It is probably not news to you that ICEL is
member operated and run. We have a great staff of credit gurus at NACM
Intermountain|Arizona to help members accomplish their tasks, but really the
rest is up to us, the members! Volunteering is not a topic that is new for
these articles or discussions at our meetings. Volunteering is an altruistic
way of giving back or paying forward our involvement in NACM, ICEL, and CFDD.
It is a quick way to get certification points for accreditation. Ultimately, it
is the biggest way that you have a say in what happens within the organization.
One of my favorite things to do as the
Chair of ICEL is to read the feedback after each event. Some of our programs
are instant successes with the members; others fall short of their expectations
in one way or another (oy, with the chicken at the hotel.) The ICEL Committee
does their best to hear the feedback and address it. And believe me, our
members are not shy to give us feedback. I love it!
I had a recent conversation with a member
who suggested some changes for ICEL. I listened, asked some clarification questions,
and listened some more. In the end I issued an invitation to be on the
committee that they were giving feedback on. The only way to truly effect
change is to take initiative and act up.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes
short again and again, because there is no effort without error and
shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the
worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor
defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt
Dare greatly with us. Volunteer to be in
the arena of NACM, ICEL, and CFDD. Our combined efforts may be a success, or it
may have errors and shortcomings. So, we will try something else, something
new, something different until we get it right. There is plenty of work to do
and the old adage of "many hands makes light work" (John Heywood) is apropos
for what we can do ... together. |