It Was a Beautiful Day in Pinehurst

When the RFP was sent out for the 25th Anniversary of the AENC Golf Outing, we knew we wanted it to be special. And thanks to the wonderful folks at Pinehurst, it was a fantastic way to celebrate 25 years of golf – AENC style.

The Golf Outing started the night before, thanks to the folks from the Greenville Hospitality Partners. They were kind enough to host an evening reception for those coming into town early. The Greenville folks always deliver and we thank you so much for kicking off the event as you have for several years now.

On Monday morning, when the staff arrived at Pinehurst No. 8, there was a calm in the air as the carts we already staged and the attentive staff from Pinehurst were there waiting for our every question and concern. The day was slightly overcast with a nice breeze and you could tell this was going to be a great day.

Thank you again to the wonderful team from Pinehurst – including Sara Green and Wayne Kearney and to Bev Stewart with the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area CVB. They were very instrumental in bringing the 25th Annual event to Pinehurst.

Thank you also to all of our sponsors for making the vent successful - Holiday Inn Resort Wrightsville Beach, Hickory Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, Crowne Plaza Tennis & Golf Resort Asheville, Visit Charlotte, Grandover Resort & Conference Center and Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons, Wilmington Convention Center, Marriott at RTP, Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, JQH Embassy Suites Hotels of the Carolinas [Embassy Suites Concord-Charlotte; Embassy Suites Research Triangle; Embassy Suites & Homewood Suites-Greensboro], Marriott [Greensboro Marriott Downtown, Myrtle Beach Marriott at Grande Dunes, Marriott Hilton Head Island]. Greenville Hospitality Partners (CVB), Greensboro Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, The Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa, Francis Marion Hotel & Westin Poinsett, Kingston Plantation, A Hilton & Embassy Suites Resort, Greater Raleigh Convention & Visitors Bureau, Millennium Print Group, Fifth Third Bank and GEICO. We couldn’t do it without your support.

Congrats to our winners for this years’ event:
Lory Lachapelle – Women’s Closest to the Pin on #5 and Women’s Straightest Drive on #16
Derek Allen – Men’s Closet to the Pin on # 13
Michelle Streath – Women’s Longest Drive on #11
Casey Wallen – Men’s Longest Drive on #11
Lew Ebert – Men’s Straightest Drive on #16

Our winning players include:
3rd Place, with a score of 57 (-15), was Chris Alford, Randy Danison, Mark Marion and Frank Paszkowski

2nd Place, with a score of 56 (-16),  was Wally Adamchik, Chris Fohrer, John Houston, and Jeff Schade

1st Place, with a score of 55 (-17), was Tracy Aldridge, Terry Crawford and Marty Waugh

Also, thanks to those who provided door prizes and congrats to the winners:

Pine Needles – Mid Pines Golf Resorts: Lew Ebert
Alabama Theatre & Hilton Myrtle Beach Resort:Tom Akins
Crowne Plaza Tennis & Golf Resort Asheville: John Cruz
Greensboro Area CVB: Chuck Borman
CVB Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area: Doug Carlson, Mark Marion
NC Association of Electric Cooperatives: Kelley Erstine
The Homestead: Jan Kelly
Cypress Lakes Golf Course: Chip McDonald
AENC: Marty Waugh, Ginny Fountain, Chris Fohrer

Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s 25th Annual AENC Golf Outing.

To see all of the pictures from the event, click here.

Take care and see you in Greensboro for the AENC Annual Meeting!

Turning the Membership Model on It’s Head

This past week I was exposed to an organization that is turning the membership model on its head. Upon studying it further, its the kind of model that threatens the traditional membership organization.

The organization is called the Hospitality Industry Professionals (HIP) Network. According to their website, the network began in 2008 and is the fastest-growing community of meeting, event, travel and hospitality professionals in the US with over 4,000+ members. They produce high-energy events that fuel professional growth, help facilitate durable industry relationships and provide industry resources that complement their member’s ever-growing needs.

While that doesn’t sound any different than the mission of many of our organizations, its what they have done with their membership model that sets them apart.

Can you take a guess at what the cost of membership was and what the member registration was like?

Well, if you are like our organization, and you likely are, the cost of membership is an annual fee of $275 or we also offer group memberships that are more affordable for multiple staff.

And the registration process is fairly simple. You download (or we email) a membership application and then you complete it and return to AENC. Some mail, some fax and some scan. Either way, we get the data and process the application. We process payment and process in database the information and then send an acknowledgement of membership. In a few days we send out a new member kit, followed by in a few weeks a member orientation.

As I said, it isn’t probably very different from many of our member organizations. So, what set the HIP Network apart from any other membership based organization?

As a test, I joined the HIP Network and upon visiting their website, was able to join and receive my membership confirmation in less than 5-minutes. And here is the kicker, there was no charge for membership in the organization as a planner. Nothing, Nada. You get all the benefits of membership like a traditional association, but there is no membership fee.

So, how do they make money. They have increased membership numbers to such a large degree they were able to justify charging supplier members $795. In addition, because of the large numbers and rapid growth, they have been able to garner tremendous sponsor support on their website and through their events. AENC, for example,  is  promoting a HIP Network hybrid event in mid-May.

The organization has figured out how to provide the same products and services as a traditional association and figured out how to allow its primary members free entry. Which begs the question – we all say we are supporting the professions or industry we serve, correct? So, how do we compete with an organization who has lowered two big barriers to membership – ease and cost.

We need to learn to compete with this, it could be the new membership business model.

Building the Involvement of Women at all Levels of Governance in North Carolina

By Guest Blogger Annette Taylor

Women come from every industry to run for public office or dedicate themselves to public service work. They are business entrepreneurs, health care workers, nonprofit volunteers, executives, scientists, government employees, housewives and more—their backgrounds are as varied as one can imagine.

Political decisions are often made with small business in mind, however, so an understanding of how business operates is very helpful. Raleigh’s own Mayor Nancy McFarlane, for example, is the owner and founder of MedPro Rx, Inc., an accredited specialty infusion pharmacy that provides infusion medications and services to clients with chronic illnesses.

Sometimes women may start out as a volunteer with the school system before launching themselves into public office. They might be homemakers who have volunteered their efforts to their local neighborhood association. One county commissioner in Hillsborough grew tired of the unfinished buildings she kept seeing on the roadside, so she began asking around to find out what the issue was behind these eyesores. Someone suggested to her, “Why don’t you get on the planning committee?” and that became her start. After her advocacy led to some changes, she left for vacation one day, and when she returned, the mayor asked her to run for office!

To serve on appointed boards and commissions or win an appointed or elected office, women must have a passion for a particular issue. That is the true ticket to public service. It takes understanding of how to turn that passion into action in order to take advocacy to the next level. If you want change to happen, you must be a part of that change.

Mentorship

From a practical viewpoint, though, it often takes a mentor for a woman to succeed in public office or public service work. Many women do not know that programs such as ours exist. The North Carolina Center for Women in Public Service (NCCWPS) is a nonpartisan organization that prepares women to seek and serve in elected and appointed office, advocates for systems and structures that facilitate women’s involvement, and promotes the value of women’s participation in governance.

We offer two major programs:

• Women on Board Workshops – A one-day interactive workshop in which participants are prepared to seek and serve in appointed positions. Individuals learn about the barriers women face, how to navigate boards and commissions, and develop strategies and next steps to appointed office.
• Women in Office Institute – A six-day residential intensive leadership academy where participants gain knowledge about the political process and gain the confidence to explore or pursue governmental leadership. Participants hone their leadership skills, prepare for political campaigning, and develop tools for effective and ethical public service.

Of the 103 graduates of the Women in Office Institute since 2004, 50 percent are now directly involved in public service through either an appointed or elected position, 22 percent have run for or been elected to office, and 31 percent have secured appointments.  More than 200 community leaders have participated in the Women on Board workshops, and approximately 15 percent have reported pursuing a local advisory board appointment.

In our workshops, one of the most exciting segments is the panel discussion, which features three female elected officials who share their public service experience and answer participants’ questions. An ideal audience size for the Women on Board workshops is about 25 women, but we have hosted as many as 40. Women must submit an application and $30 fee to participate in workshops. For acceptance into the Women in Office Institute, an interview process is expected.  The ideal class size for the Institute is 16 to 18 women. Ideal candidates will indicate a commitment to public service, express clearly their passion for an issue or cause, as well as interest in addressing the societal problems that exist.

 

We teach women all the fundamentals of political campaigning, ethics, public speaking strategies and, communications—including social media—and fundraising. We believe that appointed boards and commissions are the springboards for elected office. Before we go into a town and hold a workshop, we do our own research and find out what vacancies exist on the boards or commissions, and we provide workshop attendees with that information.

Through building the involvement of women at all levels of governance in North Carolina, the NCCWPS helps women channel their passion, find their voice, expand their support network and ultimately get elected or appointed to a position where they can be an influential leader and make a real change through public service.

Annette Taylor is executive director for the North Carolina Center for Women in Public Service (NCCWPS), a nonpartisan organization that prepares women for elected and appointed offices statewide. For more information, call (919) 832-9996 or visit http://www.nccwps.org.

12 Tips for Mastering Your To-Do List

By Guest Blogger Jeff Davidson

Some people are highly effective at maintaining a to-do list and executing the items on the list. Here are a number of do’s and don’ts gleaned over the years from my observations on what makes for a successful career professional.

Things to do with your list:

1. Think ahead. Draw up your list at the end of the day for the next day, or very early in the morning for the day that will unfold. That gives you the best opportunity, free from interruptions, to jot down those items that are current and vital.
2. Stick with the plan. As much as possible, refrain from adding items for the same day to your to-do list after you have written it. Sometimes that is unavoidable, but as often as you can, stick with the items that you first mapped out.
3. Cross it off. By all means, when you do finish a task, joyfully cross it off your list. Reducing the number of items remaining on the list is a positive reinforcer that will help you continue on in productive ways.
4. Acknowledge other completions. If you happen to accomplish something during the day that wasn’t on your to-do list but was important, feel free to write it on the to-do list and then immediately cross it off. That may sound like extra work or a meaningless gesture, but countless people have told me that they psychologically benefit from acknowledging completed tasks that might not have appeared on the list but needed to be handled.
5. Reevaluate. Once or twice throughout the day, perhaps mid- to late afternoon, reassess what’s on your list. Is it all still appropriate? Are some items better handled at another time because they do not merit your attention immediately?
6. Take a closer look. Continually monitor whether the items on your list need to be done at all. Sometimes situations take care of themselves. Sometimes someone else in your office completes part of a project that might minimize what you need to do on your end. Sometimes you can delegate a task. And, sometimes you can automate tasks that previously required manual and individual attention. The key is to constantly assess whether a task needs to be done at all, whether it needs to be done by you, and whether it needs to be done today.
7. Make refinements. As the day comes to a close, hone and refine your list. What’s left over that you must address the next day? What do you need to add to the list that merits your attention for tomorrow? In other words, it’s okay now to heap on new tasks that you refrained from putting on today’s list.
8. Tidy up. Clean up your list. Put the items in the order that you want to tackle them, make everything concise, and you’ll be on your path to normal productivity again tomorrow.

Things to avoid:

1. Procrastinating on the big stuff. One of the biggest traps that people fall into once they begin executing the items on their to-do list is postponing the item or items that they know are the most important. They have it on the list for a reason, and they know they need to tackle that task right away, but the procrastination beast rears its ugly head and gets in the way of things. Resolve, at the start of the day, that you will take the appropriate action to complete the task(s) you classified as important and meriting attention.
2. Being afraid to rethink. Although I have emphasized the importance of not heaping on other stuff throughout the day once you have your list squared up, sometimes situations do merit a fundamental change in how you’re going to spend your time over the next couple of hours. Sometimes the task is so compelling that you have no choice, and so, to-do list or not, you plunge headlong into it.
3. Refusing to shift gears. From a strategic standpoint, when a significant change occurs in your external environment—such as when a prospect becomes a client, your boss issues an edict, something you thought was completely done gets thrown back in your lap, and so on—then it’s relatively easy to shift gears. What’s more difficult is recognizing when to shift gears, simply because it makes sense, not just in an emergency situation. Don’t be afraid to shift gears when you need to, regardless of the external circumstances.
4. Ignoring your energy level. In executing the items on your to-do list, it’s also important to pay homage to your own energy level. It would be wonderful to tackle the most important thing first, the second-most-important thing second, and so on. Sometimes, however, your physical or mental energy is not all it needs to be as you approach the next item on the list. At that juncture, tackle anything that you can. Completing a small task at this point can provide the mental victory that will propel you on to a more difficult or involved task.

Jeff Davidson, “The Work-Life Balance Expert®,” has written 59 mainstream books, is an authority on time management, and is an electrifying professional speaker. He is the author of Breathing Space and Simpler Living. He believes that career professionals today in all industries have a responsibility to achieve their own sense of work-life balance, and he supports that quest through his website www.BreathingSpace.com.