I think I've said this before - I am blessed with a leadership team that genuinely likes each other. I've spoken with people from other chapters who say things like, "we hate our President" or "our board meetings often are shouting matches!" I find this troubling for an organization made up of volunteers.
I wear everything out on my sleeves - my emotions, my family life, my religion, everything. My board knows things about me that maybe they shouldn't, but that's just who I am. I find today, that there are people on my board whom I know very little about.
I got an e-mail today from a co-worker of our Chapter Secretary. She has had a "medical emergency," his words, and will be out of commission for 3-4 weeks. I immediately called him & asked for more information; he doesn't have any more than that & the fact that this lady's son & daughter are in town helping her. He speculated that she may have slipped & fallen on some ice. We had a terrible ice storm last week that have left much of our fair city treacherously slick.
I mentioned to this gentleman how private a person the Secretary is & he agreed. I doubt we have any more information from her than we have now until she returns to action. But should we? I mean, our personal lives are our own, right? She has the right to keep information from us, but I sure wish she wouldn't! Maybe I'm being too nosy, but I'd like to help her if I can, but I can't if I don't know what's going on!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Diversity Part 2
What should the message about diversity be? I mean, we need to recruit some leaders, because we currently have basically myself & the 1st VP & then a bunch of Board members who don't want to step up into VP & Presidency, or have already done so. A quick look indicates we have 4 Board members whose terms expire with this fiscal year. One cannot be renewed because her job prevents her from attending ANY meetings. Another is a past president, but I wouldn't mind seeing him replaced. The other 2 should be reupped without discussion.
We have 2 committee chairs with Board experience. One filled my seat when I stepped up to 2nd VP last year. The other is doing great work with her committee. She might be considered officer material, but some would resist that & I suspect she will as well. We have to find someone to step up to 2nd VP because I doubt the person in that office now will continue into next FY.
Enough on that, although there should be a plug for leadership opportunities in the message somewhere. I joined CSI for 2 reasons - meet product reps & learn more about construction. I've done both. The exciting thing about Baltimore CSI, as opposed to some other chapters, is we are roughly equal in industry & professional members who regularly attend. By percentage of membership, we are heavily weighted to professional members - 136 to 48. That is a huge statistic to recruit new industry members. However, we seem to be missing the constructor boat. I can't think of many contractors that are members who regularly attend. Statistically, we have a dozen or so members that list their occupation as something like CM, contractor or subcontractor. That's way too small.
Maybe, we've conquered the age diversity, gender diversity & to a certain extent race & religion diversity. Let's target occupational diversity. Call a contractor, developer or CM & invite them to a meeting.
We have 2 committee chairs with Board experience. One filled my seat when I stepped up to 2nd VP last year. The other is doing great work with her committee. She might be considered officer material, but some would resist that & I suspect she will as well. We have to find someone to step up to 2nd VP because I doubt the person in that office now will continue into next FY.
Enough on that, although there should be a plug for leadership opportunities in the message somewhere. I joined CSI for 2 reasons - meet product reps & learn more about construction. I've done both. The exciting thing about Baltimore CSI, as opposed to some other chapters, is we are roughly equal in industry & professional members who regularly attend. By percentage of membership, we are heavily weighted to professional members - 136 to 48. That is a huge statistic to recruit new industry members. However, we seem to be missing the constructor boat. I can't think of many contractors that are members who regularly attend. Statistically, we have a dozen or so members that list their occupation as something like CM, contractor or subcontractor. That's way too small.
Maybe, we've conquered the age diversity, gender diversity & to a certain extent race & religion diversity. Let's target occupational diversity. Call a contractor, developer or CM & invite them to a meeting.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Head Start on Dec
My presidency has been marked by a mad dash to make the "President's Message" shoot out quickly so the newsletter can be sent out before the next meeting. I'm trying to break that by getting a head start this month.
Had a couple of conversations with various people at Region Conference that centered around diversity. One person bemoaned the amount of "gray hair" that attends most of the Region & Institute events. I told her its most likely because its very expensive to travel & younger people have neither the time (away from families) or the money to do it. She wasn't buying. To her, CSI is an aging organization. I pointed out to her that I am Chapter President at 36 & our Board has several members around that same age.
Another presenter of 1 thing or another talked about the diversity in CSI membership & how the richness of our organization grows out of that diversity. We have many types of diversity at work - gender, age (old & young), race, backgrounds (education, trades, skills, areas of our country), type of work we do (design, engineering, building, sales) and religion (our chapter has Catholics, Protestants, Jews).
There's a President's Message there somewhere! I need to keep it down to one page this month!
Had a couple of conversations with various people at Region Conference that centered around diversity. One person bemoaned the amount of "gray hair" that attends most of the Region & Institute events. I told her its most likely because its very expensive to travel & younger people have neither the time (away from families) or the money to do it. She wasn't buying. To her, CSI is an aging organization. I pointed out to her that I am Chapter President at 36 & our Board has several members around that same age.
Another presenter of 1 thing or another talked about the diversity in CSI membership & how the richness of our organization grows out of that diversity. We have many types of diversity at work - gender, age (old & young), race, backgrounds (education, trades, skills, areas of our country), type of work we do (design, engineering, building, sales) and religion (our chapter has Catholics, Protestants, Jews).
There's a President's Message there somewhere! I need to keep it down to one page this month!
Monday, October 30, 2006
Inputs & Outputs #3
Here's #3:
At the recent Middle Atlantic Region Conference, our junior Institute Director, recommended a book for us to read. It helped him to understand governance issues associated with a non-profit such as CSI. The book was written by Jim Collins, a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Collins currently operates his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that business model into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into success in the social sectors. Many corporate CEO's leave their positions to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. In 1995, William J. Bratton took over as commissioner & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the department assessed itself based on input variables such as arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, budgets met rather than the output variable of reducing crime. Bratton set huge goals to reduce crime by double digits & replaced division commanders until he found a group who could meet the goal, not just provide the input variables.
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What are our output variables? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
In other words, what does Baltimore Chapter CSI do best? Back in the summer, I put a similar question to our Board. Many came back with education. Looking back on my years in this chapter, education is clearly something that we do well. How can we do this better? Scott Sider & our Education Committee do a fantastic job with the Winter Seminars to prepare candidates for the Certification Exams in the spring. Our Programs Committee is working hard to bring good educational opportunities to our monthly meetings. What can we do better? Your ideas are always appreciated.
As a Chapter, what should we be doing better? Are there things that our members need from the Chapter that we aren't providing? Your ideas here are also appreciated.
At the recent Middle Atlantic Region Conference, our junior Institute Director, recommended a book for us to read. It helped him to understand governance issues associated with a non-profit such as CSI. The book was written by Jim Collins, a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Collins currently operates his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that business model into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into success in the social sectors. Many corporate CEO's leave their positions to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. In 1995, William J. Bratton took over as commissioner & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the department assessed itself based on input variables such as arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, budgets met rather than the output variable of reducing crime. Bratton set huge goals to reduce crime by double digits & replaced division commanders until he found a group who could meet the goal, not just provide the input variables.
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What are our output variables? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
In other words, what does Baltimore Chapter CSI do best? Back in the summer, I put a similar question to our Board. Many came back with education. Looking back on my years in this chapter, education is clearly something that we do well. How can we do this better? Scott Sider & our Education Committee do a fantastic job with the Winter Seminars to prepare candidates for the Certification Exams in the spring. Our Programs Committee is working hard to bring good educational opportunities to our monthly meetings. What can we do better? Your ideas are always appreciated.
As a Chapter, what should we be doing better? Are there things that our members need from the Chapter that we aren't providing? Your ideas here are also appreciated.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Inputs & Outputs No. 2
Here's part 2:
At the recent Middle Atlantic Region Conference, our junior Institute Director, recommended a book for us to read. It helped him to understand governance issues associated with a non-profit such as CSI. The book was written by Jim Collins, a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Collins currently operates his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that thinking into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into success in the social sectors. Many corporate CEO's leave their positions to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not usually as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. A new commissioner took over & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the inputs were arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, etc. These lead the measured outputs to be other than the stated goal of reduction in crime. (EXPAND THIS PP)
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What should our outputs be? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
Something like that - I still need to expand the one paragraph, but that means more reading!
At the recent Middle Atlantic Region Conference, our junior Institute Director, recommended a book for us to read. It helped him to understand governance issues associated with a non-profit such as CSI. The book was written by Jim Collins, a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Collins currently operates his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that thinking into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into success in the social sectors. Many corporate CEO's leave their positions to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not usually as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. A new commissioner took over & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the inputs were arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, etc. These lead the measured outputs to be other than the stated goal of reduction in crime. (EXPAND THIS PP)
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What should our outputs be? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
Something like that - I still need to expand the one paragraph, but that means more reading!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Inputs & Outputs
I'm working up a President's Message for the month. Its past due, so I've got to get on it. My canned one had to be used last month. I need to stay ahead of the curve, but its hard to come up with something good to say, that's worth reading. Maybe I need to read more....
Jim Collins is a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business & currently owns his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that thinking into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." This was recommended to us at Region Conference by our esteemed junior Region Director. I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into the social sectors. Many CEO's leave their corporations to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not usually as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. A new commissioner took over & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the inputs were arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, etc. These lead the measured outputs to be other than the stated goal of reduction in crime. (EXPAND THIS PP)
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What should our outputs be? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
This is a rough start for now.
Jim Collins is a former professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business & currently owns his own management research laboratory in Boulder, CO. He wrote Good To Great about what makes a good business become great. He adapted that thinking into a smaller pamphlet called "Good To Great and the Social Sectors." This was recommended to us at Region Conference by our esteemed junior Region Director. I've been reading it & find it fascinating.
Social sectors are defined as entities that serve a purpose other than making money. Police departments, hospitals, museums, orchestras, non-profits all fit this definition. Mr. Collins chose to look into social sectors out of his observations that success in business is not automatically translated into the social sectors. Many CEO's leave their corporations to pursue work in the social sectors & many do not succeed. There are a number of reasons for this that the pamphlet touches on.
One of the first lessons involves the idea of inputs versus outputs. In business, capital goes into the business as an input and the outputs can be easily measured as revenue generated per dollar invested. In the social sectors, the inputs are usually easily identified but the outputs are not usually as easily quantified. An example is the NYC Police Department. A new commissioner took over & wanted the department returned to police work, not just report taking. Under the old model, the inputs were arrests made, cases closed, reports taken, etc. These lead the measured outputs to be other than the stated goal of reduction in crime. (EXPAND THIS PP)
This caused me to begin to think about my first 5 months as President of Baltimore CSI. I have been more focused on the inputs of what it takes to make the measured outputs be more members, more members in attendance at our meetings, etc. Mr. Collins is causing me to re-think this stance. What should our outputs be? I think if we re-think what we want our outputs to be, the result will be more members and more active members.
This is a rough start for now.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Back from Region Conference
This fical year's Middle Atlantic Region Conference was a bi-region conference with South East Region & was Building Diplomacy 2006 in Washington DC. Arlington, VA actually, but who's counting. Had a great time & brought back much for the chapter & our Board.
1. Institute has commissioned a study to look at the hiring of the new executive director, branding & governance. The Institute Board is looking at how to make governance more efficient. According to our esteemed junior Region Director, our Institute Board is 20 with an ex-comm of 9. Most similar organizations govern with a 6-8 member board.
2. There is a search firm & nominations committee attempting to bring 2 candidates for executive director to the November Institute Board Meeting.
3. The Board signed an agreement with Arcom over royalties on Masterspec. For new licensees, mention you are a member & the Institute will get the royalties.
4. The Chapter Leaders form is due to the Institute on 4/30/2007. This means we need to do nominations in February & hold elections in March so that we can announce the new Board & officers at the April meeting.
5. The Insitute is starting a database of architecture, engineering & construction management programs around the country to assist in Chapters in contacting schools for possible student chapters.
6. The student events at the National Convention need sponsors, mentors & other help.
7. Apparently, there is new "technical stuff" coming down the pike & the Region is without Technical Chair or committee. We're without committee as well.
a. www.masterformat.com is up & running.
b. Omniclass v1.0 is about to be released.
c. National Building Information Model Standard (NBIMS)
d. Section & Page Formats are being updated
e. National CAD Standard v4 is in the works.
f. We have a grant from NCEMBT to write standard terminology for Construction Documents.
g. There is a Sustainable Facilities Task Team developing GreenFormat.
h. A former Institute President & member of our chapter is heading the Uniformat Update Task Team.
8. LOS will be 4/20 & 4/21/2007 at the brand new hotel in Gettysburg. Its only about 20 miles further north from Frederick & apparently a MUCH nicer venue. Hopefully, we can increase our attendance. I hope some folks like SC, TC & JH had fun this weekend & will go to LOS & get some others to go as well.
9. Our junior Institute Director made a big deal about the Institute's Education Foundation. The Institute is hoping to hire a grant writer, but the first thing potential grant funding organizations ask is the level of support this foundation gets from membership. Its low right now. Our chapter should probably step up & give some money to it.
10. Our convention seems to be titled Engineering the Future of Design & Construction. The dates are 6/20 thru 6/22/2007. Currently, the show is 85% sold. They'll be including a leadership track in the education programs as a way to fold CSIUniversity into the convention.
11. Webinars are being held every Tuesday from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. Our chapter should probably look at hosting a couple of them.
12. Membership campaign has some cool prizes.
13. Pittsburgh budgets a pot of money for travel events & then divides the pot evenly amongst all the members who attend & ARE NOT reimbursed by their companies. However, they take roll at the Region Business Meeting to ensure that only those who attend that meeting get the money.
14. Our Institute Directors may be calling for help with inactive chapters. I saw our Region President after the banquet & offered some assistance with Delaware.
15. I offered manpower to the Chair of the FY2008 Bi-Region Conference.
That's pretty much it. I'll need to type something up for SS to put in our newsletter.
1. Institute has commissioned a study to look at the hiring of the new executive director, branding & governance. The Institute Board is looking at how to make governance more efficient. According to our esteemed junior Region Director, our Institute Board is 20 with an ex-comm of 9. Most similar organizations govern with a 6-8 member board.
2. There is a search firm & nominations committee attempting to bring 2 candidates for executive director to the November Institute Board Meeting.
3. The Board signed an agreement with Arcom over royalties on Masterspec. For new licensees, mention you are a member & the Institute will get the royalties.
4. The Chapter Leaders form is due to the Institute on 4/30/2007. This means we need to do nominations in February & hold elections in March so that we can announce the new Board & officers at the April meeting.
5. The Insitute is starting a database of architecture, engineering & construction management programs around the country to assist in Chapters in contacting schools for possible student chapters.
6. The student events at the National Convention need sponsors, mentors & other help.
7. Apparently, there is new "technical stuff" coming down the pike & the Region is without Technical Chair or committee. We're without committee as well.
a. www.masterformat.com is up & running.
b. Omniclass v1.0 is about to be released.
c. National Building Information Model Standard (NBIMS)
d. Section & Page Formats are being updated
e. National CAD Standard v4 is in the works.
f. We have a grant from NCEMBT to write standard terminology for Construction Documents.
g. There is a Sustainable Facilities Task Team developing GreenFormat.
h. A former Institute President & member of our chapter is heading the Uniformat Update Task Team.
8. LOS will be 4/20 & 4/21/2007 at the brand new hotel in Gettysburg. Its only about 20 miles further north from Frederick & apparently a MUCH nicer venue. Hopefully, we can increase our attendance. I hope some folks like SC, TC & JH had fun this weekend & will go to LOS & get some others to go as well.
9. Our junior Institute Director made a big deal about the Institute's Education Foundation. The Institute is hoping to hire a grant writer, but the first thing potential grant funding organizations ask is the level of support this foundation gets from membership. Its low right now. Our chapter should probably step up & give some money to it.
10. Our convention seems to be titled Engineering the Future of Design & Construction. The dates are 6/20 thru 6/22/2007. Currently, the show is 85% sold. They'll be including a leadership track in the education programs as a way to fold CSIUniversity into the convention.
11. Webinars are being held every Tuesday from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. Our chapter should probably look at hosting a couple of them.
12. Membership campaign has some cool prizes.
13. Pittsburgh budgets a pot of money for travel events & then divides the pot evenly amongst all the members who attend & ARE NOT reimbursed by their companies. However, they take roll at the Region Business Meeting to ensure that only those who attend that meeting get the money.
14. Our Institute Directors may be calling for help with inactive chapters. I saw our Region President after the banquet & offered some assistance with Delaware.
15. I offered manpower to the Chair of the FY2008 Bi-Region Conference.
That's pretty much it. I'll need to type something up for SS to put in our newsletter.
Friday, July 14, 2006
First Meeting 7/13
Its been a long time since I posted here, but its been a little busy around the house.
Anyway, last night, 7/13, we held our first Board Meeting of FY07. It was probably 30 mins-1 hour too long, but I feel good that we got some things accomplished. We had 15 people of a possible 17 invited - 13 Board members & 4 committee chairs. We were missing 1 Director & 2 committee chairs, but we had a member show up to help. He immediately jumped into the fray when discussing our monthly programs, so he's now helping our Programs Committee!
We deferred some discussions til the next meeting on 7/27 & there are some things that I intentionally left til the 7/27 meeting. But, reviewing the Blog, there are some other things that need to be said.
1. I need to outline my plan for how the VP's & Board help.
2. We need to discuss a by-laws change to add Chapter Advisors.
That's all I got for now.
Anyway, last night, 7/13, we held our first Board Meeting of FY07. It was probably 30 mins-1 hour too long, but I feel good that we got some things accomplished. We had 15 people of a possible 17 invited - 13 Board members & 4 committee chairs. We were missing 1 Director & 2 committee chairs, but we had a member show up to help. He immediately jumped into the fray when discussing our monthly programs, so he's now helping our Programs Committee!
We deferred some discussions til the next meeting on 7/27 & there are some things that I intentionally left til the 7/27 meeting. But, reviewing the Blog, there are some other things that need to be said.
1. I need to outline my plan for how the VP's & Board help.
2. We need to discuss a by-laws change to add Chapter Advisors.
That's all I got for now.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Random Thoughts No. 2
These are random thoughts following LOS last weekend & lunch with a past president yesterday:
Awards - we need to acknowledge our newsletter editor for the fine work he's done taking our newsletter from utter disgrace & shambles to the publication it is today.
Awards - we need to be up for as many Region awards as we can. We need to also put ourselves up for an Institute chapter award. We also need to find a nomination for fellow.
Programs - I've got so many ideas, where do I start? The business side - entreprenuership, confrontation management, selling & marketing. The fun side - dining etiquette, picnics, ball games. The industry side - panel discussion on CM's with Owners, Architects, Engineers, CM's.
We need to change our by-laws to create Chapter Advisors - past presidents who serve a number of years in an advisory role.
Past-Prez' idea of sending a letter to membership asking them to come to the August meeting. Make the program worth attending.
Make personal calls to recent active members & officers who have dropped of the earth.
Make the membership committee call each new member each month & ask them to attend & get involve.
Maybe do a "welcome wagon" committee of 3-4 people to go take new members out to lunch & get them active in committees.
Make sure our committees are committees & they meet each month.
Awards - we need to acknowledge our newsletter editor for the fine work he's done taking our newsletter from utter disgrace & shambles to the publication it is today.
Awards - we need to be up for as many Region awards as we can. We need to also put ourselves up for an Institute chapter award. We also need to find a nomination for fellow.
Programs - I've got so many ideas, where do I start? The business side - entreprenuership, confrontation management, selling & marketing. The fun side - dining etiquette, picnics, ball games. The industry side - panel discussion on CM's with Owners, Architects, Engineers, CM's.
We need to change our by-laws to create Chapter Advisors - past presidents who serve a number of years in an advisory role.
Past-Prez' idea of sending a letter to membership asking them to come to the August meeting. Make the program worth attending.
Make personal calls to recent active members & officers who have dropped of the earth.
Make the membership committee call each new member each month & ask them to attend & get involve.
Maybe do a "welcome wagon" committee of 3-4 people to go take new members out to lunch & get them active in committees.
Make sure our committees are committees & they meet each month.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
National Convention - the next step
Last week, 3 ladies from the national Institute attended our Board Meeting to discuss the preparations for the 2007 National Convention in Baltimore. It was an interesting experience. I think the role of the host chapter is evolving as we speak. When the decision was made to rotate between Vegas and Chicago, the Institute took a ton of the heavy planning work off the chapter's shoulders for fairness & continuity reasons. Now that we are back to rotating between all chapters and in the June timeframe, they are trying to figure out what exactly the host chapter should be doing. I think they also learned some lessons from this past national convention & Vegas' shortcomings as a host chapter.
The next steps seem to be:
A. Brainstorm a list of technical, historical and other tours for attendees.
B. Branstorm a list of guest/spouse/family activities
C. Decide on an entertainment event that the chapter will plan & execute without the Institute
D. Begin to get manpower for the week of the event
E. Keep in touch with the Institute regarding publication dates
F. Brainstorm &/or contact speakers of local interest for Call for Topics - deadline is June 30, 2006
The lists of tours & guest/spouse/family activities will be given to a professional destination firm for execution. The entertainment event is all on us, but we need the publication deadlines in order to use the Institute to help us promote it. The Call for Topics is an effort to give the convention a local feel. The Institute Convention Director said there have been some very successful presentors in the past that had local color.
The next steps seem to be:
A. Brainstorm a list of technical, historical and other tours for attendees.
B. Branstorm a list of guest/spouse/family activities
C. Decide on an entertainment event that the chapter will plan & execute without the Institute
D. Begin to get manpower for the week of the event
E. Keep in touch with the Institute regarding publication dates
F. Brainstorm &/or contact speakers of local interest for Call for Topics - deadline is June 30, 2006
The lists of tours & guest/spouse/family activities will be given to a professional destination firm for execution. The entertainment event is all on us, but we need the publication deadlines in order to use the Institute to help us promote it. The Call for Topics is an effort to give the convention a local feel. The Institute Convention Director said there have been some very successful presentors in the past that had local color.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Random Thoughts
Chatted with my wife on the way to her mother's Saturday night about our Chapter. Here are some things that came out of it.
Programs:
1. A new VP at my wife's college is an expert in entreprenuership
2. A business professor my wife knows at a different college could come & talk about business topics, management, etc.
3. A communication arts person could speak about communicating in business
4. Someone could present on professional writing - might turn off the hard core specifiers
5. Something from the Constructive Confrontations book
We've got to think outside of the box & appeal to all - architects, specifiers, engineers, manufacturer's reps, contractors, owner's reps.
Maybe I could put together a presentation on communications from the Lean Construction thing at the Convention & the Constructive Confrontations book.
We need to collect data - total attendance each month for as many years as we can go back. Then, match the attendance each month to the program topic & see what topics bring in the largest crowds.
I also need to plan out the summer planning/board meetings. I need agendas, duration times, etc. I want to be organized & keep the meetings moving. Perhaps put 20-30 minutes on the end for brainstorming/open discussion/personal intentions of attendees. Should probably hit programs & membership retention at the first meeting.
We could also divide the regions & chapters up amongst a few of us to do internet research. Go to chapter's web sites & pick off the best sounding program ideas.
Programs:
1. A new VP at my wife's college is an expert in entreprenuership
2. A business professor my wife knows at a different college could come & talk about business topics, management, etc.
3. A communication arts person could speak about communicating in business
4. Someone could present on professional writing - might turn off the hard core specifiers
5. Something from the Constructive Confrontations book
We've got to think outside of the box & appeal to all - architects, specifiers, engineers, manufacturer's reps, contractors, owner's reps.
Maybe I could put together a presentation on communications from the Lean Construction thing at the Convention & the Constructive Confrontations book.
We need to collect data - total attendance each month for as many years as we can go back. Then, match the attendance each month to the program topic & see what topics bring in the largest crowds.
I also need to plan out the summer planning/board meetings. I need agendas, duration times, etc. I want to be organized & keep the meetings moving. Perhaps put 20-30 minutes on the end for brainstorming/open discussion/personal intentions of attendees. Should probably hit programs & membership retention at the first meeting.
We could also divide the regions & chapters up amongst a few of us to do internet research. Go to chapter's web sites & pick off the best sounding program ideas.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Back from Convention
Back from the National Convention - its was a lot of fun, although the kids had issues that pulled my wife back early. See my other blog for more on that.
Met several people from the Vegas chapter. They promised me some lessons learned info in the coming weeks. I'll probably not hound them until the end of April. But, couple of things:
1. Always have back-up speakers for the tours. Several dropped out at the last minute in Vegas.
2. DO NOT give your cell number out unless you want people calling you at all hours all week.
3. Make sure the Institute DOES NOT give out your cell number.
4. We are responsible for staffing the Delegates booth at registration, or at least Vegas was & no one told them.
5. Should probably staff the chapter booth at all times ANYTHING is going on near the booth. This year, the show, continuing ed, bookstore, etc. were all together so basically, from 7:15 AM to 4:30 PM, there were people.
6. Need to have a raffle &/or give aways at the booth. Vegas did the HUGE hottub, but that's not a good idea. They wish they had done DVD players & cameras like we did.
7. Need to have some maps & brochures of attractions & knowledgeable people at the booth.
8. Who does the chapter pins? Vegas didn't do them, but the Institute did - & they're ugly!
9. Might consider doing & selling chapter shirts & hats - either tees or golf shirts. Balto 1998 had a great looking golf shirt - some dude wore his & showed us.
10. Golf outing is getting small or else it was in Vegas. Chris said they had 4 sponsors & 70 golfers. That's not a lot of money to be made.
11. Ask for forgiveness from the Institute, not permission - I can tell you how many people asked for a pin or button from Baltimore. We should have just been giving the things out without asking!
We need a close accounting of what we spent for Vegas so we can know what we need to make up later. It looks like Vegas may have over estimated the revenues from the golf outing. What else can we do to make money? We might be able to make a little of the shirts & hats, but no where near what we spent on Vegas or will spend on Balto.
Met several people from the Vegas chapter. They promised me some lessons learned info in the coming weeks. I'll probably not hound them until the end of April. But, couple of things:
1. Always have back-up speakers for the tours. Several dropped out at the last minute in Vegas.
2. DO NOT give your cell number out unless you want people calling you at all hours all week.
3. Make sure the Institute DOES NOT give out your cell number.
4. We are responsible for staffing the Delegates booth at registration, or at least Vegas was & no one told them.
5. Should probably staff the chapter booth at all times ANYTHING is going on near the booth. This year, the show, continuing ed, bookstore, etc. were all together so basically, from 7:15 AM to 4:30 PM, there were people.
6. Need to have a raffle &/or give aways at the booth. Vegas did the HUGE hottub, but that's not a good idea. They wish they had done DVD players & cameras like we did.
7. Need to have some maps & brochures of attractions & knowledgeable people at the booth.
8. Who does the chapter pins? Vegas didn't do them, but the Institute did - & they're ugly!
9. Might consider doing & selling chapter shirts & hats - either tees or golf shirts. Balto 1998 had a great looking golf shirt - some dude wore his & showed us.
10. Golf outing is getting small or else it was in Vegas. Chris said they had 4 sponsors & 70 golfers. That's not a lot of money to be made.
11. Ask for forgiveness from the Institute, not permission - I can tell you how many people asked for a pin or button from Baltimore. We should have just been giving the things out without asking!
We need a close accounting of what we spent for Vegas so we can know what we need to make up later. It looks like Vegas may have over estimated the revenues from the golf outing. What else can we do to make money? We might be able to make a little of the shirts & hats, but no where near what we spent on Vegas or will spend on Balto.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Summer Planning Mtgs
Our Chapter holds monthly membership meetings 10 months out of the year - September through June. June has historically been our awards banquet. I'm all about giving awards & recognizing important contributions to the chapter, but these sorts of banquets tend to be real snoozers. To that end, the June meeting typically is the poorest attended of them all. Lately, we've had a normal program in June, but attendance still lags. Last year, fully 1/2 of the awards I had to give were to people NOT in attendance!
All that to say, the chapter by-laws require the board to meet monthly, regardless of the schedule of the membership meetings. This means, the board MUST meet in July and August on its own. Typically, the summer meetings have been used to plan the coming year. If memory serves, when Bill Grabowski & Liz Stone were president, the board met more than twice across the summer. This is what I'm thinking of doing. Technically, I guess I'm not president until July 1, but I think we can sneak a planning meeting in ahead of then.
The burning question - what is the agenda for these meetings? Based on previous posts, I need to meet with most committee chairs ahead of then & I probably need to meet with my 2 VP's ahead of that. But then what?
I suspect the first board meeting will be to show my master plan. What is my master plan other than let's get more members, get more members to attend the meetings and then get more members active in committees and management of the chapter. A piece of the plan is how to better utilize the VP's to assist in chapter business. Another piece is the National Convention next summer & preparing for that. But what else?
All that to say, the chapter by-laws require the board to meet monthly, regardless of the schedule of the membership meetings. This means, the board MUST meet in July and August on its own. Typically, the summer meetings have been used to plan the coming year. If memory serves, when Bill Grabowski & Liz Stone were president, the board met more than twice across the summer. This is what I'm thinking of doing. Technically, I guess I'm not president until July 1, but I think we can sneak a planning meeting in ahead of then.
The burning question - what is the agenda for these meetings? Based on previous posts, I need to meet with most committee chairs ahead of then & I probably need to meet with my 2 VP's ahead of that. But then what?
I suspect the first board meeting will be to show my master plan. What is my master plan other than let's get more members, get more members to attend the meetings and then get more members active in committees and management of the chapter. A piece of the plan is how to better utilize the VP's to assist in chapter business. Another piece is the National Convention next summer & preparing for that. But what else?
Thursday, March 09, 2006
The Hand You're Dealt 2
Spoke to the current Chapter President yesterday about the nominations process. Typically, we do not have more than 1 person run for a vacant office or board position. When I ran for reelection to the board after my first term, we almost had 4 people for 3 spots, but 1 guy dropped out. If memory serves, that guy is now our Chapter president.
I have volunteered to run for President, the 1st VP has volunteered to remain 1st VP and the Secretary & Treasurer have done the same. According to the Prez, we have 3 board members whose terms are up. 1 of them has volunteered to serve as 2nd VP. 1 of the others is serving out the last months of my term as I stepped up to 2nd VP & is indifferent about remaining on the board or not. He's House Chair & is remaining in that capacity. The 3rd is our Membership Chair & is very active. The Prez feels like we need some new blood on the Board. I agree, but hate to see the Membership Chair rotate off the Board. The Prez believes he has 3 new board members lined up & some other folks he's ready to ask to take a more active role in Chapter management & leadership. The wild card is we have 1 remaining board director who rarely attends meetings or really does anything with the chapter. This person is very well liked by all, including me, but has some things working against him/her. (I don't want to give too much info here) This person has small children at home, lives probably 45 miles away from Baltimore, and has a very demanding travel schedule with work. The Prez has not decided if we should ask this person to resign or not. I can't decide either. The Prez wants to ensure we have a fighting chance at a quorum each month & with this person, we know we will almost always be 1 person short.
All that to say, I think I've found my solution to what does the 2nd VP do to help the Chapter. To recap, the 1st VP will be charged with membership recruitment, retention, etc. The guy whose stepping up to 2nd VP is currently the Programs Chair. He may or may not want to continue with that, I need to ask him at the meeting tonight. However, I think the key to growing not only members but meeting attendees lies in the programs & general tenor of the monthly meetings. I think the 2nd VP should work closely with the Programs & House committees to make sure all runs smoothly with the meetings, new members are recognized, visitors are introduced & the meetings are fun, informative & well attended. With a 1-2 tandem of hard hitting membership recruitment & retention working closely with making our meetings better, it should be a winning combination. Throw in the wild card of hosting the National Convention in 2007, & it should be a good year!
I have volunteered to run for President, the 1st VP has volunteered to remain 1st VP and the Secretary & Treasurer have done the same. According to the Prez, we have 3 board members whose terms are up. 1 of them has volunteered to serve as 2nd VP. 1 of the others is serving out the last months of my term as I stepped up to 2nd VP & is indifferent about remaining on the board or not. He's House Chair & is remaining in that capacity. The 3rd is our Membership Chair & is very active. The Prez feels like we need some new blood on the Board. I agree, but hate to see the Membership Chair rotate off the Board. The Prez believes he has 3 new board members lined up & some other folks he's ready to ask to take a more active role in Chapter management & leadership. The wild card is we have 1 remaining board director who rarely attends meetings or really does anything with the chapter. This person is very well liked by all, including me, but has some things working against him/her. (I don't want to give too much info here) This person has small children at home, lives probably 45 miles away from Baltimore, and has a very demanding travel schedule with work. The Prez has not decided if we should ask this person to resign or not. I can't decide either. The Prez wants to ensure we have a fighting chance at a quorum each month & with this person, we know we will almost always be 1 person short.
All that to say, I think I've found my solution to what does the 2nd VP do to help the Chapter. To recap, the 1st VP will be charged with membership recruitment, retention, etc. The guy whose stepping up to 2nd VP is currently the Programs Chair. He may or may not want to continue with that, I need to ask him at the meeting tonight. However, I think the key to growing not only members but meeting attendees lies in the programs & general tenor of the monthly meetings. I think the 2nd VP should work closely with the Programs & House committees to make sure all runs smoothly with the meetings, new members are recognized, visitors are introduced & the meetings are fun, informative & well attended. With a 1-2 tandem of hard hitting membership recruitment & retention working closely with making our meetings better, it should be a winning combination. Throw in the wild card of hosting the National Convention in 2007, & it should be a good year!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Technical Committee
By all accounts, or at least my memory, I am the last Technical Committee Chair the Baltimore Chapter had. That was FY 2003. I declined to continue in FY 04 because of work, home, coaching pressures & felt the Chapter needed someone who could dedicate more time to the effort.
Had a conversation last night with one of the Board members who helps us do a number of thankless tasks. The conversation centered around what the Technical Committee should do. We both came up somewhat empty. How can I ask someone to be Technical Chair without having an idea of what they are supposed to do?
Back in the day, the Technical committee wrote technical papers on construction issues that the Institute would then publish. The Institute discontinued publishing some years ago. According to a cursory review of the Institute's Administrative References, the Institute Technical Committee is charged with handling MasterFormat, Section Format, Page Format, Uniformat, etc. What is a chapter committee to do?
Had a conversation last night with one of the Board members who helps us do a number of thankless tasks. The conversation centered around what the Technical Committee should do. We both came up somewhat empty. How can I ask someone to be Technical Chair without having an idea of what they are supposed to do?
Back in the day, the Technical committee wrote technical papers on construction issues that the Institute would then publish. The Institute discontinued publishing some years ago. According to a cursory review of the Institute's Administrative References, the Institute Technical Committee is charged with handling MasterFormat, Section Format, Page Format, Uniformat, etc. What is a chapter committee to do?
Thursday, March 02, 2006
How do we get the Old Guard back?
We've lost some of the Old Guard chapter members due to our change in meeting location. We met for years in the Brooklyn neighborhood south of Baltimore. I liked the venue because its my kind of dump - small neighborhood bar, great food (usually fried seafood or red meat & potatoes) & cheap drinks. REALLY cheap drinks - $2.25 beers & $2.50 mixed drinks. It is not a terribly professional venue, however, and much of the Board decided it was time to move. That was sometime prior to my activity at the Board level in 2001. It took us a couple years, but finally made the move full time in August 2004. We now meet at the Admiral Fell Inn in the Fells Point neighborhood next to downtown.
Its been a mixed blessing - we have some new members & some members who will attend in Fells Point, but not Brooklyn. However, there are a number (less than 10) members who still go to Brooklyn on the 2nd Thursday of the month. Most are not a tremendous loss, but some are. Their feelings are hurt because of the move. Some feel the Board cheated them somehow. Some feel we didn't give them a chance to voice their opinions. Whatever, . . .
The question is - how to we get these people back in the fold? Or, do we need them back in the fold? I almost wrote "want them back" but I think we do want them back, but do we need them?
Its been a mixed blessing - we have some new members & some members who will attend in Fells Point, but not Brooklyn. However, there are a number (less than 10) members who still go to Brooklyn on the 2nd Thursday of the month. Most are not a tremendous loss, but some are. Their feelings are hurt because of the move. Some feel the Board cheated them somehow. Some feel we didn't give them a chance to voice their opinions. Whatever, . . .
The question is - how to we get these people back in the fold? Or, do we need them back in the fold? I almost wrote "want them back" but I think we do want them back, but do we need them?
What is a web site?
At a committee meeting last night, we began discussing the web site briefly. I've been troubled lately by the duplication of information on the Chapter site & the "dead" links or links that go to pages that say "More information coming soon." I think part of this is due to the detachment of the past web master from Chapter business. For example, in either 2000 & 2001 or somewhere there abouts, the Chapter had a fall series of 2 hour seminars called Avoiding Material & Design Failures (AMDF). These were GREAT seminars with continuing ed credits. We did it 2 falls in a row & have not done it sense. Yet, in 2006, there is a link to a page for AMDF on the web site. This sort of thing drives me crazy.
My wife periodically sends out e-mails to her alumni about alumni business. Lately, she's been experimenting with the electronic newsletter format. The same format used by AIA Maryland. I RARELY visit Baltimore AIA or AIA Maryland's web sites, but I always read the electronic newsletter from AIA Maryland.
Lately, we've been sending out the Constellation newsletter in pdf format. We also post it to the web site. I like this format & the newsletter editor is "electronicizing" it by adding hot links for people's e-mail. Should we do more?
When set out to re-design the web site, what should be on it?
`General meeting information - times, dates, locations
`Specific meeting information - speaker, topics, etc
`Constellation newsletter - current & back issues
`Coming events? LOS, Rebuilding Together, Baltimore, AIA stuff
`Listing of officers & committee chairs
`Links to Institute & Region web sites
That's kind of a basic set of information. Do we need to reprint the President's Message that comes in the Constellation? Do we need to reprint the board meeting minutes that appear in the Constellation? Am I missing anything vital?
My wife periodically sends out e-mails to her alumni about alumni business. Lately, she's been experimenting with the electronic newsletter format. The same format used by AIA Maryland. I RARELY visit Baltimore AIA or AIA Maryland's web sites, but I always read the electronic newsletter from AIA Maryland.
Lately, we've been sending out the Constellation newsletter in pdf format. We also post it to the web site. I like this format & the newsletter editor is "electronicizing" it by adding hot links for people's e-mail. Should we do more?
When set out to re-design the web site, what should be on it?
`General meeting information - times, dates, locations
`Specific meeting information - speaker, topics, etc
`Constellation newsletter - current & back issues
`Coming events? LOS, Rebuilding Together, Baltimore, AIA stuff
`Listing of officers & committee chairs
`Links to Institute & Region web sites
That's kind of a basic set of information. Do we need to reprint the President's Message that comes in the Constellation? Do we need to reprint the board meeting minutes that appear in the Constellation? Am I missing anything vital?
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
The Hand You're Dealt
In volunteer organizations, you often have to play the hand that you are dealt. In a previous post, I talked about having the VP's take a greater role in specific areas of chapter business. It seems to me, after discussing with my mom, that this is probably something that we should have been doing already. Our recent troubles with a president, in which he claims he didn't know what he was getting into & no one helped, might have been averted had he been asked as 1st VP or 2nd VP to take a larger hand in chapter business. I guess the presidents of those years wanted to do too much themselves & had difficulty delegating responsibility. Or maybe, they were simply playing the hand they were dealt & felt others would step up if they trully wanted to step up.
I have no idea who my 2nd VP will be. I have discussed the 1st VP previously. I don't believe I want to stand pat & let her coast as she has been, missing meetings, etc. Perhaps I should put her in charge of membership recruitment & retention....
I will have to play with the officers and board that are given to me. To a certain degree, I have to play with the committee chairs I'm given. We seem to have constant vacancies, so how can I ask someone to step down who's willing to serve?
I probably need to define roles, both in my own mind & to the individuals, with an eye to chapter history, so that everyone knows what he or she needs to be doing. Let's start with the VP's & committee chairs.
Previously, I said 1 VP should assist in membership recruitment & 1 VP should assist in chapter management (programs, house, planning, special events). Which is more important? Probably right now the membership, so that should go to the 1st VP. I need to better define the "chapter management" portion for the 2nd VP.
I have no idea who my 2nd VP will be. I have discussed the 1st VP previously. I don't believe I want to stand pat & let her coast as she has been, missing meetings, etc. Perhaps I should put her in charge of membership recruitment & retention....
I will have to play with the officers and board that are given to me. To a certain degree, I have to play with the committee chairs I'm given. We seem to have constant vacancies, so how can I ask someone to step down who's willing to serve?
I probably need to define roles, both in my own mind & to the individuals, with an eye to chapter history, so that everyone knows what he or she needs to be doing. Let's start with the VP's & committee chairs.
Previously, I said 1 VP should assist in membership recruitment & 1 VP should assist in chapter management (programs, house, planning, special events). Which is more important? Probably right now the membership, so that should go to the 1st VP. I need to better define the "chapter management" portion for the 2nd VP.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Committee Agendas
How should I handle the committee agendas? I mean, the individual committee chairs should come to the President with an agenda for discussion, but I don't think anyone does that. How long have we had an Academic Affairs committee with no real action? Our membership committee is floundering. Education, Finance, Certification, Handbook, House kind of hold status quo.
I made a binder for committees. Should I begin to jot notes for the chairs & then meet with each in the summer? Or, once elected, should I meet with each prior to the summer? That's probably the better idea. If we announce the results of the election at the end of April, I need to spend May meeting with committee chairs to go over agendas.
I made a binder for committees. Should I begin to jot notes for the chairs & then meet with each in the summer? Or, once elected, should I meet with each prior to the summer? That's probably the better idea. If we announce the results of the election at the end of April, I need to spend May meeting with committee chairs to go over agendas.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Leader's Resources
I'm at work trying to print out all the Administrative References the Institute offers. We complain mightily about the Institute, but they seem to have some good information on the Internet to help Chapters & their leaders conduct their business. I may or may not read all this BS, but I'll definitely keep it handy should I need it.
Did a bunch of work on the web site yesterday and got it mostly updated. There's a couple of things that are redundant, so I may just eliminate them from the site. For example, there's a separate page to list the chapter meeting programs. What the ___?!?!?! If this information appears on the home page, why show it somewhere else? That sort of stuff.
Our Chapter Secretary gave me a packet of stuff she thought I might find helpful. She agrees with me that the web site should be simple & up-to-date.
Did a bunch of work on the web site yesterday and got it mostly updated. There's a couple of things that are redundant, so I may just eliminate them from the site. For example, there's a separate page to list the chapter meeting programs. What the ___?!?!?! If this information appears on the home page, why show it somewhere else? That sort of stuff.
Our Chapter Secretary gave me a packet of stuff she thought I might find helpful. She agrees with me that the web site should be simple & up-to-date.
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