This past week I went to the SHRM Leadership Conference . . . on purpose !! I have the honor of becoming the next State HR Council Director for Ohio SHRM in January 2012. This is the same Council that this year won a Pinnacle Award from SHRM and also donated $40,000 to the SHRM Foundation for training resources regarding bringing vets back to work. Humbled !!!
I went to the Conference to meet other volunteer leaders from around the country as well as hear about the direction and vision of SHRM. (Let me slip my obligatory HR disclaimer here – I dig that I’m involved with SHRM !! It rocks to be a leader in this group and I’ll explain more in a bit.)
I went early to be involved with Capitol Hill Day and to be an advocate for HR. It was so extremely cool to have the ability to talk to Congress staff about issues that are affecting employers across the country. There were 400+ HR folks who participated and I can’t wait to “storm” the Hill again next year.
The State Council breakout session was phenomenal as well. To hear the great things that other states are doing in HR was encouraging to say the least. Also, there were several social media HR friends in the same forum. We were able to be vocal in supporting social media, share success stories about State Conferences and also learn from others.
The highlight of the Conference for me though was meeting HR pros from other states. It was so cool to break down the boundaries that so many put up in meeting one another. I met several social media friends in person for the first time, and it’s always cool to put avatars and faces together !! Each one of them were such great humans and I knew they would be.
Also, hanging out with folks from Illinois, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alaska, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, Washington, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, California, New Jersey and Wisconsin on purpose just plain ROCKED !! (I tried to meet as many people as I could to really connect with them !!)
Back to my disclaimer . . .
I am geeked about where SHRM is going because of the intentional people who crossed those imaginary state boundaries to truly connect. There are amazing HR people who really are moving the profession forward including people working within SHRM.
So, as I get to dive into this new leadership role please know this – the boundaries are down. We’re now going to keep working to bring our profession together and move it forward intentionally. It’s going to be something that hasn’t been seen . . . yet !!
Make sure you’re connected as well !!
Image “Human Bridge” Courtesy of Iurikothe
