Pre Conference Leadership Forum

Today I was in the (pre-conference) Leadership Forum from 8:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. The featured Speaker was Bryan Dodge, author of The Good Life Rules: 8 Keys to Being Your Best at Work and at Play. To check him out go to http://www.bryandodge.com/. Bryan broke a personal rule to never speak on a Sunday to speak to us. His father was in this business and he feels an alliance to what we do. Word on the street is that NAHU will have the presentation available on the web site- so keep an eye out for it.

We also got an opportunity to meet Russ Childers, NAHU’s President Elect. As you can see, I got a chance to meet Russ too (check out the picture). Russ was very welcoming as he addressed the group of roughly 120 of us and made us aware of some interesting statistics:

• There are exactly 18,735 members of NAHU.
• There are 220 state and local chapters.
• The average age of a NAHU member is 46 (while the industry overall is 56).
• Our membership is 50% male and 50% female.
  

Russ noted that NAHU has never seen a more motivated Congress than this one and there are aggressive reform goals being discussed on "The Hill”. He noted that some Legislators are pushing for a healthcare reform package to be implemented before the August recess. No doubt folks, this Congress is focused so it is more important than ever that we also stay focused on our message of helping to shape a healthcare system that is not just affordable, but is also accessible and transparent.

Carol Matznick, NAHU Chapter Relations Chair, went over the NAHU organizational structure and also reviewed all the resources available to the chapters through NAHU’s web site. Very good stuff!

The lunch session featured three NAHU Chapter veterans who shared information about increasing membership, education and volunteer action. This was a good Q&A session and I’ve taken notes, but won’t bore you all with them here and now.

The things that Russ and Carol shared will certainly help our chapter. The things Bryan shared will also help me. I will share this thought from Bryan; the key to building an effective association is based on our ability to get others to work with us.

Stay tuned…tomorrow's the start of the 19th NAHU Capitol Conference.