If I hadn't Jioined CSI

On the eve on CONSTRUCT 2013 and the CSI National Convention in Nashville, I decided to reprise a piece I wrote for the Felt Tips blog our chapter hosts from June of last year. I altered it slightly based on things that have happened to me across the last 15 months.

If I hadn't joined CSI...

I might not recognize there are three ways to do something: the right way, the wrong way and the CSI Way.

 

Every day at work, I would not know that each person brings something different to the table and that's okay.

 

And I would not know how to use what each person brings to the table to solve problems. 

 

I wouldn't have these 6 cool initials behind my name.

 

I wouldn't have seen Vegas, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago and Phoenix. Its been years since I've seen Nashville, but I get to see it again next week!

 

I wouldn't have seen Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Richmond, Raleigh or Bear Creek.

 

I wouldn't have seen Centerpoint, the Hilton or Healthcare for the Homeless before those buildings opened.

 

I might not have helped fix up an elderly person's home and looked into their eyes while they shook my hand and then hugged me, but couldn't say "thank you" because of the tears in their eyes and lump in their throat.

 

And I wouldn't have needed the "thank you" at all.

 

I would not have that pewter shield to wear on my lapel.

 

And the hard earned gavel chained to it.

 

I would not have met my best friends Scott, Liz, Steve, Sarah and Cassie.

 

And I would not have met Lynn, Jonnie, Billy and Anne Marie.

I would not have had the honor to write an endorsement for Jonnie's fellowship and felt the joy I'll feel next week when I see her elevated to fellowship.

I would not have worked side by side with Nina, Leslie, Mike, Mitch and Sal.

I probably would not have mentored as many fine leaders as I have.

And I would not have wept when we lost two great leaders, Bill and Rob.

I would not have walked up to a booth last year in Phoenix and gotten the answer to my question, immediately, on the spot, and known it was the right answer.

And that wouldn't have happened in Chicago the year before, Philadelphia the year before that, or Indianapolis the year before that or Vegas the year before that.

I might not have the fat list of contacts that I have which I can also use to get the answers I need, when I need them.

I would not know more than any architect should about intumescent paint, polished concrete, fire prevention, insurance, the perils and excitement of bid day or any of the other roughly 120 presentations I've seen at monthly membership meetings across the last 13 years.

And I wouldn't know the thrill of planning one of those programs, promoting it, seeing a big crowd at the event and hearing the applause when the program was a success.

I wouldn't know what it means to be elected to office to serve a chapter of 200 members.

I wouldn't have stood in front of a room filled with 2,000 people and welcomed you to Baltimore.

Or felt the joy upon hearing that you all are coming back to Baltimore next September!

I would not have had the opportunity to impart the knowledge I've gained to others in my profession on cold winters nights for the past 9 winters.

And then learn that many of them passed the CDT exam!

I wouldn't know what it was like to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and tell them what I think and have them even ask me the hardest questions I ever had to answer, but have them tell me later that they liked what I said and enjoyed my presentation.

And I might not know what it's like to be a trusted resource to the younger architects in our office.

I have been a proud member of the Baltimore Chapter of The Construction Specifications Institute since August 2000 and I could not be happier with the investment I've made: no amount of money, time or effort can make up for what CSI has given me.

I went to my first meeting sometime in the winter of 2001 at the invitation of a local product rep who had stopped by the office. She introduced me to several folks about my age during the happy hour and on my own I met some of the smartest people I've ever met, including a past Institute President! The program was good, the Q and A was great and I've missed only a small handful of meetings in the 12 years since then.

Since that first meeting, I earned my CDT, worked with Rebuilding Together, Baltimore and taught in our chapter's CDT prep Winter Seminars. As a chapter leader, I've served as Technical Committee Chair, Awards Committee Chair, Programs Committee Chair, Webmaster, Secretary, 2nd Vice-president and Chapter President. I've served as a Region Committee Chair, on an Institute Task Team and on an Institute Committee. I was asked to serve the past two years as Chair of an Institute Committee; an honor that I still don't feel I deserve.

In the past 13 years, I've learned more about construction technology and building science than some architects learn in a life time. I've met and worked with some of the nicest, funniest, most hard working and smartest people in the world. I've become an advocate for doing things the right way in our office and become a resource to the next generation of architects. My bosses have noticed, and have moved me up the ladder into a position of leadership in our firm.

I've learned about and embraced social media, which has opened up a who new set of doors and experiences. That has led me to meet and correspond with Joy, Eric, John and Liz, among many, many others. I'm more tech savvy than I used to be and work hard to understand what social media means, and not just to my teenage children, but to the professional world. All of this thanks to a decision I made long ago to join CSI.

If you like what you read above, join CSI and learn and grow in your career. If you have any questions, please ask me! I can be reached at mkemp@designcollective.com

 

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It's Your Network: Build It, Nurture It, Use It

One of the most important aspects of your professional life is your professional network. Creation of a large and varied professional network is essential to the successful performance of your current job, finding another job if needed and generally being a high quality contributor to the construction industry. I'm not talking about having 500 connections on LinkedIn, 1,000 "friends" on Facebook or 2,000 followers on Twitter. Social media is a great tool and I use it myself, but I'm talking about a network of people that you know and who know you, know how you conduct your business and are willing to share their network with you as well as recommending you to others.

Being active in professional organizations, such as CSI, is a great way to expand your professional network. Attending meetings, events and happy hours is a great way to get to know other professionals and with CSI's diverse membership, you can get to know people from all facets of the construction industry. While these people may not know the ins and outs of your professional endeavors, the way you present yourself in these situations and how you conduct your volunteer activities can inform people on how you conduct your other business ventures.

Another great way to expand your professional network is by attending national or regional conventions. CSI's regions represent groupings of chapters by geography which helps you get to know professionals who live near you and share similar contacts and projects. Most regions hold annual conferences which feature board meetings, awards banquets, networking and educational opportunities. These conferences are usually held in cities where there is a chapter or a nearby point of interest. Many of these occur over long weekends and feature family and spouse programs.

But, to maximize your travel dollars and expand your network beyond your local and regional communities, you should attend large, national conventions, such as CONSTRUCT and the CSI National Convention. CONSTRUCT is held each year in September and rotates between sites in the eastern, middle and western United States. This year's show is in Nashville from September 24 through 27. Registration is now open, so visit www.constructshow.com for more Information. 

Now that you've registered, how do you maximize your ability to expand your network? There are a few simple ideas to think about and act on. First, when you are on-site, be on-site. Actually attend the convention and the educational sessions. These conventions tend to be held in great cities, and Nashville is no exception, but try to spend as much time as possible at the convention. Most people hang around between sessions and on the show floor, so if you're there, too, you stand a better chance of meeting people. Use the evenings or some time before the convention starts or after it ends to explore the city.

The next rule is to use meals times to meet people. I wrote a blog post here that describes a luncheon I attended at the end of a large project. Conventions are no different. Everyone has to eat, so make sure you eat either on the show floor or in the area near the convention. Many conventions, CONSTRUCT included, have some sort of food offerings for lunch time. Many convention centers have small grab-and-go coffee shops where you can get light breakfast fare. Instead of ordering room service, head to the convention center early and have a muffin and cup of coffee there. Look for someone you don't know and ask to sit with them. Introduce yourself; chances are you have something in common.

Similar to meal times, take advantage of snack breaks between educational sessions to chat with other attendees. Too often, we make a break for the lobby to check our voicemail and email. Sometimes that is essential, but it also eliminates networking opportunities. Let business associates know you are away with limited email/voicemail access. Many conferences offer snacks and drinks between sessions. Take advantage not only of the sugar high from the snacks but also the opportunity to meet and discuss the educational sessions with your colleagues. Voicemail and email can be checked later that evening or first thing the next morning.

Another benefit of attending conferences for licensed professionals is the ability to earn continuing education credits. If you're there to earn continuing education credits, make the most of the time to also expand your professional network. Sit with different people during educational sessions and then greet your neighbors before or after the sessions. Before hand, you can ask what other sessions they attended that they liked or what booths they visited on the show floor that were the best. After the session, you can continue the conversation to hear what they thought about the session and offer your own thoughts on it. This might lead to a drink later or possibly lunch or dinner.

Most national convention have some level of a product show so make sure to spend time at booths at the product show. The Show is a huge component of the CONSTRUCT experience. I hear some long time attendees complain that they don't want to go to the Show floor because they've "seen it all." I doubt that is true. I typically walk the floor with a friend who asks "what's new?" at each booth. This is a great way to get to know the new product offerings and let the vendors do what they do best: talk about their products. Make sure you introduce yourself to the vendors. Everyone is wearing a name tag, but shake hands, offer a name or nickname and really get to know the vendors. Many of them are great resources not just for their products but for their competitors and other industry leaders.

Use the time on the Show floor to try to meet other people. Many of us will avoid a booth when someone else is there talking with the vendor. Go ahead and step up to the booth and listen in on the on-going conversation, if it’s about the products. That may lead to questions that you have and a more rich conversation with the vendor and the other visitor. It might also lead to getting to know other professionals and maybe a dinner invitation. This happened to me at a sustainable laboratory design conference last year. I stepped into a booth and got into a conversation with another architect and the vendor. I walked out of the booth with an invitation to a dinner party that night hosted by the vendor. I met about a dozen people at that party and made some really great contacts.

The most important thing to remember is that creating a network takes time. Don't expect miracles at the first convention. My boss sent me to the CSI Convention several years ago with the direction to bring back the resume of a spec writer. I made several inquiries and generally heard "if you find someone, give them my card, too!" About seven years later, I haven't found the magic spec writer, but I am in a better position to find one if needed. I've also met a number of fantastic independent spec writers so when our firm's spec writer gets swamped, I can recommend independent writers to hire on a per project basis.

However, it took me seven years of actively attending CONSTRUCT year after year to build my network to this point. I've had similar experiences at the sustainable lab conference I attend regularly. I now know most of the vendors who exhibit at the lab conference and use those contacts to meet other people, learn about new projects and generally expand my network further. I recently returned from a conference that I attended for the first time. I used the suggestions that I’m giving here and came away with a number of good contacts that might not lead to work for my firm immediately, but you never know where folks might land in their next job. One gentleman I ate breakfast with started his career in the Marine Corps, landed at a large university on the west coast and is now in Ohio. One day, he might land closer to the east coast and be in a position to hire my firm. I’ll keep in touch with him and others because you never know when change may come, but I know my network is ready for the challenge.

 

 

Education Opportunities at CONSTRUCT

I've been attending the CSI National Convention since the 2001 convention in Dallas. That was a convenient trip as my parents live in Dallas, so I took the whole family and gave my parents some time with their grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed the convention, but my work circumstances and the expense of attendance caused me to miss a few of the Chicago years. I was able to return to the convention in Las Vegas in 2006 to help promote the 2007 convention that we hosted in Baltimore. As my work circumstances changed and my leadership in CSI grew, I haven't missed a convention since 2006. I’ve attended every year since the partnership with Hanley Wood began in 2008 and CONSTRUCT was born. One thing that keeps me coming back is the educational opportunities offered.

When I first started attending the convention, I was relatively new to CSI and young in my career, so I chose primarily technical seminars: weatherproofing, air barriers, specification writing sessions, etc. I found the information to be top notch and incredibly helpful in my career as the presenters were experts in construction. My own ability to do my job better and more efficiently grew. However, as I moved up through leadership in my chapter and began to look at leadership opportunities at the region and Institute levels, my interests changed as did what I needed to gain from the educational seminars at CONSTRUCT. At about the same time, I was promoted at work and needed to expand my knowledge of leadership. I began to choose sessions taught by folks outside of CSI. Professionals brought in to teach attendees about discrete parts of practice, leadership and business.  I also began to attend sessions taught by CSI leaders such as Sheldon Wolfe, Grady Whitaker, Casey Robb and others. I found these sessions to be immensely entertaining and thought provoking.

However, at CONSTRUCT2011 in Chicago, I attended a session that changed the way I look at digital media and its effect on all facets of our life. Joy Davis and Charles Hendricks presented a session titled “Expanding your Reach with Social Media.” Up until September 2011, I had experimented with blogging, unsuccessfully, and had a twitter account specifically to follow the beat writer for the sports reporter who covers my alma mater. I had a LinkedIn account with basic professional information and used Facebook primarily to keep up with old friends and allow my parents to see current photos of what my kids are involved in. I had never considered the need for a cohesive strategy to make sure my message, skills and personality were not only on the web but available in a manner that I choose.

The premise of Joy’s and Charles’s session was an introduction to some of the various types of social media and the reasons to use them, when to use them and the importance of your image and the information  you put out there for others to see. From the session I learned that I needed a strategy to make the social media work for me, if I’m going to use them at all.

After the convention, I thought a lot about what was presented by Joy and Charles and the discussions held with the folks in attendance. I realized that at that particular point in my career, I was not so much interested in social media for myself but for the advancement of CSI and our Baltimore Chapter. My goals for our chapter social media were to increase leader participation in the media, increase our chapter’s visibility nationwide and return to a time when our chapter published regular technical papers called “Felt Tips.”

It was apparent to me that Twitter was probably not the best media to use for this endeavor, so I started a chapter blog called “Felt Tips” www.felttips.blogspot.com. Initially, I generated all the content and was not able to regularly post to the blog. But through working with other leaders and discussing my goals for our chapter I was able to increase content and the leaders involved in generating that content. Across the last two years, three chapter members have provided me with content and one article in particular, “Life Performance of Truncated Dome Warning Devices on Curb Ramps,” generated healthy discussion in the comments section regarding the actual requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the practices of many jurisdictions. While not an overwhelming success, I feel like our chapter’s image nationally has increased and I continue to work with leaders to create more content.

The great thing about CSI is our diversity of membership. Because our members come from across the construction industry, you can always find someone who has experience with and can answer your question. Based on the session from CONSTRUCT2011, I’ve learned that blogs are a great way to get your ideas out there and reading blogs is a great way to be exposed to the ideas and thoughts of other professionals across the country.
 

The CONSTRUCT Show and CSI National Convention are great events to meet those folks face-to-face and share ideas directly. No matter where your interests in construction lay, the educational programs at CONSTRUCT can provide you the same thought provoking information that I encountered with Joy and Charles in Chicago in 2011. Visit www.constructshow.com for more information about CONSTRUCT. Make plans today to attend CONSTRUCT in Nashville, TN from September 24-27, 2013.

 

More Accidental Leadership

Since my last post on this blog, I've encountered more accidental leadership. For the past four fiscal years, I've served as Chapter Secretary and have been re-elected for the next fiscal year. I've served as webmaster and chair of the Electronic Communications Committee for the past eight years. These are intentional, not accidental. However, during this past fiscal year, I've taken on the Programs Committee and agreed to co-chair a committee for our chapter to host the 2014 National Convention and the 2016 Region Conference. I'm also completing my first year as chair of the Institute Awards Committee and have been selected to chair that committee again the next year.
 

At our firm, I've been co-leader of a studio team for the past year. Myself and another senior associate at the firm manage a team of 10 architects, their work load, and various other aspects of the firm. We coordinate schedules and work load with the leaders of the three other architectural teams, our interiors team and our urban planning/landscape architecture team. For the past year and a half, I've also been preparing bi-monthly studio utilization reports for the partners. What does all of this mean? I spend significant amounts of time managing people. I tell my children this is not what I studied in college!

 

This advancement into leadership has lead me to a couple of thoughts and some change in behavior. I no longer read fiction. I wasn't a particularly tenacious reader to begin with, but I used to have one or two novels on hand to read. Now, I'm reading more non-fiction: business and management books mostly but I'm trying to get through Freakonomics right now and I've enjoyed several of Malcolm Gladwell's books, especially Outliers. I find the business books and these non-fiction books cause me to think about situations differently and look at conditions and conflicts differently. For example, one of the lessons of Freakonomics is that data does not always tell the most accurate story. There are emotions, culture and ethics that play into nearly all situations. The utilization reports, for example, are only as good as the data inputted into the individual time sheets and collectively do not tell the whole story of an individual or a team's experiences during a select time period.

 

The other thought that I have had that has led to a change in behavior is how people conduct their business. For much of my career, I've tried to work with consultants who tend to treat their clients and the projects similarly to how I treat them. Sometimes that is difficult, but when you find a team that can gel and reach good results, I like to keep them together for multiple projects. I'm learning people within a firm can be the same way but not always. For several years now, I have worked closely with the same partner in our firm. He is about 7 or 8 years older than I but we come from similar backgrounds and have similar work histories. I've made a few mistakes across those years and I've watched how he handles those situations and how he addresses them to me. He and I clearly conduct our business in similar ways, so we get along well with few conflicts.

 

There are others in our firm who are just as qualified as I, but he looks to me first because, I presume, he's more comfortable with my skills and how I conduct business. It is clear that not everyone conducts their business the same way he does or the same way I do. The more I work closely with other team members and ultimately manage them, I've come to some conclusions on that point. At first, it was difficult to delegate work to others and then watch them do it differently from how I would do it. As long as the end result is the same, who cares right? Wrong. I have struggled, mightily at times, with this simple delegation of work. Email doesn't help. It is quick and easy, but it rarely contains the whole story or can completely contain my agenda for the day or for a particular issue on a project. I wonder, though, how many chapter leaders fall into this trap?

 

There have been recent discussions on the CSI Leaders Group on LinkedIn about the end of term blues, the problems with changing culture in chapters and other items that relate to interpersonal communications. It seems to me that leadership is in large part related to communication and expectation. My mother likes to say, "You get what you inspect, not what you expect." That's always implied to me a larger level of involvement that some chapter leaders can provide. While chapter president, I attended all of the Programs Committee meetings because of the critical importance programs play in the member experience at our chapter. However, I neglected the hard work of the House Committee which also affects the member experience.

 

Leadership, no matter at what level or in what organization, is a struggle. I would bet few of us in the A/E/C industry studied management in college. Fewer still are the natural leader types that you see occasionally. Leadership takes discipline, consistency, adaptability and open communication. It takes listening, thought and a willingness to be told you are wrong. If you are moving into a level of higher leadership in your job, I strongly recommend that you join CSI and become a leader in your home chapter. It is an outstanding place to hone your leadership skills, receive mentoring from others and have a great time doing it.

Its March and how time has flown by

The title says it all - I can't believe it is actually March 2010 already!

The health of our chapter president continues to decline. He did not make our January board meeting. He was having multiple equipment issues - the motor in his wheel chair died and a new computer he uses to communicate through head motion was proving difficult to master.

Our February board meeting was held via conference call due to the 1-2 punch blizzards that we encountered in early February. His and his wife's intention was to listen in, but I don't think he did that.

He was in attendance at the March meeting but I found that he is getting closer to his death. The apparatus that fits over his head with the wand to point to the touch screen to communicate is difficult and occassionally impossible for his to use. He has little control over any of his facial muscles and cannot manuever the wheelchair himself. His mind is as sharp as ever and he is able to laugh at a good joke, which he did several times during and following the meeting.

Email communication from the president has ended. He simply cannot use the head apparatus and computer to do more than communicate basic needs to his care givers and others. The chapter is essentially being run by others, but it is still running, so we should all feel good about that. Our 1st VP has finally woken up, seized the reigns and is helping maintain the staus quo. He ran the January, February and March meetings with the help of an agenda prepared by me. That was a bit of a control-freak thing on my part - there were items I wanted discussed,so I prepared the agenda to make sure they were on it!

Our 1st VP has also written the "President's Message" for the past several issues of our newsletter and has done a good job. His messages are short but funny and a bit formulaic, but that's ok. Membership needs to see something from an officer in each edition.

As a chapter, I fear that we are simply maintaining in a time when we need to be moving forward. We're not breaking any new ground, although I've spoken with the 1st VP about that. I told him to make sure he has goals, even if they are just big ideas, for his term of office. He can then task committees with making those goals a reality. He seems interested in growing membership, which is good. We continue to lose 1-2 members each month. Part of that is economy driven, but I think part is also that we may not be offering enough in the way of benefits to the members in return for their dues. We've got to find a way to strengthen that or at least get the message out about what benefits there are for membership.

Several of us "leaders at large" continue to worry about our 2nd VP. He missed March's meeting saying "I'm on vacation." I need to look back, I keep all the emails, but it seems he's used that excuse a tremendous about these past months. I intend to provide the 1st VP with data on the 2nd VP's attendance and excuses so that we can have a frank and open discussion with the 2nd VP about his committment to this organization. Prior to being elected 2nd VP, his attendance and dedication seemed strong. That's why we approached him about a leadership position. Since being elected, his attendance has been in the toilet.

Status Update

My intention to blog after each monthly meeting fell by the wayside in the madness that tends to be fall in our household.

The health of our chapter president, who is suffering from ALS, appeared to plateau in the fall. In September, he was confined to a wheelchair, but stil attended our Middle Atlantic Region Conference in Charlottesville, VA in early October. Also in October, he recieved his motorized wheelchair and we was quite good at navigating it through the narrow passageways of the hotel where we meet.

Communication through email took some hits as the president tries to discontinue use of his company email and use only his private email. He is also either infrequently on email or is choosing to allow other chapter leaders to make decisions. This could go either way. As I have mentioned before, even without this illness, I believe he would have been more of a hands off leader!

Our October meeting was a tour of a local construction site, so we held our board meeting at the office of a local architect a week later. Despite the old age of the building, wheelchair access was available into the building and the meeting went off without a hitch.

Our November meeting was back at the hotel where we normally meet. We did not have a quorum present until about 45 minutes after the meeting was supposed to have started. Now, our chapter leadership consists of a board of 13 members, that means a quorum is only 7 people. Our December meeting was a bowling night, so we held the board meeting at a nearby bar that offered some wheelchair access. We never reached a quorum on that night - stuck at only 5 leaders present: president, immediate past president, treasurer, secretary (me) and 1 director. These last two meetings have caused serveral of us as leaders to hold conversations about how to not only get a quorum at each meeting for the rest of this fiscal year, but also make sure that moving forward we have leaders in place who understand what they are committing to.

November's membership meeting was interesting because of some folks who were in attendance. We had a panel discussion on construction site safety and probably had over 40 members present. That is slightly larger than we would normally see, especially in November. Our chapter president, like many architects in town, spent a number of years working at RTKL, the large international firm headquartered, at least for now, in Baltimore. About 8 or so folks that worked with our president during his time at RTKL attended the meeting to see him and support him. It was a touching show of friendship and one that I know our president appreciated very much.

December's meeting, the bowling night, showed us a couple of things about handicapped access. The bowling alley, in the Patterson Park area of Baltimore, is totally NON-accessible. There is a pair of doors at the main entry that offer a total of about 30" of width and then two sets of doors in tandem make it difficult for an able bodied person to enter much less someone with a disability. We were then given the 6 lanes upstairs with no elevator. The original bar that we decided to use for the board meeting proved to be non-accessible and the alternate location had two steps up to get to the seating area where we met. The owners of that bar had some plywood to help get the wheelchair up to the area, so that was a positive.

I find it interesting that many of spend enormous hours making sure the buildings that we design and build offer universal access to persons with disabilities but when faced with planning an event, we drop the ball when one of our leaders has a disability. Our typical meeting site offers wheelchair access, with some difficulty, but it is there. For our November meeting, we were relocated from our usual 5th floor venue down to the restaurant level. That meant a trip through the kitchen for our president, but the staff was great and assisted in getting him through. For December, we didn't even consider the need until the week before the event!

The December meeting was both distressing for me and uplifting. Our president is continuing to loose the use of his hands and fingers. As the muscles atrophy, his hands appear gnarled as if by rheumatoid arthritis. Manuevering the wheelchair's joystick is becoming difficult for him and typing is becoming cumbersome. Fortunately, he has many of the prompts needed to run the meeting already in the laptop, so he need only find the prompt, punch the enter key and the computer speaks his prompt. It worked well for about 80% of the meeting. For the rest, the immediate past president and I assisted! I worry about the future and in particular, his ability to continue to communicate with us. We have good leadership in place, though neither of our vice presidents seem interested in fulfilling their obligations, but that is the subject of another entry. At these meeting, essentially either myself or our immediate past president perform the job that these two VP's should be doing.

The uplifting portion of the meeting came from watching our president and his wife work together to get him set, allow him to run the meeting and then get back out to their van to go home. This was a display of unconditional love. I only hope that I have the courage to do the same should my wife and I find ourselves in this same situation.

The Whispers....

The whispers have begun. By that I mean, each time our president doesn’t immediately respond to an email, a handful of leaders begin to send some emails around asking about the president’s health. I seem to be the primary target of these emails, as if I have some special relationship or inside knowledge. I do not. I’ve tried to keep my distance and not get into the president’s personal business, but there are legitimate concerns. However, there are also longtime leaders, members much older and wiser than I, who point out that we can only glean as much information as the president is willing to offer. We have to act as if he is willing and able to lead until he tells us otherwise.

Last weekend, the president confided in me that he was “retired” from his employer effective June 1, 2009, but had continued to work, almost full time, until the end of August 2009. He is now on permanent disability from the firm. He is also confined to a wheelchair; a manual one until November when a motorized one is available to him. Either his wife or son bring him to the meetings and then help him home.

His former firm has graciously allowed him to keep his company email address, but he is unable to access his address book remotely. I offered an email address through our chapter web site’s hosting firm. I’m web master, so I was able to quickly set up the email account and set up an address book with all chapter leaders loaded into it. I’m not sure if he’s going to use it; he hasn’t to date but it’s only been active a week or so.

On the day the president confided his situation in me, I, gently as I could, suggested that he notify chapter leadership of his health and employment status. He has not done so to date.

Leadership Styles

Our president's leadership style is becoming more and more apparent. He's a hands-off, let-the-committees-run-the-chapter style of leader. Given his personality, this does not surprise me. It does, however, lead me to wonder if any significant progress will be made this year?

Our next board meeting is Thursday night. A longer post will undoubtedly follow that meeting. It will be interesting to see if our wayward 1st VP shows. Several of us in leadership are concerned about his ability to focus long enough to actually run the chapter for a year. We shall see. I have high hopes for the gentleman who follows; he's an architect after all!

The other thing that our president continues to be is very upfront and honest about his condition and treatment. An email this week asked all committee chairs to send in their committee reports as he would be away for a few days and then at hospital for treatment leading up to the meeting. Interesting times.

A Brave New World

That's one of my favorite novels - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It seems apt to something that a group of us are going through.

My chapter is entering a brave new world and I think I'll use this forum to post some observations about it. I'm thinking this might become a pamphlet that other chapters can use when they find themselves in a similar situation.

Today is July 10, 2009. On July 1, 2009, a new chapter president took office. Our new president was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or what is commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, earlier this year. He is recieving treatments at the best hospital in the world, but unfortnately, the disease appears to me to be progressing rapidly. Last fall, we noticed a slurring of his speech. Folks asked me if he was intoxicated at our meetings. I assured them, as I was certain myself, that he was not. He had never been know to drink to excess and I sincerely doubted that had changed. In November, he confided in me that he was concerned about his speech loss and was seeking a diagnosis, but he too was certain it was ALS.

When the diagnosis came, chapter leaders as a whole were uncertain how to proceed. We didn't want to seem unkind or hurt his feelings in any way. If he wanted to serve, we were prepared to let him serve as president. I guess, we had to reassure each other first of that fact.

The little I know about ALS comes from the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Great book, I highly recommend it. In sinister thing about ALS it is takes your central nervous system away from you piece by piece while leaving your mind completely intact. Our dear president lost his speech very rapidly - after the initial noticing of difficulties in October or November of 2008, by March of 2009, he was unable to be understood at all. Chapter elections were held in March and he was elected president, after serving as 2nd VP and 1st VP. The Nominations Committee had several emails exchanges with him offering to let him out of his obligations. He declined each time, I suspect out of a sense of honor and out of a need for normalcy and aggression to beat this disease.

Unfortunately, he was not forthcoming with many people about his condition and tried to soldier on in as normal a fashion as possible. It was and continues to be extremely difficult. He continues to have difficulty with basic muscles motions, especially his facial muscles. Personally, I continue to be uncertain if I should inform people about his condition; I am concerned about invading his privacy. I never took the opportunity to discuss this with him and he never gave me permission to discuss his condition with others. As folks asked me about him, I rather sheepishly told them what was going on. As time goes by, I think that's what he wanted, but I wish I would have asked and then recieved permission to act as such.

His initial President's Message in our monthly newletter alerted membership to his condition. I felt better about the whole thing upon reading that message.

He attended our national convention in June but was a loner during it. I spent some time with him during our region caucus, but not much other time. I felt bad about that, but have been having trouble with my own feelings and inadequecies about his condition. I mean, my parents worked with disabled adults when I was young. I've been around folks with very serious physical and mental disabilities. I should know how to do this! I'm getting better; more comfortable. But its a struggle for me.

Thursday night was our first Board Meeting with our leader at the helm. He has a laptop with external speakers and software that he can type messages in and the computer speaks for him. Its a good, strong, confident voice. Our president is extremely intelligent and his grasp of the English language is on par with any professor or writer. It was reassuring to have even the computer voice speak words that we know come from his mind.

There were some lulls in the meeting business as he slowly typed on occasion. I think, though I'm not sure, he had some messages typed out before hand. We have a number of new folks on the board and there seemed to be some nervousness about things were going to work. After a rocky start, most present had not recieved the minutes of the previous board meeting and since we were meeting at the president's office, he went to make copies, we settled into the meeting.

When I was president, I let discussion move along, but was quick to have committee business stay in committee meetings, not in the board meetings. Our immediate past president had a similar style. Its difficult to run a board meeting if your only experience is running meetings at your work as an architect. Our current president is an architect, so I'm sure he struggled a bit with the ebb and flow of the meeting. Also, members were quick to fill the voids in conversation and at times, the meeting dragged. But, in general, we got through our business. We started about 5:40 PM, had pizza and beer in the middle, and finished at 7:35 PM.

As we got through Old Business and were heading to New Business, the battery on the president's laptop died. Our 1st VP was not in attendance as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery and our 2nd VP was further down the table than I, so the president wrote a note to me asking me to take over. I briskly worked us through the remaining agenda items, occassionally reading hand notes from the president.

I think the message here, after our first meeting with our new president, is patience and flexibility. And probably a heavy dose of "get rid of your nervousness!"

Touch 'em All!

Since the New Year's Day post, some things about the cub scout pack have come into clear focus. I really like my den, even though 2 of the boys are sometimes hard to deal with! Its great spending an hour or so every other week with a group of boys trying to teach them something! The highlights of the year have been the night we built birdhouses, the night we learned knots and the night we did a little architecture by drawing the room we meet in.

The other parent leaders have continued to be a hassle and a disappointment. This past week, I was out of town on the evening of the monthly leaders Roundtable meeting for our district. I could not get a single other leader to attend in my absence. Of particular issue was our committe chair who was especially arrogant about it.

Due to issues with our son and with the school/parish administration, we are taking our son to a public school next year. We knew this was a possiblity in November of last year. We made the firm decision last month, though we are unsure which school. We applied to a magnet technology school, but won't know until March/April if he got in. If he doesn't get in there, he'll go to our local public school.

Since November, I have been trying to decide how to handle scouting. I don't want to make the same mistakes for my son that I made myself - sticking with a less than active troop and not earning Eagle in part because of it. I have been unable to get good parental involvement. I have not pulled out all the stops and have not gotten up in parent's faces, but our troop suffers from a lack of parental interest. I can't believe me getting up in people's faces will change this and I shouldn't have to do that.

So, do I pull my son out and resign as Cubmaster when he changes schools? After this week and lack of support by other parents, I think the answer to that is yes! I just need to do some research and decide which troop is good for him.

As for the CSI chapter, our incoming president with ALS is getting much worse, very quickly. At our February meeting, his speech was so slurred that we could not understand him. Our outgoing president is not interested in serving another year and our 2nd VP isn't ready to be president, he needs the year to prepare. Our outgoing president is worried about her job, so feels that she needs to focus on job and less on CSI. I can sympathise with that. The 2nd VP cold probably do it, he'll just need some help. Obviously, if the 1st VP moves up to president, he'll need a lot of help as well!

I sent an e-mail today to our retired chapter secretary and close personal adviser from when I was president. She relocated to Chicago about 6 months ago. I'll let you know what she thinks!

I suspect we'll need to find another chapter president. I don't see how his speech impediment will allow him to be president much less whatever other degradation occurs between now and June 30, 2010. I don't want to be mean or unsympathetic, but I'm trying to not diminish the gains we've made as a chapter in the past couple of years. We shall see....

Took a year off!

Clearly, I took a year off from this blog. I'll try to do better in 2009!

I'm actually in a slightly different leadership role - I'm mentoring the current chapter president, about to mentor the next chapter president (who was recently diagnosed with ALS) and I've accepted a position on the national Strategic Planning Task Team. Oh, and I'm also the Cubmaster for my sons Cub Scout Pack! I suspect much of what gets posted here will be about the pack, not as much about CSI!

I took over from a very nice lady whose youngest son bridged over to boy scouts. She was highly disorganized, but had been involved in scouting long enough where she just did things sort of on her own. Part of that was also due to the unruly personality of some of the other moms involved in the pack. Some of these are the same moms who have caused problems with my wife and with me to a certain extent through soccer, girl scouts and various other activities. I suspect I was picked because my oldest son is in scouting and I have a younger son, meaning stability in the job of cubmaster for a number of years - at least 8! Yikes!

Anyway, I've had very little instruction, but have attempted to seek training best I can. The biggest issue is the lack of parental involvement in the pack. That's my goal for this spring - get more parents involved. Right now, the pack is run essentially by 4 people - not enough! Especially when 2 of them will leave next year when their sons bridge to boy scouts. Once I have a larger committee, I can work on getting an assistant cubmaster!

I need to get my thoughts organized on where this post is going, so until then....

President's Guide Part 2

Its been 3 months almost to the day since I wrote the last post. I am now within sight of the end of my Presidency. I just presided over my 15th membership meeting and I have 4 to go. These last 5 should be great - tour of a construction site, something on whole building modeling, tour of a window factory, a college professor speaking on entreprenuership and the use of databases in CA activities.

I'm thinking this morning of the structure of the President's guide. It should almost mirror the Institute's Administrative Resources - Chapter leadership, Region leadership, Institute leadership. Two weeks ago, I attended a meeting of the Nominations Committee. My follow up work was to ask two people the committee designated to volunteer to be Chapter Directors. I was surprised at how little they both knew of how our chapter is governed. Between that & compiling our chapter's nomination packet for Outstanding Chapter Commendation, I feel some sort of Board orientation is in order.

As I mentioned in my last post, I do worry about our chapter's future leadership. I feel strongly that our president's should serve the two consecutive terms allowed by our by-laws. If you've been reading this blog, you're aware that my predecessor took over from an absent president. He agreed to fulfill that person's term, but no more because he was planning to retire. His plans have since changed, but that's another story. When I agreed to step in and follow him as president, I made it clear to the Board that I expected their support for 2 years in office. They agreed. At that committee meeting, I asked our 1st VP if she were going to serve 1 or 2 terms. She emphatically said 1 term. I think that's a shame, but so be it.

Anyway, I think I'll start the president's guide by listing your duties to the chapter, region and Institute. We'll see where it goes from there.

President's Guide

Out Chapter is thin on passing information from one leader to the next. I think its partly the fact that we have some relatively young leaders & the old guard either aren't around anymore or don't care to help. I think in the old days, like the 1990's, when new leaders took over, one of the old guys would take he or she out to lunch & talk about what had to be done. No on has the time for that anymore.

I recently recieved an e-mail from the Institute's Director of Membership or some such title. It was directed to all Chapter President's. She's putting together a Chapter President's Guide & asked if any chapters currently have one they would like to share. She then asked if any of us had ideas to include in her guide. Here's what I wrote in return:

"We do not have a President’s Guide in the Baltimore Chapter, but what I did receive from our Chapter Secretary shortly after taking office is an interesting collection of information. First, she has taken it upon herself to codify various Chapter policies that were discussed at length by the Chapter’s Board of Directors & finally agreed upon, but not necessarily written down. There were I believe 15 in the packet ranging from our Chapter financial status to membership levels & dues to reservations at our monthly meetings. The packet also included information on Robert’s Rules of Order, non-profit management, non-profit status in the eyes of the IRS and information on professional writing. I have found this information invaluable.

President’s need to have, have read & understand their Chapter’s by-laws. This is particularly important when the phone call comes that an Industry member has left his/her job & is no longer in the construction industry. This happened to me twice during my first term – 1 a Director & 1 our Treasurer. Its also important to understand what you can & cannot do as President, what requires board approval, etc.

President’s also need to understand how their office effects their standing within the Region. I think this may vary from Region to Region, but in the Middle Atlantic Region, each Chapter President is also a Region Director, so attendance at LOS & Region Conference is a necessity. This is why ever since taking office, I have tried to have my 1st VP attend each of these events with me so that she knows what to do when she assumes the presidency.

I feel it is the duty of each President to prepare his/her predecessor for taking the office. I came in fairly cold & my predecessor came in practically frozen. This has made some things very difficult. I think it is also why our 1st VP was not ready to be president when needed. I have made sure that she is ready when the time comes. Its little things like writing the President’s Message for the newsletter or putting an agenda together for the summer planning meetings; writing announcements for the monthly membership meetings & getting correspondence from the Institute. She needs to be aware of all of this.

Finally, the President needs to know that his/her performance dramatically affects the membership at large. We just went through FY 05 & 06 with lackadaisical presidents & our monthly attendance showed. If there is perceived instability at the top or worse, harsh or brusque personality at the top, the chapter will suffer. If there is inability to act or disorganization in the presidency, worse things can happen than low attendance. The president should have a vision of where the Chapter needs to go, not necessarily a plan of action to get there. The other leaders can help formulate the plan based on a collective agreement of the vision."

So then I got to thinking maybe we should put together a President's Guide for our Chapter. I could do the leg work & then let several past presidents review it. What should go into it besides what I listed above?

Awards

When I was young, my parents were in Jaycees & Jaycettes - the Junior Chamber of Commerce. This was the 1970's when it was acceptable to have 2 different organizations - 1 for men & 1 for women. I was in the Jaycees in the mid-1990's before I was married - all 1 organization, not gender separate. I can remember when dad was Chapter President him making plaques to give away as awards. I also remember the plaques he received hanging on his office walls. Awards are very important to volunteer organizations.

In September, our Chapter gave out its FY 2007 awards. We normally do this in June, but since we hosted the National Convention in June, we didn't have a monthly meetings.

I'm not sure how other Chapters do this, but Baltimore history tells me that the President sets the awards. We give out Letters of Appreciation to organizations that donated things to us or hosted our events. We give out Certificates of Appreciation to all members who went over just being a member - either being an officer, director or committee chair or helping out with any of our activities.

The President then sets up what I call the "Special Awards." Click on "Handbook" at www.csibaltimore.org to read more about our awards. Anyway, this is how I did awards this year.

There are a few folks who are good friends of mine in this organization. Many of them have been close advisors to me throughout this past year. One of them, not so much. She's been a friend, but not a confidant or advisor. She did not get an award. She did, however, have too much to drink & say something to me about it later. Clearly, it was the booze talking, but that didn't make me any less uneasy.

My wife proceeded to brow-beat me by saying from an outsiders perspective, it appears that all of my friends recieved awards except this one lady. I told my wife it may appear that way, but that's incorrect.

So, what is the line between friendship & hardwork & dedication to the cause? Should one be rewarded & the other not? I think I'm right, but I'm not sure others do.

Incidentally, this lady called me the next day & apologized, sort of, in a voicemail. She said she was wondering what happened to the Certificate of Appreciation that she earned. She was out of the room when I announced that the certificates were on a sideboard & could be picked up. Her's was still in the stack, so I have to believe her.

Thinking about the recent past....

What has happened in our Chapter since I joined in 2000?

We used to meet at Club 4100 in Brooklyn, MD, immediately south of downtown Baltimore. A very blue collar part of town & an equally blue collar venue. Probably too blue collar for a professional organization, but it somehow suited us. The food was always great - meat & potatoes stuff. Usually some sort of steak, prime rib or chicken, salad, vegetables, cheap drinks. I think a can of Budweiser was $2 & a mixed drink was $2.50. Cost to the chapter was less than $25 per plate. We charged membership $25 a head.

The problems with the place were several. To get to the meeting room, you had to walk through the crowded & smokey bar. There was no good place for the Board to meet. We would meet in a room wedged in between the kitchen & large meeting room. It was cramped & noisy with HVAC sound. Plus, as the meeting room & hors d'oeuvers were set up, there was constant movement through the room. As members began to arrive, the house chair would set up in the same room to take money & hand out name tags.

The men's bathroom was atrocious. It had 1 toilet stall, 1 urinal & 1 sink in the space where only a toilet & sink should be. You could not realistically have more than 2 people in the room at a time. The whole venue was old, dirty & not kept very well.

However, Manny & Dino, the brothers who owned the place, treated us well & would go out of there way to help us. I remember one member who is Eastern Orthodox requesting a special plate during Lent. They fixed him a beautiful vegetarian plate without advanced notice or extra cost.

I was elected as a Chapter Director in 2002 & served for fiscal years 2003 & 2004. That whole time, a certain faction of Chapter leadership tried to get us to leave Club 4100 for a better venue. With my wife being in event planning, I knew a change would mean an increase in cost. Our Industry members who frequented other chapters talked of $45-50 meetings. As a relatively young person with a family of 4, I could barely afford the $25 each month. I very vocally expressed this concern that I would not be able to attend each month should the cost go above $35 or so.

A somewhat vocal battle commenced over how companies should either support their professional organizations or not. The firm I was with at the time, paid my AIA & CSI dues, but the rest was on me. The proponent that firms should foot the entire cost was a person who eventually would be elected President, but would not renew his membership & would have to be replaced as President.

Looking back, I joined Baltimore CSI at a time of tremendous change. We had good, strong leaders, BG, BL and others. We also had some people who were backing out of leadership - PG, CN, DL, BB, PB. Some of these guys, like Paul & Don, were still around, but letting others take over running the Chapter. Don's unfortunate stroke left a major hole in the old guard whom the Chapter needed to help. Certain other defections, J. Green most notably, left the Chapter vulnerable.

There was faction of people who sought to press new, eager members into immediate leadership service, rather than trying to fill the holes in other ways while letting new members learn. I was fortunate that I was smart enough to be a Director & not immediately jump into more advanced leadership. The Chapter suffered through the early 2000's with people who probably were not ready to lead holding the Presidency. Without being too harsh, I would say before Rod A. took over when Eric M. basically abdicated the Presidency, we had 2 years of folks who weren't not prepared to adequately lead the Chapter. That meant the gains made by BL & BG during their 3 years as President were lost. The travesty that became the fall of 2004, with Eric M's debacle, brought this issue into specific light. Rod realized that we need to bring in new blood to the Board & committee chairs & train new leaders.

Sarah C to her credit, was not ready to move up to the Presidency despite serving as 1st VP & being next in line when Eric abdicated. Rod stepped up as President & left 2nd VP open, which I assumed with the understanding that I would leap-frog Sarah to serve as President before her.

It was a trying & troubling time in the Chapter history. We also were dealing with basically an absentee treasurer in Jerry W. & a non-existent Newsletter editor in Jerry's wife. Through 2004, our attendance at monthly membership meetings dropped dramatically because our newsletter was not getting out regularly, our Programs chair took a new job & went AWOL while travelling all over the country to train for his new job, so the quality of our programs suffered. We had also recently changed our meeting location from Club 4100 to Admiral Fell Inn in Fells Point, which angered many older members. They felt like Ken H, President when the change was made, did it for self-serving reasons as his office was literally 2 blocks down from Admiral Fell. There was also sticker shock - meeting cost went to $35, you had to either plug a meter or pay to park in a garage, drinks went to $5-6 each, depending on what you got.

Out of this came a core group of people who genuinely like each other & were dedicated to the cause. They include, Ken H, Liz S, Scott S, Sarah C, Rod A, Susan R, Edna H, Jason V, Steve E, Rob F, Todd G & myself. Of that group were recent Presidents Ken & Liz, past presidents Edna & Todd & the future leaders of Rod, Sarah, Rob & myself - the next 4 presidents who will lead us into the future.

50th Anniversary

I haven't posted in a while, but have some issues that might need to be worked out here.

In 2009, our CSI Chapter will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. In 1984 for the 25th Anniversary, the Chapter published a paperback book of its history. A digital copy lives on our web site at www.csibaltimore.org under "Chapter Handbook" tab. I would like to replicate this effort for the last 25 years, but my involvement is limited to only the last 6 years. I've been a member since 2000, but didn't attend meetings until 2001. Many of the past presidents of the '80's & '90's are inactive or in the case of Bill Grabowski, passed away.

It seems that we should embark on a quest to interview these past presidents.

Personalities

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!

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.

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!

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.