SHRM VLS 2015 - Continued

Yesterday I posted about attending the SHRM Volunteer Leaders’ Summit (#SHRMLead) and talked about the Pinnacle Awards.  And while the Pinnacle awards are a big part of the event, there is another aspect of the event that continues to take place year after year.  I am going to call it SHRM Lobby Day.  Every Thursday morning on the week of the event the SHRM ATeam  (Mike Aitken and his most capable staff) very quickly turn HR pros into amateur lobbyist. 

SHRM trains and equips these folks for a trip to Capitol Hill, to talk to their Senators and Representative and provide them with SHRMs position on the Legislation d’jour.  Every time I have ever attended I share’s SHRM’s position on these issues to a tea.  What this does is it not only allows the HR pro to articulate SHRM position on the matter, but they can then embellish that position with stories from their state or HR shop – adding to SHRM’s credibility as the go to source on HR matters. I am convinced this impacts our legislators.

I have had the pleasure of making this trip six times.  Five times were as a part of the SHRM Leadership event and I attended once as part of the SHRM Legislative Conference.

The trips are empowering and make HR pros feel like you actually can have an impact on the going ons in Washington DC.   So if you are afforded the chance to go to Capitol Hill … do it, the experience will be most enriching.

Now for a different prospective on the event I want to share/recycle an older blog post written by someone I think very highly of, my son Danny Ryan.  Danny got to hang out with his dad for a couple of days at the event in 2012, and see what it really goes on at the event.  So for a different prospective on the event, please click through and check out this post called On Vacation at SHRM Leadership.

SHRM VLS 2015

I don’t know how many times I have written this post, and I don’t really care to go count them, but this week is the annual SHRM Volunteer Leaders’ Summit (VLS).  Previously this event has been known as SHRM Leadership (and the twitter hashtag remains #SHRMLead).  I have attended this event in many different capacities. And each time as I attended I felt a different set of responsibilities with my attendance.  This year I somehow feel like I am carrying a larger load, although I am proud to do so and it is of my own choosing.

To the best of my recollection the first SHRM Leadership I attend was when Johnny Taylor (2005-2006) was Board Chair. Mr. Taylor was quite an engaging fellow, and was very passionate about HR’s role in the workplace. He pumped me up and made me a proud SHRMie. I was also introduced to the Pinnacle Awards at my first Leadership Conference.  I recall being so moved.  The work these HR pros had done and continued to do brought tears to my eyes. They were amazing! I knew then I wanted more of that – whatever that was.

Today I have gotten more, a lot more. Ten years after my first leadership conference I was asked to be a one of the judges for the Pinnacle awards for 2015.   I was truly humbled, and accepted without question.   This meant I got to read about all of the work that fellow HR people were doing out in their world.  Upon completing my review of the submission, I was reminded of how awe inspiring these activates truly are. Most of the submission came in the areas of workforce readiness, assisting veterans and generally helping people better themselves for their jobs, their work or the task of finding work.

The part that resonates so with me is this.  Nobody told these people, to do this or how to go about it.  There were no specific templates to follow.   These HR pros in their chapter, saw a need and took the bull by the horns and with tremendous tenacity and grit they tackled these issues, in ways that worked in their communities.

So when the awards are handed out, sadly not every chapter will get an award, but this in no way diminished what they have done.  They are all winners as I see it because they had the guts to take on some tough problems.  If you do not know about the Pinnacle Awards I suggest you Google them and learn a little more, so when the awards are handed out, you really understand why the winners cry, scream, shout, jump and down and hug anyone within reach – because no matter what they have done, to even be considered for this award is nothing short of amazing!

Let’s connect in Washington DC

-       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