President's Meeting

[JimVillers]

I just received the following from the NBO. It says that three months is not enough time to arrange a President's meeting. My question to other presidents is do we want to schedule a meeting for ourselves or to just talk individually with national officers?

Here is the text of the message:

Dear MBCA Section Presidents,

You may recall there was a section presidents' meeting held in conjunction with StarTech 2005 in Raleigh/Cary, North Carolina. That meeting was well received and provided significant information and assistance for attendees.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be sufficient time for a formal presidents' meeting during Startech 2007 this coming May in Reston, Virginia. The event starts with registration on Friday morning, continues with lunch on Friday and offers concurrent presentations and/or demonstrations on Friday afternoon. Saturday offers presentations and demonstrations all day. The traditional Q and A closing session will be held Sunday morning.

Your National Officers, other Board Members and Executive Director will be available to meet with you at StarTech on Friday afternoon. If you are attending StarTech and are interested, we will be happy to schedule an informal meeting for as many presidents who wish to meet with us. Of course, you will miss a Startech presentation on Friday afternoon but it might be offered later in the program.

Please consider this and after you register for StarTech, advise David Cummings in the NBO if you'd like to meet with us.

See you at StarTech!!

Regards,

Jim O'Sullivan

MBCA National President

[wwhopper]

I find it interesting that the only time that seems to be "right" for this meeting is during a national MBCA Event such as StarTech.

During the event that people have paid money to attend.

Our team had suggested a couple of options, Wednesday, the day before the MBCA National Board Meeting, that way the attendees could also attend the MBCA National Board meeting. Sunday afternoon after the seminars are done, but before the Summit Point Demonstration Day was another option.

Time is always tight during Board Meetings, and even more so during MBCA National Events.

I know myself, I found that at the last meeting in 2005 in Cary, that I wanted to be out at the StarTech opening car show set up, not inside at yet another meeting.

Another option is to have one this fall prior to the MBCA National Board Meetings in Naples Florida.

I do hope that all the MBCA National Board Members will be in attendance for StarTech 2007, that way they will be able to interact with the membership.

[Don350SDL]

I just received the following from the NBO. It says that three months is not enough time to arrange a President's meeting.

......
Unfortunately, there does not appear to be sufficient time for a formal presidents' meeting during Startech 2007 this coming May in Reston, Virginia.
I think you are misinterpreting what they meant by 'not enough time'. I interpret it as meaning "the whole time is completely filled up with events", not as meaning 3 months is not enough time to plan it.

If presidents could arrive a day early, or leave a day late, you can have a meeting Thursday afternoon or Sunday afternoon. But between Friday morning and Sunday noon, there's no spare time.

Does this make any sense, or am I the one misinterpreting?

Don

[JimVillers]

Don .... I think that I did mis read what was written. Now I read it that a President's meeting is not important. I did not attend the previous Presidents meeting but there were many positive comments from the attendees.

[Don350SDL]

One would think that if the presidents wanted to meet, they would find the time to do so. Does the NBO have veto authority as to whether a meeting is held or not?

Also, can you utilize a telephone conference??

Don

[dolebludger]

Don:

For what little it may be worth (I am not a president myself), I strongly believe that holding periodic "Presidents' Meetings" is a very important matter. Anybody who is involved in MBCA at all knows that some sections are thriving, some are barely staying alive, and some have died! The sharing of information about what works and what doesn't is a very important matter.

[mdsalemi]

My 2 Cents:

Yes, I think a President's meeting is an important thing to have, at least as important then Board meetings.

Because of the expense of travel, accomodations, etc. it always makes sense to try and combine such a meeting with another event.

When I attended the national board meeting in November, I did not get the feeling that there was much of a consensus that there should be a meeting for Presidents. There was so much going on at StarTech, and it didn't seem like there was going to be any time. I did not come away with the feeling that anybody thought it was very necessary or important. Maybe it was just my take on it, maybe it was just not at that particular time (StarTech)

I feel however, that great things can happen when great people meet and discuss common goals.

[marvberk]

I don't need another meeting especially "shoehorned" into a national event. I would greatly appreciate hearing event & recruitment success stories from around the country. Thanks.
Marv

[JimVillers]

Michael ..... Maybe the Presidents can offer a consensus on the restructuring issue. They know a great deal about the value of the national organization to the membership.

[rwmastel]

If you can't get more than six or so Presidents on this "President's Forum", then how do you expect them to show enought interest to travel across the country for a meeting?

Even though people say "not everyone uses the internet", I think there needs to be more focus on this Forum. If we could get just 50% of the Presidents active here, plus some other Section Board Members (like me), then we would have plenty of great ideas created & shared. From that, the best ideas could be published in The Star for all those who don't care to surf the internet!

Can we get more participation here, before we worry about jet-setting off to some meeting?

[mdsalemi]

Yes it would be nice to get more then 6 or so President's communicating here amongst themselves. As the moderator here, nobody is more for it then me.

But let me tell you something--we've sent out direct-mail postcards; we've sent out notices with the monthly membership packets, and we've done several email blasts as well. We have communicated the forum's existence in a variety of means and tried to be cost effective as well.

These actions have given us the 6 or so active participants.

What it also gave us is a lot of information: some people don't have, don't know, or don't want to know anything about modern communication via email, the internet and related. We had some people say they are "too busy" to deal with it. Others complained quite vehemently because MBCA and the crux of the note were not mentioned directly in the subject line in one email--my mistake. These seemingly VIP's you know, get 10,000 real emails a day and 100,000 spams a day and thus can't be bothered sorting it all out. It seems you can't please everyone all the time. So we have a mix of completely tech-savvy people who live and breathe technology to the point that adding something to this fray is too much, versus others who have never owned a computer.

There's also a bit of an issue with forums in general: I've run into it here (at MBCA, not specifically in this one) and other places, and that is "flaming" and related. It can turn someone off very quickly. Recently I posted a car for sale on the MBCA forum--in the for sale forum, the only place where you are supposed to post such things--and instead of getting inquiries about purchase, it became a "pick-apart" session where the car was critiqued, the photos were critiqued; these critiques were critiqued and discussed, and useless questions asked none having to do with a potential sale. What a waste of time.

There was no suggestion of "jet-setting" off to a meeting of President's. At a National event last year, there was a President's meeting arranged and it was deemed to be good. The idea was to take advantage of the fact that one might have a group of President's together at a National event and to take advantage of this fact to hold another one. Clearly, though, it isn't going to happen.

So if you or anyone has any ideas on how to increase participation in this forum here, please let us know!

[Alex]

As I understand from the above posts, the current problem is that MBCA section presidents don't get together enough to discuss things and insufficient participation by them in this forum.

To remedy this problem, my suggestion is a personal letter written to each section president, by name. The letter needs to point out the importance and benefits of his participation in this forum and encourage him to do so. The manner and tone of the letter would be up to the person writing it. A board member of any MBCA section ought to have the requisite authority to write such a letter.

Traveling large distances to meet for general discussions is not practical these days. That's why section presidents' meetings during major club events makes sense. On the other hand, such events are usually pretty busy. Which is why section presidents' participation here would be so desirable.

[mdsalemi]

As I understand from the above posts, the current problem is that MBCA section presidents don't get together enough to discuss things and insufficient participation by them in this forum.

To remedy this problem, my suggestion is a personal letter written to each section president, by name. The letter needs to point out the importance and benefits of his participation in this forum and encourage him to do so. The manner and tone of the letter would be up to the person writing it. A board member of any MBCA section ought to have the requisite authority to write such a letter.

Traveling large distances to meet for general discussions is not practical these days. That's why section presidents' meetings during major club events makes sense. On the other hand, such events are usually pretty busy. Which is why section presidents' participation here would be so desirable.

Alex, the personal letter was already done, last autumn; it was dated September 20th as a matter of fact, and was sent out to all Presidents, Newsletter Editors, and Membership Chairpeople for who we had information. You are not on that list. The people in Sea Level at that time who received that note were Jimmy Baldea and Joseph DeFilippe.

Not every person keeps contact information current with their own section and with National, thus we can only work with the names that are given to us.

[rwmastel]

So if you or anyone has any ideas on how to increase participation in this forum here, please let us know!Micheal,

I guess because I grew up with computers (started with a programming class in high school, 1984), I assume too much. I just assume any Section officer wanting to do a good job would jump at the chance to communicate easily and freely with other Section officers.

I think you've done all you can to create awareness and interest. I got the e-mail and the post card and they got me to sign up right away.

What we can do to attract the others? Perhaps we need the "buy-in" of the regional directors. There are eleven of them, so perhaps each of them can personally CALL the officers of each of their sections and follow that up with a mass e-mail to those people. Perhaps a Section President is just not the most effective "agent for change" in the eyes of other Section officers. Change probably needs to come from, and be encouraged by, the top of the organization. How's that sound?

By the way, neither my newly elected Section President or Vice-President knew about this forum. I told them in person yesterday and e-mailed them tonight. Hopefully they join up!

[dolebludger]

In my section, ALL know aout this forum, yet I am the only one who regularly posts. It is like the matter of "car clubs". Only a certain percentage of those who buy a particular make of car will be interested in joining a club dedicated to that make. And, only a certain percentage of those who DO join the make club will be interested in posting on a forum run by that club.

Board use will grow as time goes by, as the internet is the "new media." More and more members will discover it. Right now, it is rather like the 'Star'. I know some members who keep every issue of the "Star" in a sacred place in their library, where they have copies of the "Star" dating back 30 years or more. And, I know members who read it and throw it away. So we can't expect every member to value the forum in the same way. But the forum WILL grow in popularity and use in time. This, I guarantee.