Photo Gallery

The SME Leadership Series travels around the country, working with SME members to hone their leadership skills. Below is a limited photo gallery of recent Leadership Series in Cleveland, Charleston, S.C., and St. Louis.

Syracuse Leadership Series

Syracuse, N.Y., was the site for the third 2012 SME Leadership Series (Sept. 20-21). More than 30 attendees, including four chapter chairs, three chair-elects, two secretary/treasurers, one membership retention person, one certification chair, one membership consultant and a tech group chair. It was quite a nice mixture of officers, many of which were first-time attendees. The Syracuse Leadership Series followed the traditional track in that it covers the 30-second elevator speech, recruiting/retaining the new generation of volunteer leaders, and creating/implementing a mission and vision for chapters/communities/tech groups. All attendees also learn the important role they play in being ambassadors for the Society and membership in general. This particular series also included a tour of INFICON, a leading provider of innovative instrumentation, critical sensor technologies, and advanced process control software that enhance productivity and quality in sophisticated industrial vacuum processes.

Attendees of the INFICON plant tour, on Friday, Sept. 20, prior to the Leadership Series.		Students members of SME's The Apprentice School S354 student chapter who learned the value of "Sealing the Deal!" during the Leadership Series.		Presenter Mark Michalski (l) with attendee Kelly Davis, role playing the 30-second eleveator speech, which expounds on the virtues of joining and becoming involved in SME.

2012 SME Annual Conference

Jonathan McKee, co-author of "The New Breed: Understanding and Equipping the 21st Century Volunteer," presented "The New Breed of Volunteer Leader, A Volunteer Power Workshop"at the 2012 SME Annual Conference, which focused on the changing volunteer culture. Participants learned just how the 21st century volunteer culture is very different because of several significant seismic shifts that have changed volunteer management. Attendees were broken up into small groups to perform various workshop-related exercises and interact with each other. After the session, Jonathan signed copies of his book for attendees.

Jonathan McKee presenting "The New Breed of Volunteer Leader, A Volunteer Power Workshop" at the 2012 SME Annual Conference.		Dean Phillips, an SME membership consultant and former chair of SME's Nashville No. 43 chapter intereacting with another workshop attendee.		From left to right: SME International Director Ed Halloran, LSME, CMfgE, PE, with Seattle No. 39 chapter Chair-Elect Will Slota working on a group exercise.

Charleston Leadership Series

Charleston, S.C., was the site of the second leadership series of 2012 (April 20-21). This particular event followed the traditional Leadership Series track for first-time attendees and less-experienced leaders. Utilizing components from the book "The New Breed: Understanding & Equipping the 21st Century Volunteer" (McKee & McKee), members were introduced to: the courting relationship in volunteer recruitment, seven deadly sins of recruiting volunteers, the "boomers" and "generation @" volunteers and leading a successful volunteer operation. 

During the Leadership Series, attendees were asked to line up by birthdate. This is done to demonstrate the need for open/continuous communication in leadership.		Exchanging information and best practices is a key element of the Leadership Series.		Leadership Series presenter Matt Welle discussing engaging a virtual volunteer.

St. Louis (NEW Dual-Track Format Launched!)

During the St. Louis SME Leadership Series, March 8-9, the first of 2012, 70 attendees transformed and enhanced their leadership skills in conjunction with the Heart of America Leadership Conference. In addition to the 37 senior volunteer leaders, there were 33 student chapter leaders from seven student chapters on site as well. St. Louis was the first location to have the new dual-track format, which is geared toward the “experienced leader” ― past attendees and those who want to fine-tune their current leadership skills. For track 2, social networking, creating websites, Tooling U and how to market events effectively were explored.

Dinner on Friday evening, where all participants introduced themselves and discussed their biggest leadership challenge.		After creating a mission and/or vision statement, participants are asked to share those with the whole group. This student member presented his group's mission statement.		A special Jeopardy!-like student competition was also held with questions like “Of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester and polycarbonate…this one has the lowest tensile strength?” (Answer: “What is polypropylene?”).