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Outgoing President’s Speech – June 2007 By Kim Farlin I stand before you, a changed woman. This chapter has accomplished what my own family and friends have not been able to accomplish in the past 25 years. The photographer is not only here to document tonight’s meeting with pictures, but to give me the opportunity to show the evidence to my family, especially my parents. What my parents and friends will see is the amount of influence that the National Association of Women Business Owners has on me, in particular, the Central Illinois chapter. Being a leader of an organization is just like being the captain of a ship, the captain of a sport’s team, or the CEO of a company. The direction comes from the top and the duties are accomplished by the team. As your President this past year, I have seen not only new growth within this chapter, but I have seen a new growth in myself as an individual. Being President was a new venture for me, a path I have never taken before. I would like to thank Linda Pes for asking me to serve and I would like to thank the membership for agreeing with that. This has been a chapter in my life that I will forever remember. So let’s see how the chapter has been written. I wanted to continue the growth that I saw during Lynne Johnson’s and Alice Anthony’s tenure. I would have been happy with 18 new members, but the sportsmanship and competitive spirit that I have led me to give a challenge to the chapter to bring in more members. Well, the outfit I am wearing tonight is a testament to the fact that the members of this chapter were willing to meet the challenge. The membership was increased to the point that the chapter received the award for the medium size chapter for bringing in the most members during membership recruitment month. We who attended the National conference held in Atlanta, GA proudly wore the tag “Recruiter Club Supporter” thanks to the phenomenal growth of this chapter. I wanted to encourage the growth of this chapter in such a way that diversity within the chapter shines through loud and clear; diversity by age, diversity by size of company, and diversity by ethnicity. I can look out over the membership and that is what I see and that is what I know. On the flip side of the coin to membership gain is membership retention. Can we keep the members we have? Retention is something that all the NAWBO chapters grapple with. Certainly, this chapter lost members, but we lost fewer members than we gained. I was able to get developed a trifold brochure to help out with the public relations for our chapter and to have something with information that a member could give to a prospective member. I began a bi-monthly series of a breakfast gathering of NAWBO members. This allowed those members unable to attend the monthly meeting or wanting to attend more than the monthly meeting an opportunity to talk and meet other NAWBO members. I commissioned a bylaws committee for this year only to develop a new set of bylaws as mandated by National NAWBO. A new set of bylaws was written and adopted on March 21, 2007. I changed the NAWBO newsletter from a quarterly edition to a monthly edition because we needed the information monthly, not three months down road. I co-chaired the 7th Annual Pathways to Success conference with Kathy Schaeffer and we had one of the most monetarily successful conferences ever. I set forth criteria for members to receive a scholarship to attend the National conference to which one of our members met the criteria and received a paid conference registration. WOW! What a ride! Did I meet all of my goals? No. I set forth with 16 goals and, obviously, that was a long list. Halfway through my term, I asked myself what I was thinking when I listed all these goals. Well, a lesson learned and a lesson to remember. Well, that is how the chapter changed, but what about me? I learned to be a better listener, not one of my strong points. Towards the latter part of my tenure, I learned to not “sweat the small stuff.” I learned that the team and the organization are only as good as its leader directs them. I will leave this position with an increased knowledge of the hard work and purpose of board meetings, with an even higher respect and admiration for all of those Presidents before me, with a lot of confidence in the willpower and determination of the members of this chapter, and with new friendships and connections like I have never had before. This chapter is truly a unique sisterhood and I thank all of you for allowing me to serve as your President.
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