Growing moral and ethical leadership around the world

I hope everyone feels that our meeting today was as exciting and energetic as I thought it was.  I am going to set out a few of my thoughts from the meeting but I'm going to request that you make comments below adding to or correcting what I posted.

First, in attendance were the following: Hal Halladay, Carol Pearson, Mike Robinson, Sean Kennedy, Eric Kennedy, Paul Hoffman, Ralph Nielsen, Debbie Dixon,Dyke Huish, Brent North, Janeil Lambourne, Jim Whitesides, Kevin McDaniel, Tom Thorkelson, Dave Guido, Jeff Shields and myself, myself Bill Chapman.

I gave a PowerPoint presentation on the history of the BYU Management Society and the Orange County Management Association.  Carol Pearson prepared and handed out a copy of the list of all of the speakers from 2000-2007.  This list is has been posted as a prior entry on this blog.

Dave Guido gave a short explanation of BYU Job Search, a new state-of-the-art, sophisticated, online job posting/search program.  This program matches employers with prospective employees according to a criteria chosen by the employer, and also by the candidates results on a scientific, reliable, and valid job match assessment. More information on this will follow.

Some of the other discussions centered on the following topics:

• E-Mail Lists: I asked everyone present (or anyone reading this) to e-mail me, preferably in Excel or other spreadsheet format, any e-mail lists that they are willing to share with us for publicizing our offense.  Brent North suggested that any events related to employment should be e-mailed to everyone on LDS Employment's e-mail list.
• Public Affairs: Tom Thorkelson said that Public Affairs has a meeting in January the is mandatory for all Stake Presidents to attend.  We should speak with Joe Bentley about getting our events on the agenda and find out which, if any, Stake Presidents will allow us to publicize these events in their stakes.
• Marketing: Hal Halladay suggested we craft a message about the OCMA tying in to the quote from President Hinckley on moral and ethical values and business.  Activities such as a job fair would probably be most well-received by priesthood leaders.  Jim Whitesides commented that most Stake Presidents will be receptive when we propose solutions as opposed to request help.
• Skills Seminars: Dyke Huish said that "self help" seminars such as financial planning, estate planning, as long as they are not for the purpose of selling the speakers' services, would be very well received and a great service.   Dave Guido said that the Laguna Niguel Stake puts on workshops of this type on a regular basis.  Perhaps we could coordinate those seminars and help put them on in other areas.
• Finances: Debbie Dixon reported on the funds available in our bank account at present.
• Core Business:  Debbie Dickson acknowledged the value of all of these ideas, however, she recommended that we stick to our core activities before we move on to other things.  At present, that is planning speakers for 2008.

The following is a list of events were approved for 2008:

• February: Jim Doti or Dr. Esmael Adibi, from Chapman University.  Hal Halladay to invite.
•  April: Kim Tobler, CFO, Irvine Company.  Dyke Huish to invite.
• June: Pete Carroll, Norm Chow or other coach at USC.  Mike Robinson to invite.
• July: Career Night.  Paul Hoffman and Mike Robinson to chair.
  
• October: Dick Marriott, Chairman, Host Marriott Corporation.  Ralph Neilsen to invite.
• November: Entrepreneurs Conference.  Chair to be determined.
  

Other possible speakers include David Neeleman, Richard Bushman, Bronco Mendenhall, Rob Weber, David Sorenson (after July) and Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay.  It was discussed and thought that we should avoid BYU sports figures, religious topics as a general rule.  Also, although we would love to have big-name national speakers, those will probably be reserved for our once every two year dinner event which is not scheduled until 2009.

We also discussed selecting business related topics of interest to the general membership of the Church, such as career development, financial planning, hiring and firing employees, etc.

We discussed using the Knobbe Martens conference room for our luncheons (no cost and same location as the Law Society), but did not decide on a location. 

We decided to rotate months with the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.  They take the odd months, we take the even months.  We will skip August and December due to vacations and holidays.

After the meeting, other topics were raised that I believe deserve further discussion and we would love to get your input by way of this blog.  First, what are the benefits of the OCMA name versus the BYU Management Society?  Second, we ended up selecting only four luncheons for the entire year focused on "name" speakers instead of topics.  Third, should we switch to a breakfast format which would minimize the intrusion into people's schedules from a time and commuting standpoint.  (The Bay Area chapter switched from luncheons to breakfasts and reports that it has been extremely successful.)

Please give us your input on the above topics and especially, point out any errors in my reporting.