We're approaching the end of my first month as President and it's been very exciting so far. As a board, we've made difficult decisions to enable our goal of becoming more strategic and sustain our programs.
You may remember last fiscal year some surveys and analysis being done to compare SHPE to other organizations and to try to quantify the value of a SHPE membership to our constituents. One of the outcomes of this research was verification that the value of SHPE is worth more than what we charge in dues. This is definitely true for student members and usually true for professionals, although we have been unpredictable in our delivery of that value to professionals. During our last board meeting last fiscal year, a vote was established to increase member dues slightly or all membership types. For professionals, the dues would not increase revenue returned to chapters, but instead all additional revenue would be applied to increasing professional program value. A very difficult decision but one that will enable us to increase our impact on working Latino STEM professionals. This aligns directly to our mission and I support it. Specific details of these rate changes and when they go into effect will be announced very soon.
Leading up to and at our retreat, sponsored by Boeing (thank you Boeing) we spent a good portion of time around the concept of creating a more strategic board. We worked as a group to try to understand what key factors were preventing successful and repeatable execution experienced by our members. We also did analysis around the key factors preventing us from adopting a more executive level of professionals to join the board and help drive SHPE's mission.
Both of these problems were somewhat related which helped us develop our set of countermeasures which result in:
1. More focus on regional and chapter communication and processes
2. Less tactical responsibilities for RVPs
3. More ability for RVPs to become influencers instead of executers
4. More support for efforts to grow SHPE Jr Chapters and Noche events
5. A process for holding committees accountable to execution and budget utilization
These are all potential benefits of our new Regional Committee structure which shifts all the tactical responsibilities of the RVPs to the new Regional Professional Representative (RPR). Additionally we've established a new role: Regional Junior Representative (RJR) to support our rapidly growing Jr Chapters and their events. The RVPs now work as champions and coaches for the regional committees to ensure their success on a recurring basis.
Finally we are establishing new monthly metrics reviews, which lead to committee report outs during NBOD meetings. This new focus on accountability will help us achieve our goals sustainably.
There was a lot more that happened at the regional retreat, including:
1. Board training on fiscal and legal responsibilities of a non-profit board
2. Training on how to be a coach
3. Review and affirmation of our National Strategic Plan.
4. Training on effective board meetings
5. Execution of our first board meeting
6. Lots of other stuff that I'd have to check the minutes for...
Well we have lots of work ahead of us. Thank you for all your support and feedback. Thank you especially to those chapter members who have shared with me their viewpoint of the organization including our weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. I look forward to continuing to serve you all.
BC
You may remember last fiscal year some surveys and analysis being done to compare SHPE to other organizations and to try to quantify the value of a SHPE membership to our constituents. One of the outcomes of this research was verification that the value of SHPE is worth more than what we charge in dues. This is definitely true for student members and usually true for professionals, although we have been unpredictable in our delivery of that value to professionals. During our last board meeting last fiscal year, a vote was established to increase member dues slightly or all membership types. For professionals, the dues would not increase revenue returned to chapters, but instead all additional revenue would be applied to increasing professional program value. A very difficult decision but one that will enable us to increase our impact on working Latino STEM professionals. This aligns directly to our mission and I support it. Specific details of these rate changes and when they go into effect will be announced very soon.
Leading up to and at our retreat, sponsored by Boeing (thank you Boeing) we spent a good portion of time around the concept of creating a more strategic board. We worked as a group to try to understand what key factors were preventing successful and repeatable execution experienced by our members. We also did analysis around the key factors preventing us from adopting a more executive level of professionals to join the board and help drive SHPE's mission.
Both of these problems were somewhat related which helped us develop our set of countermeasures which result in:
1. More focus on regional and chapter communication and processes
2. Less tactical responsibilities for RVPs
3. More ability for RVPs to become influencers instead of executers
4. More support for efforts to grow SHPE Jr Chapters and Noche events
5. A process for holding committees accountable to execution and budget utilization
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| New Regional Committee Structure |
Finally we are establishing new monthly metrics reviews, which lead to committee report outs during NBOD meetings. This new focus on accountability will help us achieve our goals sustainably.
There was a lot more that happened at the regional retreat, including:
1. Board training on fiscal and legal responsibilities of a non-profit board
2. Training on how to be a coach
3. Review and affirmation of our National Strategic Plan.
4. Training on effective board meetings
5. Execution of our first board meeting
6. Lots of other stuff that I'd have to check the minutes for...
Well we have lots of work ahead of us. Thank you for all your support and feedback. Thank you especially to those chapter members who have shared with me their viewpoint of the organization including our weaknesses and opportunities for improvement. I look forward to continuing to serve you all.
BC
