BYU Management Society – Forming Chapters Based on Ward or Stake Boundaries
Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Management Society News, Vison of the Society
Tags: BYU management Society, employment, ethical, job posting, Job Search, LDS Church, leardership, membership, moral, Stakes, Wards
I suggested that we form a Chapter of the BYU Management Society in my ward and believe those who join would enjoy the following benefits:
- Breakfasts: meet together monthly or quarterly in our area for breakfast early enough not to interfere with regular business schedules;
- Networking: learn more about each other’s business and professional lives and expertise;
- Speakers: invite local LDS or non-LDS leaders in business, government, the arts, etc. to speak to us;
- Recognition: give an award to or otherwise recognize non-LDS local individuals and businesses who exemplify high moral and ethical standards;
- Community: instead of being just a “bedroom” community, become connected with this wonderful area we live in;
- Employment: be a support to priesthood leaders in providing informal consulting to those seeking jobs or career development;
- Golf Tournament: hold an annual golf tournament to benefit a worthy charitable cause;
- Business Setting: invite our non-LDS friends and neighbors to get to know us in a non-Church business setting;
- Global: membership in this organization connects you with chapters of business professionals in 60 US cities and 18 countries worldwide who share our values;
- Diversity: you do not need to be a BYU alumnus or even LDS to belong to this organization. The vision of the BYU Management Society is “growing moral and ethical leadership around the world.” Anyone who shares this vision may join. We would especially encourage women, minorities and those of other faiths to join.
- “Standing for Something”: our affiliation with the Marriott School at BYU is an internationally recognized “brand” which communicates the values to which we adhere without limiting membership. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked the Marriott School #1 in regional MBA schools and #2 in ethics at MBA schools nationwide.
- President Hinckley: at the Worldwide Alumni Gathering, November 7, 2003, President Hinckley encouraged us to use the BYU “brand” to build the Kingdom and stand up for moral and ethical values:
- Your alma mater will grow in the respect of leaders throughout the earth who will increasingly recognize the unique abilities and unusual qualities of BYU graduates. The stature of BYU graduates will enhance the good name of the Church wherever they go and do inestimable good in advancing the work of the Lord. As moral and ethical values weaken and decline in societies worldwide, the gap between the world and this Church will widen. Those who live according to LDS standards will stand out from the crowd and receive recognition as those who can be counted on.
- Elder David B. Haight: encouraged members of the BYU Management Society as follows:
- We need members of the BYU Management Society to help build the moral base of our communities. You have standards, ideals and values that will not only lead you to success, but will bless and strengthen this nation and all the world.
The idea of forming a chapter in my own ward came to me today, as noted above. I talked to a few people and they were very excited. Obviously, if this model works and can be applied elsewhere, this has the potential to grow our organization exponentially. Maybe this is what we have been waiting for.
Any thoughts on forming ward or stake chapters? Could this work in your area? Is this too much, too quick? For me, I am excited and think it will work. Let me know your thoughts.
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I have two concerns:
1. I don’t like the idea of connecting this directly to Church meetings. We want this to be a professional organization not a “church organization,” even since the mission of the Church and our Gospel values underlies our work. A church centered organization will have too much bias to males, too much reliance on church “lingo” and on Church promotion. It may tend to become exclusionary of our non-member friends. I think it may confuse our purposes, becoming more oriented to “firesides” than to professional seminars. It may create some distance between members who may view the business professionals as ‘haves” and the rest as “have nots.”
I don’t have a probem connecting this to a Stake GEOGRAPHY, but not to the ecceleasiastical functions of a Stake.
2. I think we should walk before we run and this sounds as moving too fast to me.
Bill,
This idea of a “Ward Chapter” has merit if it forms the nucleus that would grow into a full chapter of 200 active members which would be co-ed, open to all LDS and Non-LDS professionals within a “natural footprint”. It should be a provisional chapter, or sub-chapter, for a pre-determined period of 24 to 36 months max, and have an aggressive recruiting goal being achieved within these time periods. It would effectively grow a chapter from the “inside-out”.
It’s been BYU’s model to blanket mail a certain market area and “draw in” a base membership that then grows numbers from the entire chapter footprint. Your plan is a reverse approach and could succeed, but it should not be allowed to remain a “quorum level” or even a ward level activity in the long run, in my opinion.
The reason you’ve got my attention and why I think that this could be a viable option is that when I moved to little Lynchburg, (which only has three small wards), there was this informal lunch club that is called the LDS Businessmens’ Lunch where 15-20 brethren from all three wards are gather once a month and just meet & eat & pass the gossip, (or network as you would call it). I can see this becoming bigger with the right vision, especially if the original group catches the bigger vision of bringing the BYU Marriott School into their resource pool.
The seasoned chapters are the model for longevity and legecy, (not the start-ups which burn bright but burn out all too soon).
Sonny
We are experimenting in the San Diego Chapter this year with the formation of a couple of more-localized groups meeting under the auspice of the San Diego Chapter. It is not necessarily a ‘ward’ or ’stake’ group, but the founding members of the group generally live in the Del Mar Stake. We’re calling it the Del Mar Executive Roundtable.
The meetings will be less formal than our full chapter meetings. The plan is for us to get together for breakfast once every quarter or so. We plan to take turns providing ‘content’, but will also sometimes bring in other people for a brief presentation. The feel is more like a Relief Society ‘enrichment’ group, but the topics focused on management, business, peer mentoring, networking, etc.
The idea came from a group of LDS CEOs in Sacramento who get together occasionally to bounce ideas off their peer group. They discuss topics like discussing a possible new startup one of the execs was considering starting, how to handle employee issues, strategy, where everyone expects the economy to go, work/life balance, setting personal goals and others.
We hope that these localized sub-chapter groups will be good feeders for our chapter membership.
This all is prospective, so I don’t know how it will turn out. But the initial reaction was very positive – I haven’t had anyone NOT interested. We’ll have some datapoints to share at the end of the year.
Kurt
Kurt:
Thanks for posting what you are doing. I hope others are subscribing to/reading the blog because it is a nice way to keep track of these conversations.
Congratulations on your experiment in Del Mar. It sounds like you are building something people want to come to.
I need to update my original post because we have made some significant course corrections since then. The biggest one is the shift away from “Church” to “community.” (See Brian Dixon’s comment, above.)
Although I originally drew from my contacts in the LDS Church, we were advised against using “Church” terminology, boundaries, etc. In retrospect, I believe this was very wise advise.
We are now partnering with the City of Rancho Santa Margarita in the Chamber of Commerce, which we never would have been able to do if we were using Church lingo. We want this to become a “community” organization using the resources of the BYU Marriott School but with no religious content. We have had positive feedback from individuals of varying faiths, not just LDS. There seems to be a significant demand for content based on “moral and ethical leadership.” That is our Hedgehog Concept. Nothing else matters.
This community focus has been facilitated with our selection of the Bell Tower Regional Community Center as a meeting place. This is a gorgeous, state-of-the-art community building which was built by a private foundation but one of its restrictions is that it cannot be used by a religious group and you cannot even say a prayer on the premises. This has actually turned to our benefit because I believe it helps us stay more focused on a nonreligious, professional setting.
Let’s keep the dialogue going and I am anxious to hear how your subchapters turn out. We had 18 people at our organizing meeting and 65 people at our first breakfast. The response I’ve heard is that because people can come to a breakfast before they head off for work, it has opened up our membership to a much broader group. We’ll keep you posted.