Navigating The Future

"When life knocks you down, roll over and look at the stars."

 

- Unknown

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Day EWI!

 

One of our members posted this quote on her Facebook page this week and I love it!  Stars have been guiding mankind forever.  With any setback thrown your way, one has to stop, analyze where and why you fell off track and then "recalibrate" (as our GPS ladies love to tell us)!

 

I am going to think of 2013 as a re-calibrated journey for EWI, one that is navigated not only by where we have been but of course by what we learned along the way.  Our destination? It goes back to "One Vision".  We all want to be part of strong and healthy Chapters who are part of a stronger and more purposeful larger organization, empowering others for positive change.

 

We have new leadership in place...a COO who knows this organization better than many of us and can see the potential of what EWI can be once again.  And I say again, because if the past did not matter, why do we have rear-view mirrors?  We must be cognizant of our history, if only to not make the same mistakes again.  How did we shrink from 5,000 members?  Did we lose relevancy?  Did we forget to focus on our member, which is the firm?  Our employer that pays our EWI dues and that wants to see us, their employee, gain confidence, learn new skills and grow professionally, all while promoting their company?

 

As we stated on our Open Forum call today, those Chapters that are thriving, have heavy Executive engagement.  They can be such an incredible tool for Chapter's to utilize!  Please be sure that you are sharing your monthly Connects and the Annual Report with your Executives.  Invite them to your next meeting and just see what they say!  Remember...it is THEIR job to ensure that you, their employee, are developing and receiving a return for the dollars they spend with EWI. 

 

Speaking of Executives, I am happy to report that we had six members of the Calgary Executives Association attend our Chapter meeting on Wednesday evening.  They told me today that, "you can expect some applications!"  They came, they witnessed what we had to offer and they get it.  Your Chapter Executives will too if you give them a chance!  Perhaps through Executive engagement we would experience more firms willing to renew?

 

I am working with the International board of Executives Association to determine our next steps for a reciprocal endorsement of one another's organizations.  Very exciting for both EWI and IEA.  Where both organizations have Chapters there can be great synergy and assistance in growth objectives.  We have Executives.  Their Executives have staff they want to develop.  IEA helped EWI grow before, and they are willing to do it again, but we have to be able to provide them with our audience of Executives too.  Quid pro quo.

 

All right, enough of my rant on Executive Engagement.  It is late Friday, it has been a wonderful week with the launch of our very professional Annual Report and I now have to prepare my webinar for Tuesday! 

 

I also want to apologize to a past representative of EWI of Baltimore, Tamara Coleman, who was actually the first black member of the Corporate Board in 1996-1997.  Tamara unfortunately though was unable to complete her full term.  Thank you to Sylvia Napper, EWI of Jackson and Pati Dahmen, EWI of Spokane for kindly pointing out my error in naming Benita as the first in my blog last week.  Another perfect example of why knowing and acknowledging our history is so important.

 

Today, I sadly saw photos of the grave site of our Founder, Lucille Johnson Perkins.  A tragic story really and it just keeps getting sadder.  I am determined to honour her appropriately and I would like to thank the 75th Anniversary Committee for their due diligence on finding Lucille, especially Anna McCutheon, EWI of San Diego, for her exhaustive research.  We hope we will have something very special to show you at Spring Conference in Chattanooga!

 

Remember, deadline for early-bird registration for Spring Conference is next week!

 

Have a wonderful weekend EWI and thank you to all those who took the time to attend our Open Forum call today!

 

- K

 

 

Happy President's Day!


"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time."

- Abraham Lincoln

 

 

Good Day EWI!

 

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans...my heart broke a little last week when my flight from Toronto to Philadelphia was cancelled due to the severe snow storm, part of the awful Nor'easter that hit last weekend.  As such, I could not join Wendy Cowley and Kerry Feltenberg on the site inspection tours of hotels in Philadelphia or Arlington.  I was so looking forward to making that trip and visiting with Chapter representatives there.  I know Wendy and Kerry are expert evaluators though and will forward the best choices to Nancy Harrison, LCAM Site Selection Vice Chair for her and her committee to summarize and put forward to you for the member survey due this month.  Remember, "One Voice"...it is up to you the membership to decide where LCAM 2014 will be held, so please do take the time to cast your vote when invited to do so.

 

I did make it to Montreal though for a business meeting on Sunday/Monday and had the wonderful pleasure of watching the move, "Lincoln" on my flight home.  How wonderful that I watched it this week in particular with the State of the Union address on Tuesday, President's Day coming up on Monday and of course it is Black History month, not only celebrated in the US, but in Canada and the UK too.   In researching Black History Month I did not realize February was chosen because of Lincoln's birthday on the 12 February.  I learnt a lot from that movie and I am now rooting for Daniel Day Lewis to take home the Oscar for his mesmerizing performance.  Lincoln's presidency changed a nation and literally the world.  Such awe inspiring leadership from a man who had a vision of what the future could hold.  As Americans, you can look to him and be so proud.

 

We too have a lot to be proud of in EWI and I am so happy to have Benita Collins, Corporate Director serving with me on the Corporate Board this year!  Our first black Corporate Board member and she is a shining example of why diversity in our membership is so important.

 

I know a lot of you are sad at this time of year as not all member firms opt to renew for various reasons.  I am heartened though by the upbeat attitudes of those Chapter leaders who realize that our future state is cast simply by what we do each day.  They continue to make recruitment their top priority and while it is always sad to see valuable member firms not renew with EWI, I firmly believe that what we do offer will resonate with other new potential firms wanting to advance their firms and the skill sets of their employees.

 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Career Development webinar with Heather Petherick.  Heather spoke to us about finding that "sweet spot" in your career and gave very valuable tools on how to better find meaning and fulfillment in our day to day lives.  A great webinar that is now posted on our website for those of you unable to attend live.

 

Just a reminder that we have our first Annual report coming out next week and I am also hosting our first Open Forum call on Friday, the 22nd.  Please do join in!  I saw a draft version of the annual report and I literally had tears in my eyes as I read it through.  To have a vision and see it surpass your expectations is truly one of the most rewarding things my current position in EWI offers.  My fervent hope is that you too will love the report and use if for your recruitment and retention efforts.  I would like to offer my deepest thanks to Brittany Jones for taking on this project and running with it!

 

Speaking of R&R, I will be conducting a Chapter Development webinar on that very subject on Tuesday,  the 26February at 1pm MST.  I do hope you will attend!

 

One final comment for this week...please don't forget to register for Spring Conference in Chattanooga, April 18 - 20th.  Early bird registration ends on February 28th, so don't delay!  I look forward to seeing you there!

 

Have a wonderful weekend and holiday Monday!  For those of you in Alberta, have a great Family Day!

 

- K

 

 

 

 

 



How a tribe is born...

 

"A group needs only two things to be a tribe; a shared interest and a way to communicate." 

- Seth Godin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Day EWI!

 

Again, writing this a day early as I am leaving tonight for a whirlwind trip to visit Philadelphia and Washington areas along with Wendy Cowley, ED/COO and Kerry Feltenberg, Events Chair, EWI of Phoenix.  We are touring the short-listed hotels in each city for LCAM 2014.  Our goal is to meet with the Chapters in each city, the CVB's and through site visits, narrow the choice down to one hotel in each city.  We will then advise the LCAM Site Selection Committee, headed up by Nancy Harrison as Vice Chair.  The committee will then summarize the two choices and distribute to you, the member, to cast your vote on where we will be gathering for LCAM in 2014.  How exciting!  Of all the initiatives we undertook last year, I am very proud of bringing this decision into the hands of the membership.  I was always very vocal about allowing Chapters to formally express their interest as it is a critical component when there is any revenue to be realized for the Chapters in being named host city.  I am very excited to be making this trip and really looking forward to my first Amtrak experience!

 

This has been a very short, crazy week as I was in Las Vegas last weekend.  Always such an intense city to visit.  You come back wiped and ready for a vacation!  The travel agent in me must take a moment here to pass on to you an enthusiastic endorsement of Gordon Ramsay's "Steak" restaurant in the Paris Hotel.  It was the most incredible meal I have ever experienced.  If you go, be sure to do it right and go for the five course tasting menu with wine pairings.  Unbelievable!  And yes, the menu did include the Beef Wellington which literally melted in your mouth.  Here is last seasons winner of Hells Kitchen, Christina, busy at her new job.

 

 

 

If you are heading to Vegas within the next five weeks, make sure you also take in the Soul 2 Soul show at the Venetian with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.  Lovely!

 

Okay, enough travel talk!  Yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Calgary Executives Association breakfast, followed by a meeting with their Chapters ED, President and a Corporate Board Member of IEA.  What exciting energy we shared!  Concrete plans are underway for how their local Chapter and ours can connect and support one another.  Their Corporate Board meets in May again and will be presented with a motion to formally endorse EWI.  Once that occurs, IEA globally will be aware of who we are, where we are and all that we can offer their member Executive's employees! 

 

We have so many things in common and it is easy to see how we emerged from this dynamic group of business leaders meeting in San Francisco back in 1938.  Their concepts are all so similar;  support the firm as that is the member, limit membership to only one company in each minor classification and most importantly, gather regularly as like-minded business professionals to grow from one another.  EWI and IEA can soon easily be described as a "tribe" as we share a common purpose.  I am very touched by their willingness to work together with us to establish a joint community.  The impact on one another where each organization has a Chapter will be huge, as demonstrated by their Calgary Chapter's willingness to attend our upcoming meetings, dedicate one of their meetings to EWI and to help us in our upcoming fundraisers.

 

For locations where only one of us exists, the growth potential can be huge for EWI.  If we want to launch a Chapter in a new location and IEA exists, we will have a group of businesses with the same overall vision and that will make our recruitment so much easier!

 

I look forward to sharing more with you as conversations develop.

 

Have a wonderful weekend and I will have lots to share from this weekends trip in the next blog!

 

- K

 

 

 



 

 

 



 

Quality over Quantity

 

"It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity."

 - Mahtma Gandhi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Day EWI!

 

I found this photo of this "poor little donkey" and  thought it is an incredible visual analogy of the burden a lot of our Chapters have been operating under with their lofty fundraising initiatives.  Note: I am confident given the value of the donkey to this cart owner that he would have taken quick steps to lighten the load and get his feet back on the ground!  What is obviously missing from this scenario is the ability for the donkey to gain any traction, a necessary condition for any progression, or, if you like, "20 Mile Marching!"

 

Last week I had the pleasure of gathering with some of the Presidents from my "Fleet" of Chapters.  We had a wonderful conversation about their first quarter experiences in leading their Chapters.

 

I was so heartened to hear verbiage like "Quality vs. Quantity" being expressed as a mantra for their year of Chapter operations.  Kudos to Jill Gaffney, EWI of Spokane and her board for embracing this concept and doing only one event this year, a Black and White ball in May! I also applaud Megi Scowcroft, EWI of Denver and her board for recognizing that there was no need to exhaust themselves fundraising this year because they were in a solid financial situation.  All of the President's I spoke with have adopted recruitment as their number one priority and I am thrilled!

 

Unless a Chapter is in a healthy state of membership, i.e. 25 Member Firms or more, please, please don't over burden yourself with fundraising initiatives.  We all need to focus on growing our membership so that we have a healthy pool of talent to draw upon to execute fundraising in a quality way someday in the near future.  We all know the saying, "Many hands make light work."  So true!

 

The other key benefit to this approach of scaling down is that you and your current members will hopefully not be so exhausted and overwhelmed when potential new members receive their first impression of EWI.   It will also make recruiting for board positions much easier.

 

The Corporate team is continually searching for ways to ease Chapter operations and in fact we have a Corporate Committee dedicated to study additional ways we can help.  Thanks to Judy Russell, EWI of Tulsa for her work as Vice Chair on that Committee!

 

Short week as I am off to Las Vegas for a weekend of fun!  Quite an exciting weekend as we are dining at Hells Kitchen Friday night, tickets for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on Saturday night and then a BeeGees revival act on Sunday night.  Too much fun, I am sure!

 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

 

- K

Life Is Too Short

"Living your life in the service of other people... that is how you validate yourself, that is how you find purpose".

- Oprah Winfrey

Good Day EWI!

Well, the talk of the town here in Calgary this week was the fact that Oprah spoke here on Tuesday night to a crowd of about 14,000 people.  She was, by all accounts, her fabulous self.  Reading the reviews in the paper on Wednesday I was struck by this quote of hers and thought it a perfect summary of what EWI is all about.  We are helping people find their purpose and allowing them to feel good about themselves and how they spend their time.  I firmly believe that and can personally attest to, as I am sure we all can, that EWI enriches our lives. 

 

I was blessed to have parents whose greatest words of wisdom to me were to ensure that whatever I chose to do professionally, make sure it was what I was passionate about and that I would love doing, each and every day.  Sometimes that got pushed to the wayside in my career, but how grand is it to be turning 50 this year, knowing that each aspect of my current career brings some joy to me?  It was not an easy path to get here,  for sure!  There was a period of my life for about eight years when I was not following my passion but rather the pay cheque.  Thankfully I finally listened to my inner voice that said to me, "this is wrong and get out now before it kills your spirit entirely". 

 

However, as you may know by now, I am a firm believer in fate.  During those dark years, as I call them, I was introduced to EWI and can now look back and be so thankful that I did have that one bright spot in my life.  At the end of each of those days grinding it out in the corporate world, I knew that EWI was helping me to find purpose in my life.

 

Life is far too short to go to work and not love what you do, each and every day!  I truly hope that through your membership in EWI you are developing new skill sets that can lead you to your own "sweet spot" professionally while also bringing meaning and purpose to your life personally through the friendships made and our philanthropic efforts.  Know that through your service, you are impacting others for positive change!

 

We had our board meeting this week and yet again, I am amazed by all the progress our corporate committee Vice Chairs and committee members are making under the stellar leadership of our corporate Chairs.  I cannot thank these ladies enough for helping make our vision a reality:  Darlis Vauble, EWI of Omaha, Darlene Banogon, EWI of San Diego, Kim Fankhauser, EWI of Des Moines, Jeanette Davis, EWI of Dallas, Kerry Feltenberg, EWI of Phoenix, Jenni Burns, EWI of Phoenix and Pat Evans, EWI of San Diego and Carolyn Woodmansee, EWI of Spokane.  My deepest wish is that your current role as Chair is helping you find purpose each day too!

 

This week also brought some very sad news to EWI.  Our dearly beloved Max Helen Harrison, Past Corporate President 1964-65, EWI of Fort Worth, passed away last Saturday.   For those of you who knew her, you will understand what a loss this is.  For those of you who did not, let me assure you that she was an incredible lady, in every sense of the word.  I remember meeting her at  LCAM a few years ago and she was so proud to tell me that she had actually chartered our Chapter in 1964.  I feel so blessed to have met her.

 

Today, I believe, our search for the final resting place of our Founder Lucille Johnson Perkins, is over.  Anna McCutcheon, EWI of San Diego has been digging through public records and archives exhaustively on behalf of the 75th Anniversary Committee.  Thank you Anna!  It seems that our Lucille tragically died at age 32,  in 1942, just four years after starting Executives Secretaries.  She never knew what impact she would have on thousands of lives and that makes me sad.  Anna's brother is going to visit her grave and report back to us on the condition and if there is anyway we can honour her there, in this, our very special anniversary year. 

 

We must hold on to the belief though that Lucille too must have been following a passion of hers when she started our organization.  After all, she said it best of all, as in our Chartering documents it states, "She who serves most, profits best".

 

Cherish your days, honor yourself and be proud of how you serve others with EWI!

 

Have a great weekend!

-K

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connections

"The best way to lead people into the future is to connect with them deeply in the present".

- James Kouzes and Barry Posner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Day EWI!

 

It does indeed seem like the two weeks since I last posted.  My apologies for not posting last week but this is rather hard via an iPad.  It is hard to imagine a week ago I was in Mexico, but true.  We had a glorious week in Cabo San Lucas returning early Sunday morning.  I then had a mad dash trip to Montreal on business, back late Tuesday night.  Wednesday was full of emails and catching up and I also had the pleasure of being the guest speaker at our Chapter meeting.  Suddenly, it is Friday once again, which I will not complain about at all!

 

As I grow older I am always amazed at what a small world it truly is and how everyone, regardless of where we come from or what we do for a living, can connect.  While at our resort in Cabo we made friends with a wonderful couple from New Jersey and had the pleasure of dining with them on a couple of nights as well as spending a day touring with them.  They lost everything in Hurricane Sandy and have been staying with friends since.  They had booked this trip as a late honeymoon before the storm and thought that regardless of how dire and depressing their lives have been since the storm, they needed to get away from it all.  It was uncanny watching them slowly relax, rejuvenate and come back to a position of positive thoughts about their future.  Meeting them literally changed our whole vacation and helped us to create some incredible memories.  If you ever get to Cabo, be sure to dine at Sunset Mona Lisa (one of the top five places in the world to watch the sunset).  We experienced something majestic together that will forever create a bond between us.  We connected deeply by pure happenstance and now have two new amazing friends that we cannot wait to see again!  I have to share the sunset with you now too:

 

 

 

As I was going through security in Montreal for my flight home, I happened to run into a cousin of mine that I have not seen in about 10 years.  Thankfully, we had time to grab a coffee and have a quick catch up before our respective flights.  The thing was, I recognized him first and while we are not close with his family, I took the chance and thought, why not introduce myself and re-connect?  I could have walked away and found some peace and quiet, but chose to engage instead.  We had a great visit and I was able to share with him some family history that he was curious about and he updated me on his siblings.

 

So, if all that connecting was not enough, today I had my first call with a Corporate Board member of International Executives Association and this is going to be HUGE for EWI's growth in the future!  I will be attending an IEA Calgary Chapter meeting on the 06Feb and then meeting afterwards with two of their corporate board members, who just happen to live in Calgary to discuss and create a plan on how we can properly align the two organizations to allow us to both aid in one another's growth objectives.  Next step will be to identify a mutual date for me to sit down with their Corporate President and Executive Director, who both happen to reside in Edmonton.  In just a short hour long conversation we were able to really delve into the issues and opportunities facing both of our associations while recognizing the synergy that already exists.  Again - it all came down to listening and deeply connecting with one another.

 

So, lesson learnt for me this week?  Grab hold of every opportunity that presents itself to reach out and meet or reconnect with others.  You just never know what rewards are waiting!

 

Have a wonderful weekend EWI!

K

 

 

 

 

New Beginnings!

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been".

- Rainer Maria Rilke

Good Day EWI!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you!  I wish you and your member firms great prosperity in 2013!

This has been a momentous week for EWI as I, on behalf of the Personnel Committee's Hiring Task Force and the entire Board of Directors, was able to announce that we have hired a new Executive Director/COO!  In case you missed the news....Wendy Cowley, EWI of Salt Lake City and Past Corporate President, has accepted the position.

So many of you know and love Wendy, but for those members who do not, let me assure you that Wendy is bringing over 25 years of EWI experience to the table, along with a successful 35 year career in management.

We were very adamant when entering this hiring process, that we wanted to first open the search internally within EWI.  We recognized that the one key skill set we would never find with an external candidate was institutional knowledge.  We felt this is critical as EWI is very unique.  The role of the Executive Director is really to manage over 60 separate "companies" if you will, all with their own unique needs, history and expectations.  We have been challenged with past hires in truly helping them understand this diversity and how Chapters are impacted by what decisions are made at the Corporate level.

Like the Board, Wendy is committed to the Carver model of Board Governance and is eager to review all processes with the ultimate goal of easing Chapter operations. She has also been Chair of our Audit and Investment Committee for several years, and as such, has a comprehensive understanding of our financial operations.  She has been a trusted advisor and has always stepped in as the "local" Salt Lake go-to person for board members.

Please join the staff, the board and I in welcoming Wendy when she assumes the role on February 4th, 2013!

Again, a HUGE thank you to Carolyn Woodmansee, Personnel Committee Chair, Ronwyn Anderson, Lisa Stokes, Verla Kelley and Karen Thomspon.  Ladies, you have made these past three months much easier for me from an HR perspective and I cannot thank you enough!

This week I reviewed the financial audit documents from our accounting firm and am excited for our first EWI Annual Report to be delivered to you at the end of this month.  As a charitable organization that is comprised of a membership body it was a key goal for us to deliver an annual report to you this year.  We hope this will become a key recruitment tool for you for the next 12 months!

Gathering with my fellow Board members tomorrow for our monthly "Coffee Chat" session so that we can catch up mid month.  I am leaving for a week of vacation tomorrow afternoon to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, so I will probably not be blogging next week, although one never knows....

Wishing you all a stellar weekend and week ahead,

- K