRM) of the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). We do have an opening on our board of directors currently. We are looking for a Director of Diversity and Inclusion.  The position has been open since April of 2016.   Our board has been going through some consolidation due to changes in our business model.  But as we move ahead it has become apparent that this is an important position and needs to be filled.

Historically at ILSHRM, the way that open positions have been filled is through recommendations from current board members, or friends of those board members recommending their friends.  While that has worked in the past, it has not brought the level of inclusion to where it needs to be.  Said another way, when I look around the room at a board meeting, we all kind of look the same.   I understand that D & I means a lot more than race today. It includes religion, gender, gender orientation, sexual orientation, size, body types and with our organization it includes geography.  Thus, we will try to do better!

So being the Human Resources pros that we are, and knowing what we know, we are going to shake it up a bit.  We are going to recruit for a Director of Diversity and Inclusion.  Yes, we are going to post this opening on our website and ask for people to apply for this position. We also will ask all our Chapter Presidents to make this opening known to their chapter members who might be interested in sharing of themselves. And lest we not forget any of our AT-LARGE SHRM MEMBERS… that would be you 8000+ SHRM members in Illinois that are not currently affiliated with a chapter, you are welcome to become part of our organization as well.

Another change we are making is this. We are going to have a person on the board whose job it is to recommend to the board, qualified candidates to fill these positions.  The job title for this person is still somewhat in limbo, but things in place include, Succession Planner, HR Director, Talent and Acquisition Pro. We’re not sure where that is going to end up but these are some of the things in play.

We do have a job description for the position (because we are HR Pros) but being a member of a SHRM State Council involves a lot more that performing your singular board duties.  Check out some of the other content we have put out over the years on YouTube or Facebook, and if you think you would be a good fit within our board please apply.

 

If you have any questions about the State Council and our activities please contact me Dave Ryan via email and I will do my best to get back with you in a timely fashion.

-Dave Ryan Director Illinois State Council of SHRM

Tiffany Kuehl in the house at ILSHRM Lead

This is the second blog post about our upcoming ILSHRM Leadership meeting which will be in Naperville this year.  I am excited (and frightened) to attend this year. I am excited because I know the event will be epic I am frightened because I am now the director and this whole deal rests on my shoulders.  I guess I need to get over it and revel in the comfort of being uncomfortable.

Tiffany pictured with Steve Browne (sort of) Steve is much taller.

In my previous post I talked about and introduced a good friend of mine who will be speaking at the event.  Today’s post is about our second speaker, another great friend of mine and the Director of Minnesota SHRM, Tiffany Miller Kuehl.    Tiffany too is an early adopter of social media and has been in the HR/Recruiting space for many years (although she only looks like she is 27 to me).

One of the things that I bring to the job of State Director is a vast network of connection so I have decided to call upon some of these people to help me out as the director.  Tiffany is one of those people. I have participated at a number of events with her and we share a passion for this conference thing and and the SHRM thing as well.

Tiffany brings a much different look at the world and things than does Steve Browne.  Tiffany is a working mother, a wife, a daughter, a blogger, a huge Minnesota Twins fan, a baseball coach and a volunteer, some of which must track with many of the folks who will be attending our event. 

Tiffany is going to talk about volunteerism and share her insight into the matter. This will speak to everyone who is attendance because if you are at our Illinois SHRM Leadership conference; we gottcha!

Tiffany will be with us most of the day on Monday, I would encourage you to connect with her prior to the event and then meet her IRL (in real life) as we say in social media.

Tiffany on Linked In    https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanykuehl

Tiffany on Twitter https://twitter.com/TiffanyKuehl

Tiffany on Instagram http://instagram.com/tiffanykuehl

Tiffany on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=tiffany%20miller%20kuehl                                                                                                         

SHRM Blog https://blog.shrm.org/author/886

PIC Blogger http://www.performanceicreate.com/author/tkuehl/

Last year on Tiffany’s birthday a good friend of mine Chris Fields created TK Day.  This is a short video I put together for her on her birthday.

Be sure to check out her presentation at this year's conference, you won't be disappointed.

- Dave Ryan Illinois SHRM State Director

SHRM VLS 2016

​

It's the week before Thanksgiving, deer hunting season opens this week in the Midwest and the SHRM Volunteer Leaders Summit is taking place. This annual event is many things to many people but as I reflect on the event, I can easily group folks into three groups.

The newbies, are the first or second timers. Welcome! These are the folks who are new to their SHRM leadership role and have been dispatched to #SHRMVLS (as we call it on twitter, Facebook and Instagram) to see what this is all about and what is expected of them. At the other end of the spectrum is the "old timers" or veterans. These folks have been attended since the event was called SHRM Leadership and it was held at the Crystal City Marriot. Then the other group would be those that don't fit into these other two groups.

VLS has several objectives. One is to initiate volunteer leaders to their new roles. Another is to update all attendees on SHRM's path and mission. Then there is the Capitol Hill visits, whereupon nearly 500 volunteer leaders go to Capitol Hill and offer the SHRM position on the legislative issues that are "in play". It would also be the hope that the trips to Capitol Hill result in some deeper relationships with our elected representatives. Lastly I think the conference is about "amping up" the leaders before they are sent back home. This is usually accomplished though the keynote addresses.  Most of the speakers at these events are damn good. They motivate us and tug at our heartstrings.

                   

For the long-term volunteers, there is one more aspect to the event. Us "old dogs" get to see our old friends, the ones we have met over the years. These are the like-minded people who share a passion for Human Resources, volunteering and networking. We seem to gravitate to one and other.  These relationships run long and deep!  (I challenge you to meet 50 new people at the event.)

Having said all of that, I may have totally missed the mark, for you; but this is what VLS is all about but these have been my takeaways over the years.

And just in case you didn't know this SHRM's Martha Ramirez was the lead person on this event for last year (2015) and this year. In Illinois, last year we were so proud of Martha for doing a great job with the event, the Illinois State Council of SHRM presented Martha with a board resolution congratulating her on what an awesome conference she assembled. She has set the bar high for this year.

Don't forget to download SHRM's new conference app. It is available in the iTunes Store of the Google Play Store.  This app will keep you plugged into all that is going on at each SHRM event.

Looking forward to a great conference, I hope to meet all of you!!

- Dave Ryan ISC SHRM Director Elect

ILSHRM CIC-SHRM Legislative Conference

So having attended Capitol Hill day several times in Washington DC, I thought that our ILSHRM efforts for this year were a bust. We had more people than ever go to the Illinois Statehouse and the count was 24.  But then I thought about that for a moment and thought things need to be proportional.    The last time I went to Capitol Hill there were 400+ members who went - impressive! We sent 24 to our statehouse.   Wait though let’s do the math.  On the last trip to Capitol Hill 400 of the 280,000 members attended or 0.0014 % the membership.   Now looking at our Illinois delegation, 24 of the 12,300 members attended or 0.0019% of our state membership; BAM #ILSHMR wins!

While I have not attended all of the Legislative Conferences, I have made a number of them. I still enjoy being around a bunch of like minded #HR pros, it just gets me stoked.  Yesterday’s version was no different.    We heard from Jonathan Segal, who is an accomplished – often quoted labor lawyer. He shared his brand of HR Law which often brought levity to the whole matter.

This was followed up by ILSHRM Lobbyist Jay Dee Shadduck.  Jay brought us three state agency directors, a state senator and one state representative. These folks all had interesting prospective on what was going on in state government and why we should care, and /or feel good about it.  Some of them did a better job articulating this point than others. I will leave the final decision as to who was who, to the others that attended.

After lunch we heard from Kelly Hastings, a member of the SHRM Legislative Affairs team.  And while Kelly touched on a number of subjects that had already been kicked around, she provided some hard facts and legislative insight that could only come from a true insider.   We thank Kelly for an early out in DC and a late night back in.  (The new rules on exempt employees will be here very soon!)

Then it was off to the Illinois Statehouse.  While the Senate was not in session when we arrived, they were doing committee hearings, the House was in session.  The consensus was it is easy to see why we don’t have a budget.  What we saw from our brief visit there was organized confusion at best.  There was no real debate going on and only a vote or two took place.  There were a lot of people in the Capitol but I am not sure what they were all doing.  Although from my vantage point I so no one talking or worrying about a budget.  Hmm, I guess government just works different that private sector business.

Tomorrow is Day two of the conference; we will see what that holds for us.  See you there!

-          

     Dave Ryan – ISC SHRM Director Elect

The Path for ILSHRM

​I agreed to it, and I have been trying to learn from my mentor Connie Wolgemuth on what it is I am supposed to do, and what I am in charge of as the Director of ILSHRM. Connie is fabulous and has been a joy to work with, but I still have a great deal of consternation within this troubled mind of mine.

We recently wrapped up our annual leadership conference (#ILSHRMLead) and now we have survey results. So like most other things I have been involved with to this point in my life, I am trying to understand, analyze and comprehend what the data from the survey is telling me. Once I get it figured out, then I need to develop an action plan as to what we are going to do next year. Isn't that right, we are supposed to learn from our failures and capitalize on our successes.

This year (2016) we moved the event to Bloomington (downstate) for the first time. When I review the remarks people made, they either hated it (Chicago land members) or they loved it (down staters). There were also very polarizing comments about our programming. Everybody seems to want killer, kick ass content that will send them out the door feeling 10 feet, tall ready to go home and lead their organizations and run the best damn SHRM chapter in the world! Oh, and we have to do this on a shoestring budget. So that's what I am looking at for next year.

The "Money Lady" getting ready to do her thing.

It appears to me that this is going to get more difficult. So, I guess this is where the LEADERSHIP thing is supposed to kick in. I do what I think is the right thing, because of my KSAs and life experiences, and if I am right everyone throws accolades my way and tells me how wonderful I am - or....let's not think about the alternative.

Plans for next year need to begin soon, so I had better get this figured out quickly. I think, I am going to need some input from smart people around me, as to what to do about this conference and some of the other matters that are going to be on my plate as the State Director. Who do I trust, whose opinion should I value, who is right? Dunno! I guess this is what I signed up to do.

As I prepare to post this, I look back over this blog site and see all of the stuff I wrote as the Director of Social Media and now I am soon to be the State Director, hmm quite a change in roles and responsibilities. ILSHRMies soon you will be passengers on the craft which is being piloted by @DaveTheHRCzar former Director of Social Media turned ILSHRM State Director. I will need all or your help - please be gentle with me!

-Dave Ryan Director Elect ISC-SHRM

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

2014 ILSHRM Conference – All The Juicy Details

With many of us still thawing out from the Polar Vortex, I thought a little something to make us think about warmth, happiness and growth would be a nice change of pace.

It will be warm in August.

Being around smart people who get where we are coming from makes us happy.

Attending three jam packed days of awesome content to challenge our minds and help us improve both ourselves and our workplaces helps us grow.

Of course I'm talking about ILSHRM14!

We are still hammering out some minor details, but the important stuff is figured out.

The pre-conference workshop has been designed.

The keynotes are settled and so excited to grace our stage.

The concurrent sessions are decided and scheduled.

We even know what time everything is happening.

You can get all of the preliminary details here. All of this information will be up on our website shortly.

To register for the conference or pre-conference workshop click here.

-Sabrina Baker - Conference Chair

If you are a vendor who is looking for information on sponsoring or exhibiting with us, please email ilshrmexpo14@gmail.com

ILSHRM14 - Shaping the Future of HR

I cannot believe it is 2014.  It is mind boggling to me how fast time goes as we get older.

It's also mind boggling how fast things change.

Our profession is not what it was 20 years ago. I'm going to say that it isn't even what it was 10 years ago. 

We are different. Better. Evolved.

Sort of.

We are more entrenched in our businesses than we ever have been and yet.....we aren't.

We understand the importance of being a business partner more than ever before and yet....we don't.

It's not the same for everyone, but some of us are stuck. We are stuck in between who we were and who the business now needs us to be.

It's only going to get worse.

Business is changing and with that we have to change. We have to think about what will be expected of us in the future and adapt quickly.

It is my hope that this year's ILSHRM conference will help.

The theme is Shaping the Future of HR and everything from the pre-conference workshop to the keynotes to the Monday night mixer is going to focus on preparing each of us for what future business expects of us.

It's going to be awesome (if I do say so myself).

Let me introduce you to our keynotes:

Jeff Lanza is an award-winning, nationally known speaker whose career as an FBI Special Agent has fueled his passion for helping people and organizations. He will be speaking on Leadership Ethics: How to Ensure a Future of Employee and Corporate Integrity.

Jennifer McClure is President of Unbridled Talent LLC, a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of recruiting & human resources strategy, employment branding and leadership/career development. Jennifer will be sharing her very popular keynote, The Future of HR: Delivering Competitive Advantage Through Innovative People Strategies 

Jim Knight cut his teeth in the training field in the Hospitality industry, starting out as a restaurant staff-level employee for Olive Garden and Hard Rock Café. He eventually became the head of the School of Hard Rocks, running point on all training & development functions for Hard Rock International. As you would expect from someone who spent years at Hard Rock, Jim will be talking to us about Culture that Rocks!

I didn't do three J's on purpose, but that's kind of cool. With our MC John Hudson in the mix it's the perfect superfecta! 

Now for the pre-conference workshop.

You might remember Joe Gerstandt from the times he has keynoted with his Talent Anarchy partner Jason Lauritson. Joe is the bald one. Well this time he is partnering up with Doug Shaw an enchanting bloke from London to offer a three hour workshop that is going to stretch our minds in ways HR professionals are not accustomed to.

They will be presenting the Art of Leadership and when I say art I am not being theoretical. They literally mean art. Doug and Joe are going to help us tap into our creativity and apply new techniques to aid in creative thinking and problem solving. They also plan to show us how creativity can help us in our succession planning and development of employees.

Seriously, I cannot do it justice in a blog post. I'm going to see if I can't get these guys to tape a short video for us explaining what they are up to. Leave them a note in the comments if you would like that!

So there you have the ILSHRM14 updates for now. Lots, lots more to come in the upcoming weeks. 

I hope you are planning on joining us August 3-5 in Oakbrook. If you weren't, hopefully this blog post has changed your mind. To register click here.

See you soon!

Sabrina

January #SHRMChat on Social Media

Preparing for the upcoming #SHMRChat, we had a banter about using social media for State Councils and local SHRM Chapters – where is it at and where is it going. We have decided this conversation won’t be at the rudimentary level as most of the folks that hang our here are way past that. We have reached use of Social Media v 2.0 (or higher – pick your number).

So for tonight’s chat we wanted to delve into how social media and the web based tools are being used to truly engage members and chapters not just to make announcements to the world.

In Illinois we have begun to engage members by setting up a few webinars. They are relatively easy to do, and the tools to do so are inexpensive. We have also found discussions on LinkedIn as another way to engage others. In our chat I would be curious to know if anyone is using Google Hangouts as a way to engage. It seems like a great tool. How about Instagram or Pintrest what are you doing that is “out there?”

Here are the obligatory Five (5) questions we will discuss on our chat tonight.

Q1. What platform or medium has created your best engagement activities?

Q2. How do you measures success or failures when you are using social media

Q3. What tricks do you have or use to promote events or conferences?

Q4. Do you have any metrics to measure the value of your social media efforts?

Q5. What should SHRM be doing to help/train chapters and councils on SM?

See you Tuesday night 1/14/2014 at 8 Eastern/7 Central on hashtag SHRMChat (#SHRMChat).