Rancho Santa Margarita Management Society’s Inaugural Event Is a Rousing Success!
Posted on January 17, 2008
Filed Under Meet Purposefully
Tags: Business, BYU management Society, Ethics, leadership, morality, Rancho Santa Margarita
Yesterday’s event exceeded all expectations! With reporters and photographers from two local newspapers, a scrumptuous hot breakfast, the packed room and a speaker who delivered a powerful message on “growing moral and ethical leadership around the world,” our event was a great hit. Not only did about 65 people show up (our goal was 30-35), people could not contain their excitement.
Many of those who attended mingled after the meeting for up to half an hour before heading off to work. One regret that I will share with you is that I wish I had videotaped this event. I have already told Dan McCormick we’re going to have him back and redo this and videotape it. I know this model will not work everywhere, but a few of you may want to try it out in selected areas.
I think Sonny Morris hit the nail on the head when he described this model as growing a chapter from the “Inside Out.” I started by asking people I go to church with every Sunday whether they would be interested in forming a monthly business breakfast group.
Although I started with people I know at church, I was emphatic that this is not a church group and not an alumni group. In fact, ultimately, it is my personal goal to use this organization as a way to reach out to other people in the community whom I do not know and get to know them and become friends with them. It is a group of business people in the community who share the vision of “growing moral and ethical leadership” and want to connect to similar groups who are doing this all over the world.
The concept is we “start with people we know” and expand throughout the neighborhood and nearby communities. We make “growing moral and ethical leadership around the world” what Jim Collins would call our “Hedgehog Concept,” because it is what we are deeply passionate about, believe we can be the best in the world at and best drives our resource engine.
We do not start by asking people to meet with a bunch of strangers, we ask them to meet with people they already know, their friends. They want to know more about the businesses that their friends are involved in and get to know them in a “business” setting. They want to get to know other people in our community but do not know how to go about it. This gives them the vehicle to do that.
I spoke in person or on the phone to about 10 people and sent an e-mail to about 85 people. 20 people showed up at our organizing meeting and I recruited 7 who agreed to be on an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee met one week before our first breakfast. We rented a room in a very professional, local community center for meetings. It is centrally located and is adjacent to City Hall. We hired a caterer who is a stay-at-home mom and would give us a good price and provide a good, hot breakfast. We planned for about 30 people, the largest group we thought we could get on such short notice and with no track record.
I sent out an e-mail to about 250 people in an expanded area beyond just those with whom I go to church but local enough to maintain a community spirit and not be too far for people to travel for breakfast before they go to work. I made a completely unreasonable request of Rixa Oman and her staff that a mass mailer be sent out the first day students got back to school at BYU. Rixa and her staff made it happen. I received my copy six days before the event.
Our speaker, Dan McCormick, bought the rights to and rewrote an old Stirling W. Sill book and retitled it, “Lessons from Great Lives,” a book about 19 the greatest leaders that ever lived. The 19 lives are on the following individuals:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sir Winston Churchill
George Washington Carver
Leonardo da Vinci
Benjamin Franklin
Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll
Joan of Arc
Madame Curie
Sterling W. Sill
Abraham Lincoln
Jesus of Nazareth
Napoleon the Great
Horatio Nelson
Socrates
The Prophet Job
Antonio Stradivari
Booker T. Washington
Mohandas Gandhi
George Washington
Dan spoke about only three of these “lives,” Socrates, Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Franklin. He shared his experience of going to the “Hall of Fame for Great Americans.” He talked about the value of studying the lives of great individuals and how it can affect our lives. He wove our vision of “growing moral and ethical leadership around the world” into his talk in a powerful way.
We have a long way to go in this new little chapter but as a Steering Committee member, this has given me an incredible education. It is the first time I have ever started a chapter myself. Serving on the board of an existing chapter or even as chapter chair does not compare.
So far, it has been a lot of work, but seeing the look on people’s faces when they say they want to be part of “growing moral and ethical leadership” is more than worth the effort. I strongly recommend it for anyone who would like to go on the Indiana Jones ride without coming to Disneyland!
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Bill,
This approach was tremendously successful for you. It is very clear that you put a lot of thought and work into making it a success. The speaker and topic seemed outstanding, and Dan would be a great speaker for other chapters. Your notes and history are amazingly thorough!
I’m glad it went well. I’m going to invite my brother-in-law who lives in Ladera Ranch to your next meeting. He was actually up here skiing in Utah when you had this meeting.
Bill,
The press coverage was great on the RSM meeting. Again, it is advertizing that we cannot buy to have this type of exposure. Congratulations on a very successful kick off for your new chapter!