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The Places We Will Go...
Every quarter Local and State Presidents complete their blue chip evaluations which is essentially a document asking if we are making our goals, if not, what we are working on and what is going well. As I completed our mid-year evaluation last night, I sat back and was really impressed with what we have accomplished during the first 6 months of this year. We have had great recruitment of new members and continue to grow, starting the year we had 111 total members, we are now over 125 strong. Taking into consideration we have had members age out or move, we have something to be proud of. We have also had great programming thanks to our board members and chair persons. Already this year we have learned that Mother Nature truly loves to play her hand every once and a while resulting in some tough financial times, but we have pulled through and with an amazing Jazz last Friday, and are ready to keep pushing ahead. We also cannot forget the great 3rd of July Airshow and Fireworks, there are no words to express how great that was.
I think our success is somewhat summed up by the awards we brought home from State Convention in June. Top New Member Derek Gittman, Top State Director Tammy Welbes, top growth chapter in April and May, and I was honored to be awarded Top Local President. We were also awarded Diamond Club status for being at growth every month of the year, at this point we are one of two chapters in the State of Iowa. I also have to mention Alyson Tasker was awarded a National Presidential Medal of Honor. I say it again, we have a lot to be proud of, and we have accomplished a lot in just 6 months.
So where do we go from here...after all we still have the last half of the year to complete.
While thinking about this, the story of Fort Dodge, IA comes to mind. In 2001 they had the honor of winning All American City, an award Dubuque won recently. Fort Dodge worked very hard to obtain this award and when they did, I'm sure they were elated and celebrated their victory for such a great award. Unfortunately, following such a great victory, it seems the momentum for continued growth, continued greatness slowed and the community struggled.
OK, so you have to be wondering where I'm going with this...
First, this isn't to bash Fort Dodge, it's a very nice town; I have a large client there and have visited many times. But there is a lesson to be had. When we rest on our laurels, our victories, our awards it's easy to sit back and say we have it made. We are good to go. We could stop working hard right now, and probably be OK until about December, but coming into the next year we would be leaving our chapter in pretty rough shape. To continue to remain a top chapter we have to use our awards as a means of motivation. Look at what we have accomplished and then say how do we do it better? How do we improve on our programming? How do we grow the chapter further? What events are our members looking for? What Board position would I be interested in? Essentially, we can never settle, always be looking for improvements to what we are doing and looking for new opportunities to within the chapter. Let's keep our motivation going strong for the rest of the year and imagine what we will accomplish!
I have been honored to lead our Chapter the past six months, folks you are all a great group and make my job easy and rewarding. Every day I continue to be amazed by the drive and determination in our membership and it's clear to me, we are members of the greatest young professional organization in Dubuque, in Iowa, in the United States, and in the World. So to wrap this up, I would look to our National President Jeff Lank's theme for 2010 -Be Better. Brining it home to Iowa, State President Jennifer Gracey's theme Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger contains the same message. Let's work harder, be better, grow faster and be stronger for our professional lives and for the chapter live. Both themes have the same goal and through keeping this in mind...well..the places we will go....
Thank you all for a great start to 2010, I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.
Sincerely, |
