Legislative Conference # 3

The Illinois SHRM Group attending ILSHRM Lobby Day 3-27-12

Have you ever attended The First Annual ... fill in the blank here.  I always wonder will there be a 3rd, 4th or 14th for that matter, annual event of the same name - or will it die a quick ugly death because those who started out were not committed enough to the cause to make the event continue.    Well it would appear that some committed folks at Illinois SHRM (Donna Rogers and Tammy Ireland primarily with an honorable mention to John Jorgensen)  have kept the Annual State Legislative Conference alive and moving forward.

Today I attended our third annual event in Springfield. While it did not have the number of attendees that the SHRM National Legislative Event does, we did have 30 people who were in attendance and committed to the cause of having SHRM have a larger legislative presence at the state level.  We started off our day by hearing from a triumvirate of lawyers from the Springfield Firm of Brown Hay & Stephens.  Thanks to Roland Cross, Stephanie Radliff and Kelly Greco for their informative presentations. We then heard from our own hired gun lobbyist Terry Stezco.  Terry spoke to the group and explained the need for and the how to develop a relationship with our legislative representatives.  Terry is going to lobby on our behalf as the needs present themselves, and he is also going to help us position our organization to better advocate for our causes.

David Lusk and Donna Rogers mugging for the camera.

And speaking of advocacy, after lunch we heard from the SHRM A-Team,  with "A" standing for Advocacy. The program is continuing to grow. David Lusk (pictured right) from SHRM National earned his lunch and provided the group with some great reasons to become more involved with the advocacy efforts.  David spoke for about 45 immediately prior to sending the gang off to the Illinois State House.

A group of about 20 walked several block down to the Illinois Capitol with a plan to at least meet and greet their elected representative. What we found out when we arrived was that the Capitol was a busy place.  This week was deadline for bills out of their house of origin.  Some of us met our representatives and senators, while other just took in the process. It is a beginning. We have a long ways to go, but we are on our way.

Thanks to all who attended.

-Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM

The Main Event

Amy Dilman

When I was a little girl, my parents took me to see the circus. Now if I recall, it wasn’t a Ringling Bros. event, but it had the usual characters of elephants, tigers and bears (oh my! – come on, you know you just said it too), acrobats flying through the air and clowns coming out of little cars. It could have been all too overwhelming if it wasn’t for this guy in a tall top hat and red coat, the Ringmaster. Called the Monsieur Loyal, if you prefer, he captured my attention and that of the rest of the audience by telling stories of daring feats, introducing the next great acts and essentially guiding us through the show.

Now, animals and acrobats of a different kind, but still with its share of clowns, we witness the circus every day. The one we like to call HR. Sure, why not?

Charlie accepting his ILSHRM polo from
 State Director Donna Rogers

If HR is my circus, then the Illinois SHRM State Conference is an exhilarating, awe-inspiring three-ring circus. And the admirable Charlie Judy is the ringleader of this year’s show. Who else but Charlie has the chops to guide us through this event? Charlie Judy is one of those guys that ran to the shit jobs (his words). In his first 10 years of all things HR, he moved six times, most of the time to a different state, twice to different country. See what I mean? Circus.

During that time, he admitted he never took the time to connect to a local professional organization, but he was member of SHRM and had SPHR. Charlie’s tour stopped in St. Louis in 2005, and he started to connect to the HR crowd and network during that time. Just as he was getting back into it, yep, he moved again. But thankfully for IL-SHRM, Charlie has settled in Chicago and knows the importance of community – in work and in networking. He says the local chapters provide something you just can’t get from the national conferences, nor from the social stratosphere.

Charlie was last year’s ringleader at IL-SHRM. Yeah, it was cool, but he also tells me he took the role seriously. Something about having consistency. He knows attendees are bombarded with information and so it’s nice to have a person to smooth it all out. Just like last year, Charlie hopes to get people focused on what they want to accomplish. He wants to answer the questions, “Why are we gathered here? And, what should be achieved in the next couple of days?”

The 2012 Illinois State SHRM Conference, as spoken by ringleader, Charlie, is going to grant access to some of the best minds in this business right now. Social media has allowed us to uncover some really great minds, but there will be more at IL-SHRM 2012. The speakers are making a difference every day. They are the thought-makers. They aren’t afraid to challenge you. IL-SHRM 2012 has people that are asking us to look at things differently…. I can see Charlie in a tall top hat now.

So, won’t you join us for the main event? Charlie will lead the way.

  

Charlie Judy is Founder, Writer and Editor at HR Fishbowl. You can find out more about this ringleader at  http://hrfishbowl.com. 

Amy Dillman is a contributing writer to the Il-SHRM blog and President of her localchapter, CiHRG. She recently spoke with Charlie and is looking forward to seeing him on stage at IL-SHRM 2012. You can connect with Amy on Twitter as @RhumbarFan and on LinkedIn. 

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.