Illinois SHRM Leadership 2014

Drury Lane - Home of the ILSHRM Conference

Tomorrow I am headed for a meeting in Northern Illinois - Tinley Park to be more specific. It is a meeting of the Illinois SHRM board and officials from, all of the SHRM chapters, within the state.  We are coming together to plan for 2014, discuss agendas, see how we can support one and other as well as (the old SHRM stand-by here)  advance the profession, and listen to Pam Green speak. Why?  Why do people who will attend this event do this?  While it is almost a rhetorical question I know a lot of people, many very smart people who simply just don’t get it, and I am really hard pressed to explain it to them.  I have  been questioned about this by bosses, relatives, spouses, neighbors and the list goes on.

In addition to the things mentioned above there are two things that most of us get on a personal level, that being networking and kindling friendships.   I must say that over the years I have come to consider many of my friends who are active within the community to be my very good friends, so my much so that  I know about their families, their outside interests (other than SHRM) and  who they area as a person.

As part of the ILSHRM  group,  two or three times a year we get together, attend some meetings, support our profession,  put together a conference or two, create and get some HRCI credits and really and truly enjoy ourselves immersed in our own little world of HR.  Those outside of the cult are left with bewilderment.  Perhaps that’s how it is supposed to be, for if they knew how much fun we have discussing employee engagement or emotional intelligence they would all want to come and crash our party.

So to all of my ILSHMies, old and new I am looking forward to seeing you, being with you and doing our cult thing!  ILSHRM Rock-on!

- Dave Ryan 

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).

Changing of the SHRM MAC Guard

We have been a little quite over here at the ILSHRM blogging desk.  After getting our 2013 conference behinds us, many of had to put our nose to the grind stone and get back to doing those things that facilitate our volunteer efforts (our day jobs). The conference season is about wrapped up for 2013 and the folks in Alexandra on Duke Street are getting ready to close one chapter and open another.

The annual SHRM Leadership Conference is right around the corner. Traditionally, this is where year end awards are given and a figurative bow is put on the year, just as plans for the next year are announced.  Sadly, I will not be in attendance for this years event, although I have been able to attend more than my fair share of SHRM Leadership events.   The word on the street is that those who are allowed to attend may be changing.  We will have to see how this plays out.

Donna Rogers, MEd., SPHR

Another change that is taking place is some (perhaps all) of the MAC reps for SHRM will be moving on, turning in their jerseys. I am not sure about the status of all of the MAC reps, but I am aware of our own North Central Region.  Illinois' own Donna Rogers will have completed her one year term on the board.  We were proud to have her represent our region.  While we were not privy to all of their work I personally know that Donna poured her heart and soul into this effort and did all that she could to improve the process.  MAC reps are about as close as most of us SHRMies will get to the big guys.  So Kudos to Donna for a great job and making those of us from the Mid-West proud. Thus, I can safely say that Donna has set the bar high for the incoming North Central Region MAC rep.

Steve Browne (from his
twitter profile)

That person who will follow Donna is an enigma in Human Resources and here in the North Central Region. If you are active in this space you probably already know this.  Steve Browne a.k.a. @sbrownehr will be the new MAC rep from our region. I have no doubt that Steve will follow in Donna's path of challenging the powers that be and pushing for change and improvement. He's is not a bad guy, in fact he a great guy. He is just wired to push the envelope.

So from all of your friends (and there are a bunch of us) here in Illinois, we wish you the very best in your next endeavor with SHRM.  - Peace!!

- Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM