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.

 

Trench HR in Illinois

I was recently reminded by a good friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, that many of us in the HR Blogosphere/Twittershere/LinkedInLand or Facebook live in the "echo chamber".  I hadn't heard that for a while but I think to some degree it is true.  But I also think there are a bunch of talented, caring, and insightful folks out here listening, learning, sharing and caring.

Many of those folks are in what Mr. Judy calls Trench HR.  Those are the folks that are fighting the fight everyday, They deal with FMLA, employee performance, workplace safety -et. al.   To stay informed and up to date, they also dabble in the social media, conference, networking realm.  This is a good thing, because we need good people representing the HR trade.

This morning as I had my coffee, I was looking through my Sunday paper and saw this piece in the Springfield State Journal Register.

You may have to double-click on the article above to see it clearly, it but the piece references three local HR pros. They are Nikki Baker, Amy Byers and Donna Rogers.  They are all three from Springfield. They are all three SHRM members. They all three have served on the board of their local SHRM chapter. And two to the three have served on the Illinois State Council of SHRM.  Oh and they all have day jobs too! That is what the matter is about. 

If you can read the piece about Nikki you will see she is breaking the mold. She is moving from HR leader to business leader. That means she is going from HR to Operations, WOW how refreshing is that.  Within their organization Amy Byers is back filling Nikki's job.  Amy too, served her local chapter and has been the treasurer for the Illinois State Council of SHRM for a long time.

The last person I want to mention here is "the boss,"  Donna Rogers.  Donna not only is she the State Director of Illinois, she also teaches  Human Resources full time at UIS, she actively works as an HR Consultant, to stay close to the field and understand it challenges, she is a mother and a wife as well - a busy girl.

So this is just my way of saluting these ladies, thanking them for what they do and congratulating them upon their recent achievements.  Keep it up, we need more Trenchers out here covering all of the bases - every day!

-Dave Ryan Director of Social Media ISC SHRM