Nonprofit Symposium

Isn't it amazing how great life can be when you are spending time with people who are really doing something, making a difference, adding value, leading change, being innovative, stepping up, taking risks, living with purpose, are actively involved in bettering themselves and in-so-doing, bettering the world! I love those types of people...that is the type I want to be.



Wednesday I got to attend The Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management 7th Annual Symposium for Nonprofit Professionals. The best part was that I got to be there with Kem and Lisa, from GCC.


Before the sessions began, we had breakfast at this little Norwegian place with really great fresh-squeezed Orange Juice, AKA vacation in a glass. I was more than honored to get to be there with Dawn Nicole Baldwin and Roland Jacobs of Aspire!One, and Tammy Kelly, Director of People Resources for Willow Creek.




I was inspired by the innovative ways Tammy is attracting, connecting, and organizing tens of thousands of volunteers at Willow. She taught me the importance of unlearning and how a lot of times, what we already know is standing in the way of what we want to learn.

In the 2nd session I learned about the Word of Mouth Revoluntion and got my business card drawn out of a fishbowl (I knew as soon as I dropped it in that I was the winner) and won the book "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell.

Dawn and Kem did GREAT in their session about The Internet as a Growth Engine for Faith-Based Organizations. I decided that our website here at work might possibly be one of the worst I have ever heard of. I would give you the link, but it is simply too embarrassing. Kem told me that having no website is better than having a bad one, so I will be including that in my next proposal to Major.

To finish the day we won the battle over Chicago rush-hour traffic, took a quick trip to The Container Store (where taking pictures is NOT ALLOWED) and met up with Ryan for a wonderful time enjoying pizza and conversation at Giordanos.

I like going to seminars instead of sitting at my desk :o)