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?
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Monday, February 19, 2007
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!
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!
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