Convention closeout....

Well, it is the end of convention. As a Capital's President and delegate to this year's IAAP Convention, I must say it has been a tremendous learning experience and an honor to represent our 80+ members.

Before I review some of the events from yesterday, I wanted to share some thoughts from the Leadership Session I attended this morning. I will share more details in a separate post regarding yesterday's events. Dr. Cal LeMon presented the session titled, "Leadership Responses to Moving the Furniture."

He had two points that really struck a chord with me, both as an IAAP Member and as President of Capital Chapter. The first question that caught me was, " What would you (a chapter) do if you could make decisions without having to consider politics, time or cost (and I am paraphrasing here). The second question that made me kind of gasp was... What (is it that )everyone in our chapter (has) learned is acceptable, but is unproductive (to the mission, vision or success) of the chapter.

Underlying discussion really seemed to address what is impolitely called "Deadweights" or "Resume" members. And, is it really the members fault?

Let me explain or provide an example from Capital.

Every chapter, including ours, has the issue of having WAY more members on their roster than those that actually attend functions. Over the last four (4) years, Capital's leadership has tried different approaches, programs and themes to try and encourage attendance and additional involvement from our membership. But.. are we being successful?

Chapter members BJ Parrish and Brigitte Tapp along with others have developed interesting fundraising programs as well as brown bag topics to "switch things up a bit." It's disconcerting to leadership in the chapter to have 80+ members and still wonder why we are only getting 25-30 or as low as 10-20 chapter members to attend functions.

While pondering all this, I decided to make a list of all the good things we offer as a chapter (and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.)

1. We offer a year-round CPS/CAP Certification Study group.
2. The calendar of events is rotated to accommodate chapter member's needs for alternate nights.
3. The chapter began offering a luncheon brown bag session to those chapter members that cannot attend evening functions
4. The chapter began offering more networking and happy hour opportunities
5. We have an active website and blog
6. We publish a newsletter at least 3 per year.
7. We actively pursue Associate members and provide recognition of their contributions to our chapter
8. The chapter website has a job board
9. The chapter is well represented by both genders
10 We offer quality programs ..including Fall education conference , Administrative Professional's Week events and the Executive's Breakfast.
11. We enter the annual Avery Awards Winner contest at Headquarters.

Cal's comment about member's not attending because they are not being rewarded - well, that comment is a concern. Maybe I am naive, but I don't think it is what is keeping our members away. I think it is complacency.

Complacency is deadly to a chapter.. almost as deadly as gossip. And I fear our chapter has a large pocket of complacency hanging out. It becomes the job of the leadership you have elected and the extended board to address and right this issue.

When the extended board meets to do our strategic planning retreat in about a week, this issue will move to the front. What can we do to shake things up.. and get folks to attend, participate and really want to be involved in IAAP and our chapter.

Many of you know that one of my favorite movies is Shawshank Redemption. My favorite character quote from that movie is from character, Red. Red is a lifer.. but gets parole after doing time for many many years. When he gets out of prison, he has a terrible time adjusting to the outside world. His best friend from prison, Andy Duefresne had asked him if he ever, ever had a chance to get out of prison to come see him in Mexico, and Red is not sure that is ever possible. But the last lifer that had been released from Shawshank had not made it.. he had killed himself because he could not change and would not risk changing. Red thinks about committing a crime just so he can go back to what he knows. He even thinks about killing himself. But suddenly, he sees the note carved into the ceiling of the apartment where the last released convict had been. It stated, Brooks was here.
All at once, Red decides he had better choose to-"Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying". He chooses to live and take the risk of living.

Now, I realize IAAP is not worth living or dying over.. and..of course, this is a dramatic and exaggerated point to make. But I ask, each and everyone of you to think about what your contribution is to IAAP, what are you giving back to the younger professionals coming up, what example are you setting? What's your motivation for joining? Do you have suggestions? are you interested in growing, learning or what?

just some food for thought.. .more to follow later today.
Regards, K. Foley