On behalf of the Women in HVAC Board of Directors, I am excited to share our latest and very important updates. Most importantly, we have selected the date and city for our 15th annual and 2nd standalone annual conference: September 20 and 21 in the mile-high city of Denver, CO. This year’s theme is “Defying Gravity.” And what better city for a group of successful, goal-oriented women to soar to new heights?
In Wicked, the song is the finale for the show's first act, when Elphaba discovers that The Wizard of Oz is not the heroic figure she had originally believed him to be. Realizing this, and despite Glinda's attempts to dissuade her, Elphaba vows to do everything in her power to fight the Wizard and his sinister plans against the Animals of Oz. She sings of how she wants to live without limits, going against the rules that others have set for her."1
Like Elphaba, we vow to do everything in our power to improve the lives of our members by providing professional avenues to connect with other women growing their careers in the HVAC industry. This conference is one of our highlights in terms of providing a networking opportunity that is also educational and fun! It’s a couple of days where we are empowered to live without limits, going against the rules that others have set for us and literally rising to the top (well, at least a mile high)!
We are in the process of selecting the venue, discussing tours and an optional excursion for those who want to stay an extra day and play, and researching keynote speakers for the event. We have also taken your suggestion from the 2017 meeting into account and will pay close attention to them as we develop the agenda. We expect last year’s attendance of at least 120 members and non-members alike, media professionals, educators, and students to attend our annual gathering in the fall. Please visit the “events” page on our website for updates.
Our education committee is in the process of producing some wonderful interactive web updates, multimedia presentations and leave behinds for secondary and post-secondary classrooms. Our mentorship committee is working on the last tweaks for a website update and new information will be sent out to all mentors and mentees as soon is it’s ready (be sure to let us know if you’re interested in participating in this program!). Our new partnerships and affiliations committee has established their mission to “identify and form mutually beneficial partnerships with like-minded organizations and companies that create win-win opportunities for our organization and our members.” Our sponsorship committee has been working hard to secure our 2018 sponsors – the lifeblood of our organization – while researching ways to provide more value to them; and our scholarship committee is ready to release applications for our 2018 Scholarship program. This year we will be rewarding four $2000 monetary scholarships.
If you will be attending the Blue Hawk Annual Meeting in Chicago, please be sure to attend our reception from 5:00 to 6:00 at Shula’s Private Dining Room. We’d love to see you there!
1 Wikipedia
Way back when, I loved to play basketball. As a kid I would stand under the basket and rebound for hours as my older brother took shot after shot at the goal. As a senior in high school, I played on not one, but two basketball teams. I was homeschooled and naturally we didn’t have a team, but the city I lived in allowed us to participate in team sports with the local private schools. So, I joined a private school team, but, my senior year, one team wasn’t enough. The other team was a good old fashion knock em’ out church league, and if you’ve played for a church league before, then you know exactly what I mean.
WINNING IS NOT ALWAYS WINNING
At the time, the church I attended didn’t actually have a team. So, I approached my church board and politely requested they sponsor a team to represent our church. The sponsorship cost was $200 and as a 17-year-old, $200 was a lot to request! I insured them that this would be a great networking opportunity for our church and a way to be more involved in what was going on in our community. I wasn’t too confident in my ability to persuade, but fortunately for me, they handed me a check for $200 and we joined the league. However, my persuasion ended in their negotiation.
REWARD AND CONSEQUENCES
As a teenager, $200 was a lot of money! But money is never free, money always has a price…and in this case, the cost was ten weeks of cleaning! In exchange for the league registration fee I had to agree that myself and the team would commit to cleaning the church building, from top to bottom, every Saturday for ten weeks! I eagerly agreed, eager being the key word here. The first week, myself and four of my teammates arrived early Saturday morning and spent hours scrubbing the youth building and the main church sanctuary. You can guess that by the second week of cleaning I was cleaning alone.
Naturally, I thought I was being persuasive when we were making the deal, but hind sight is often 20/20, too bad I didn’t know the negotiating power that was on my side of the court. Now, years later, I recognize I was a terrible negotiator, and I recognize I was not truly the servant leader I thought I was.
How often do we stay late working on tasks that could have easily been delegated or shared, because of poor planning? This style ‘servant leadership’ is a quick way to end up holding the broom in a very large dirty building…alone.
THINK IT THROUGH
At the time, it didn’t seem like such a bad deal. I was just glad to be the captain of my team and playing basketball each week. Time is a great teacher. Obviously, hard work builds character, but when you’re building a lucrative business, smart work builds profit. We don’t always know this early on, when we just want to be on the team and play in the game.
Negotiation, powered by raw excitement, can limit your playing power. This scenario could have easily been reversed if only I had taken a harder look at the offers on the table and left my emotions in the blue service van my dad let me drive as a teenager. I wanted so badly to play basketball that I didn’t negotiate a reasonable rate. In reality, I’m sure I could have gotten the $200 from my dad…or better yet, I could have gotten the $200 for five weekly cleanings at the church and made it mandatory for the team. “You don’t clean, you don’t play.” Servant leadership can often be self-inflicted. Clear communication, and mindful negotiation, together, create win-win situations.
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Back Row: Chisholm Brunner, Lauren Roberts, Angie Snow, Julie Roberts, Marcia Christianson, Colleen Keyworth Front Row: Mary Jo Gentry, Kristin Jordan, Karen Lamey DeSousa, Danielle Putnam, Renee Joseph, Colleen Leppert