Email Response to Concern That the BYU Management Society Is a Religious Group
Posted on December 28, 2007
Filed Under Act Professionally
Tags: Alumni Groups, BYU management Society, Community, Diversity, Inclusiveness, Professionalism, Religion
In seeking to reserve a room in a local community center, I was asked to respond in writing to a concern that the BYU Management Society might be considered a “religious” group not appropriate for meeting in the community center. Below is my response to the request.
Nancy:
This e-mail is in response to your request for a little background information on our organization, purpose for meeting and to confirm our request for a room rental at the Bell Tower Regional Community Center.
We are in the process of forming a new chapter of the BYU Management Society in Rancho Santa Margarita. The official chapter name will be the “Rancho Santa Margarita Management Society, Affiliated with the BYU Marriott School.” We operate under the 501(c)3 of Brigham Young University. If you need formal documentation, I will have to get that to you next week.
The mission statement of the BYU Management Society is “growing moral and ethical leadership around the world.” As stated on the BYU Management Society website,
The Management Society was founded in 1977 by Dean Merrill J. Bateman as an organization of alumni and friends of the BYU College of Business—now Marriott School of Management. Membership includes not only BYU and Marriott School alumni, but many other business professionals with the same desire for professional advancement, high ethical standards, career development, and continuing education. Twenty-Five years after its founding, the management society is an influential organization with about 6,000 members in 40 U.S. cities and 10 (now 18) countries.
With regard to your concern about whether this is a religious group and whether the purpose of the meeting will be religious in nature, you may want to look at the portion of the website dedicated to our Cultural Beliefs, which includes the following statement:
Act Professionally
I act with professional respect to include all.
-
- Explanation: This is a professional society that addresses people and programs in a professional way. At the same time, the society is inclusive – of age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, career path, alma mater, religious affiliation etc. All members should clearly conduct themselves in a professional manner (not casual or ecclesiastical) through their dress, speech, meeting agendas, etc. Members (and particularly leaders) are culturally and socially aware of their differences and strive to make them strengths.
Although Brigham Young University is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the BYU Management Society is not a church entity nor is it an alumni group. As set forth above, membership is open to members of the community of any age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, career path, alma mater, religious affiliation etc.
As I indicated to you on the phone, we would like to reserve the La Mirada Multipurpose Room of the Bell Tower Regional Community Center for a meeting on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. We plan on serving a light, continental breakfast and will clean the room before we leave.
We understand that there are to be no prayers offered in the building and the facilities are not to be used for religious purposes. The purpose of our meetings will be to invite local business and government leaders to speak, as well as allow Society members to network and mentor each other.
Currently, we are planning on holding these meetings on the Third Wednesday of every month. However, as I get more feedback from our members, that may change. Please let me know if you have any further questions and whether you can confirm our use of the meeting room and how to proceed with payment. Thank you for your courtesy and corporation.
–
Bill Chapman
Comments
Trackback URL for this post:
4 Responses to “Email Response to Concern That the BYU Management Society Is a Religious Group”
Leave a Reply
Subscribe
Subscribe
Prefer Email?
I think that it is fine that people seek understanding to our mission. The simple answer is the better answer in this case:
–Our direct affiliation is with BYU…an academic institution.
–Our mission is professsional, not religious. Our topics, our behavior, our inclusion are all professional.
I like your use of our mission, and cultural beliefs support who we are.
–Brian
Bill,
Thanks for such a professional response. I agree with your statements and am honored to be a part of such a great organization. I look foward to seeing you at our BNI meeting on Jan. 8th. If anyone else wants to see how BNI works and how well it complements with the BYU managment society, please contact me via cell or email and let me know if you’re interested in coming. Thanks again Bill for all your hard work!
Jennifer Proffit
Regency Real Estate Brokers
949-412-8752
BYU Management Society is a professional organization under Marriott School of Management. Members come from different religious backgrounds, but that is the nature of all professional organizations. Management Society member use professional titles and meetings have a business focus. In fact, professional business etiquette is expected from all who come to activities.
I was the president of Silicon Valley chapter and meetings were held in hotels, restaurant meeting rooms, and other community facilities. All these establishments like to serve our organization because of the type of people we brought in. I was able to negotiate good, reduced rates because or the moral and ethic values represented in this professional organization. We collected membership dues from our members to pay for events in addition to cost of a lunch or dinner.
Helsinki Finland chapter, which was organized in August 2007, is registered in the government offices as an “ry” indicating its status as a formal, professional society/organization. Its meetings are held at a university library.
This is a wonderful organization to bring people from different background together to network. learn, and connect about various business topics.
I concur with other blog comments and can confirm that the Minnesota chapter at one time had 15-20 members (of 75 total) who were of other faiths than the LDS church.
We also had another 10-15 members who were not alumni of BYU.