SHRM Volunteers and the National Conference

I've shared with many of you that the title of this little blog comes from my personal affection for the Walt Disney story of Johnny Appleseed (and now my deep appreciation for the "real" guy) and my late night, under the covers with a flashlight childhood reading of Nancy Drew.  The Disney story of Johnny is about a "little" guy who wanted to do "big" things and while he didn't have the means to buy a covered wagon and load up and head West, he did have good boots and a sack of apple seeds.  And so he walked the West and plants apple orchards across this country.  And Nancy Drew - well, she was "just a girl" whose curiosity, friendliness, tenacity and sense of justice kept her on track to "do the right thing."  Plus, she had that really cute little convertible...

This week I have been honored to serve with the SHRM Atlanta volunteers during the SHRM National Conference here in Atlanta.  Leaders have been at the job of creating the volunteer army for over a year - and special thanks to Mary Lynn Miller, Teela Jackson and Maureen Whatley for creating a strategy and structure to ensure folks were where they needed to be - every time!  And volunteers showed up - in droves - to fill conference bags, to direct 16,000 attendees to the right places on time, to host sessions, to serve in the bookstore, and the list goes on.

SHRM Atlanta demonstrates all that is good about the HR profession and all that is good about a well run service organization.  At SHRM Atlanta we "get" business, we "get" HR, and we "get" hospitality.  We solved a lot of problems this week for attendees and we were Drew like in our friendliness and tenacity.  And we certainly planted a lot of seeds -- good thoughts and ideas -- for conference attendees which we hope will bear fruit throughout our profession.

It's a really great team - I'm glad to be a member!