The afternoon session extended the leadership training started in the morning sessions. The group broke into two sessions. One, aimed at helping members become better leaders at their place of work, was called “The Triple Whammy: Change, Communication, and Conflict.” The other, primarily for SLA members who want to improve their leadership skills in terms of their chapters and divisions, was called “Cracker Jack Membership Strategies and Volunteer Involvement Techniques.” Happily, the handout included the slides for both sessions. Leadership Outfitters, Inc. prepared the sessions, as they did for last year’s Leadership Summit.

I went to the Cracker Jack session and, yes, Jill McCrory, the presenter, had boxes of cracker jacks and rewarded attendees by handing them out. Since last year, the Leadership Outfitters people have obviously studied up on SLA structure. Although some of what Jill got us thinking about was generic, and I thought she relied too much on Lions Club examples and social/charitable organizations rather than the professional association that SLA is, she was able to relate some of it directly to chapters and divisions. The handouts, however, only used the word chapter, never division.

Jill, who is a very energetic speaker and excellent at involving the audience in the learning experience, started with the Cracker Jack theme by asking “What’s the ‘Hidden Prize’ in your chapter?” We considered why people join and why they don’t. How do we brand the association, as well as chapters and divisions, and should we re-brand, repackage, revamp, reformulate? Now it’s on to finding new members and replenishing the chapter/division. It’s not just what new members want from us; it’s what we want from them. An interesting question from the audience, “Why do we want new members?” Answers, also from the audience, included replacing those who leave (retirement, change jobs, who knows why) and getting new ideas from new members.

Keys to motivation include expectations, success, contribution, and skills. Jill quoted from a Lions Club survey that indicated volunteerism was increasing.

Jill led a group exercise of sending a marble around on sticks. It required teamwork and was designed to demonstrate that each one of us is responsible for the success of everybody else.

Comment from the audience: It’s easier to promote membership in a chapter because it’s based on geography and people can actually meet each other face to face during the year. At the division level, it’s harder to get involvement and keep peoples’ interest because divisions meet only once a year are geographically dispersed. Responses from attendees: Pharma does its own conference. What about blogs to help form community? Insurance/Employee Benefits is a very strong, cohesive division. The more continuity of leadership the better.

Why do people turn you down when you ask them to get involved, head a committee, or work on a chapter/division project and how can you ask so that they say yes? Reveal all the information and your expectations; Identify resources and whether they’re available or limited; get the person to share expectations; help make the job or task work for them; and tell them why they’re suited to do this.

Jill wrapped up the day with lots of information about different mindsets, how to involve younger members, suggestions for recognition and motivation.

Feedback from SLA members in the session was positive, with everybody I talked with taking away several good ideas that they plan to use in their chapters/ divisions. More than that you really can’t ask for.