Our State Council Leadership Meeting 2011

The Illinois State Council of SHRM held its fourth annual Leadership Conference on January 9 and 10th in Utica, on the fringes of Starved Rock State Park. Sunday was designed to be a planning session for the board and Monday included state council members as well as state-wide chapter officials. In total there were a little over 100 attendees.
The two day event was designed to bring volunteer leaders from all parts of Illinois together to help grow and improve their organizations.

We heard from author and speaker Clint Swindall on Monday. Clint spoke about employee engagement and working with volunteer leaders. Clint referenced several topics from his most recent book Engaged Leadership.

My Takeaways from the event were this.

• Ironically when you get a group of HR folks together to work on Mission, Vision and Values statements, they struggle just like most other groups.
• SHRM volunteers at all levels give a tremendous amount of their time and effort helping their respective organizations.
• To hold a successful conference these days, the host facility and hotel must have reliable wireless internet service through out the facility.
• A hotel bar is essential for conference networking, a hotel without a bar will stifle networking.
• It takes one heck of a commitment and a hell of a lot of time to be Director of a State Council of SHRM. Thanks to our friend John Jorgensen for all that he has done for this organization!

Pictured below are current IL SHRM State Director Donna Rogers with Immediate Past Director John Jorgensen at the conference.  To see more pictures from the event click the Picasa Tab at the top of the page.

Communicating Up & Down the Line

My dad was a pipeliner.  For those of you who have never known anyone who worked on a pipeline, there are, or were (circa 1965) when father worked there, hard working, mean, tough, foul mouthed, whiskey drinking, ornery hooligans.  Due to political correctness and changes in labor law they may have changed a bit over the years.

My father, Richard or Dick as he was known to his friends was a field superintendent with his Company Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company.  This Company moved natural gas via pipelines from Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to the Midwest selling it all up and down the line. As a supervisor Dick was involved with managing about a 100 mile section of 36” to 48” metal pipes buried underground transmitting gas at outrageous pressures.  If you look at the map you can see the pipelines as a couple of lines.  All up and down the line they were taking gas off, putting it on and putting pressure back on the line. 

Without going into all of the particulars this is dangerous work requiring skill and a great deal of communication.  In the 1960's company vehicles had two way radios, like the police.  They also used microwave communication to talk via a private phone system amongst themselves. Every morning all of the field supervisors would call in on some number.

They would have a party conversation, 20 to 30 people on the phone talking about what was going on, problems they had encountered,  situations that others could learn from, and probably some other stories that we would not have wanted to hear about.

My point is this in 1965 the visionary leaders of this Company saw a need, purpose and a benefit for their supervisors throughout the heartland of the country to communicate and share ideas and information with each other daily. They had the technology available to their company to facilitate this.

Fast forward 2011; communication has changed, and improved dramatically.  Many of us involved with SHRM as volunteer leaders at all levels have seen the value in this. Imagine having a tool where you could communicate with 500 other H.R. pros, by just making a comment about something on the internet. We are working on an effort to share information up and down the line (just like the pipeline) where different chapters, state councils or members can share information thought web-sites and blogs.  This effort is being coordinated by everybody’s friend Ben Eubanks from the UpstartHR blog.

For those of us in Illinois SHRM we applaud Ben for this effort and will do what we can to help and support him.  So let’s open up all those lines of communication from Alabama and Louisiana to Wisconsin and Ohio and share what we know with one and other.   Whether it is a way to help recruit or retain SHRM members or a new software application that can assist Human Resources, or a blog post sharing some great information – let’s share it with one and other.

Be watching for more posts and links back and forth between all of the chapters and state councils that are participating.

Dave Ryan - ISC SHRM Director of Social Media

About Me & About My ISC-SHRM Goals for the next 2 Years

Today, being the fifth day on the job as the new State Director for Illinois State Council of SHRM, I thought I would share a few words. No, really our social media director, @DaveTheHRCzar, gave me a little nudge. I have plenty of time to write for our blog site among the overwhelming list of “to do’s on my desk from paid jobs not to mention our upcoming state Leadership Conference this Monday. So, I will be brief!


First, I would like to share a little about my SHRM volunteer responsibilities over the years leading up to my current position on the state council. I joined our local chapter, CIC-SHRM, in the mid-90s and that’s about as clear as my memory gets. What I do know is that in 1997 I became active on the chapter board and joined SHRM in 1998 as a strongly encouraged requirement for being a board member. Before that I did not know anything about the national organization. In 2001, while still being involved in my chapter for another four years I joined the Illinois State Council and have been active ever since. Here is a rundown of the positions I have held in order but I can’t exactly remember the dates. Those 20 years in HR is starting to show!

CIC-SHRM

• Public Relations/Publicity Chair (newsletter)
• Legislative Director (started the first chapter Legislative Conference)
• Vice President/Programs Director
• President-Elect/SHRM Foundation Director
• President (2 year term)
• Outgoing President (finishing in 2005)
• Since then the Chapter Librarian

ISC-SHRM

• Conference Co-Chair (2 years representing my chapter with another state chapter)
• Conference Chair (they made it an official board position)
• Diversity Director
• Director-Elect/SHRM Foundation Director
• Now! Director

Second, I’d like to share a few goals that I would like our state council to achieve during my two year tenure as Director. I have to admit these goals are prior to my looking at the SHAPE plan. So I am sure it will grow. Also, this is prior to meeting with our core council board this weekend which may affect the finalized list and work plan as we move forward (so this is tentative but I don’t doubt I will get support from the board):

1. 100% Chapters signing the ESGR Statement of Support (http://www.esgr.org/);

2. Build SHRM Affiliate Chapters in the Southern part of the state (working on 3 already);

3. Increase awareness of ISC-SHRM & SHRM resources among all state legislators (with SHRMs help as one of the 10 states they plan to work with this year);

4. Reach 1000 attendees at our annual conference (in Aug at Drury Lane in Oakbrook);

5. Reach 100 attendees at our 1st Annual Legislative Conference (last year was our inaugural event);

6. 100% Chapter participation in the annual Chapter Basket Raffle Fundraiser at State Conference;

7. Develop a formal Succession Plan with the assistance of a Nomination Committee to be appointed;

8. Finalize and implement a formal strategic plan started at last year’s Leadership Core Planning meeting;

9. Finalize and implement an updated Website with the help of Carrie Gurski which was started last year; and

10. Analyze our financial situation and develop a backup plan to sustain our council and support our mission for a year or two in case our income is impacted (primarily our attendance at annual conference).

Finally, I just want to say thank you to all those I have met and worked with along the way and to those I will continue to work with on the board and in the chapters. I look forward to meeting all the HR leaders in the state because there are so many of you! I am humbled to serve you over the next couple years and want you to know that my virtual door is always open. Call or text me at 217-414-1297, email me at donna@rogershr.com, DM me on twitter @HRWarrior or Skype me at donnarogerssphr. I look forward to working with you!

Donna Rogers ISC State Director