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.

The Pilgrimage to SHRMLead

While I did not see any turkey’s on this Pilgrimage it was one that I will remember for a lifetime.  If you were from any other state than Illinois at the annual SHRM Leadership Conference in National Harbor, MD last week you would have seen the sea of red shirts and thought it was a “wow-look at the masses that made the trip (Pilgrimage) from half way across the country too. Again this year (3^rd in a row) all attendees from the ILSHRM board and chapter board members were offered a red shirt to wear for two reason: 1) Take a group photo and 2) show our team/state spirit.  The latter was the more important of the two because no one felt alone.  They had others to turn to and felt included which is extremely important to me as a leader in this state.  In the “Strengths Finder” assessment one of my top five is “INCLUDER” and if this is the only legacy I leave for my time in a leadership role, I am ecstatic, because when I was a chapter leader, I had no idea what the State Council was let alone the massive amount of energy you feel at an event like #SHRMLead.

The ILSHRM Red Shirt brigade.

The red shirts, however, was not the thing that impressed me at all.  I was impressed by almost 40 individuals who gave up part of their week at work and with family to attend this event.  We had a little over 30 people who attended our now traditional Thursday night networking dinner.  

ILSHRM Networking Dinner

Here we introduce ourselves because often we communicate across the state via email but never have a chance to meet people in person (F2F or IRL).  Have a to a name means all the difference and for some who commit to multi-year roles they will see each other again at this conference and hopefully the ILSHRM leadership conference in January.  Having attended this conference now for twelve years as a chapter then state council I have had the opportunity to bond and long term relationships with people all over state as well as the country and with SHRM staff.

The ILSHRM gang ready to hit The Hill

While this pilgrimage was impressive, the most moving for me was the amount of representation Illinois had on Capitol Hill this year.  When I first started attending the SHRM A Team hill visits about five years ago, first at SHRM Leadership and at the annual SHRM Legislative Conference, we consistently had no more than a handful of visitors.  However, in the past few years the number of representatives has increased to the point that it put tears in my eyes as I looked around the room. 

This is the time for Thanksgiving and while I am definitely looking forward to passing the gavel, I cannot tell you how deeply thankful and humble I am to have had the opportunity to serve such a dedicated group of individuals who put their profession at the forefront and HaveAVoice for all those in our state.  It has been a fantastic honor and I know the future is in good hands with Cathy Plouzek and Connie Wolgemuth at the helm.

Donna, Cathy and Connie (L to R)

Happy Holidays to all and if you’re an HR pro in this great state, please join me in thanking those who attended this conference and the hill visit to make a difference for each of us on the job back home!  ILSHRM & SHRM Chapter Volunteers ROCK!

Donna Rogers Chair - ISC SHRM

SHRMLead from Student's Perspective

Guest Post  by McKenzie Cunningham, UIS HR Student

Last weekend was SHRM’s Leadership Regional Summit in Dallas, Texas.  My professor, Donna Rogers, whom is ILSHRM Director attended.  This conference is primarily attended by state council directors and director elects.  This year there were 48 out of the 50 states represented. 

The experience of following a live twitter stream was not an easy task because sometimes I did not know what was going on. 

The purpose is to attend and get advice from one another and SHRM staff on how to lead a group of volunteers such as a state council or chapter.  They also learned about Social Media’s impact on volunteer management, event planning, and general communications.   Scott Ferrin and Linda Besse are just a couple who shared some interesting tweets during the conference.  

For Example:

“Social media branding:  it’s like growing your own flowers organically (Scott ferrin (@i_am_swc_SHRM) on Twitter)”.  My takeaway from this tweet is when it comes to HR and social media you can pick and choose every aspect of the company you work for by picking the right people to work with you or even how the company is perceived by your customers.   

“Policy vs. Parameters” Parameters give you room to move (Linda Besse (@linda44342) on Twitter) I found this comment by Linda Besse very interesting and true.  When it comes to HR policies they have to be followed very carefully and there is no wiggle room.  When you are a Human Resource professional you are in charge of a lot of people besides yourself.  There are many laws and regulations that are passed from state to state and SHRM is a great support system and a great way to learn from others in your field. 

I am new to twitter, so this has been a real experience for me to follow the #shrmlead stream.  If you are interested in following the tweets for this event click here:  #shrmlead.  This will be the same hashtag used for the upcoming annual SHRM Leadership Conference in DC this November.  One interest sting tweet from Curtis Midkiff @SHRMSocMedGuy was this video you might want to check out titled: Our #SHRM volunteer leaders let us know how they really Feel About HR at #SHRMLead

I am currently a student member of SHRM and think it is an amazing organization that really helps people in the Human Resource field by explaining policies and talking about new bills that are trying to be passed that will affect their jobs.  Also,  one of the biggest ways I think that SHRM helps the Human Resource professionals is that it gives tremendous support to everyone involved.  If you would like to learn more about local state SHRM initiatives click here: Illinois State Council of SHRM.  One of the things that SHRM also does that I found very interesting was they all pass out Meet Meme cards.  I find this a very interesting way to network and break the ice.  At this particular meeting they used the cards pictured here to encourage networking and win prizes.