Meeting Minutes
Torch Club of the Fox Valley
11 May 2017
Atlas Coffee Mill & Café
Notes taken by: Sofia Wilson, Secretary
Attendees: Karen Bachhuber , Jim Baumbach, Dave Debbink, Marcia Debbink, Mary Flanagan, Jean Hedges, Walt Hedges, Jean Jepson, Barbara Kelly, William Kelly, Jude Kuenn , Cam Maurice, Mary Poulson, Richard Schoenbohm , Jan Smith, Robert Swain, Helen Thiel, Peter L. Thiel and Sofia Wilson
Guest: Sue Bennett and Marge Swain
BUSINESS MEETING
Meeting called to order at 6:35pm.
- Guest Introductions: Marge Swain was warmly welcomed to the evening. Sue’s introduction was moved to New Business.
- Meeting minutes from 4/13/17 were accepted with the speaker topic correction; motioned, seconded and approved.
- Treasurer’s report: 5/11/17 balance remains at $2,659.63. Report was accepted, motioned, seconded and approved.
- Old Business:
No Old Business.
- New Business:
A. IATC Convention – Barbara nominated Sofia Wilson as the Delegate to represent us at the Annual IATC Convention, to be held in Kalamazoo, June 15-18, 2017. Nomination was accepted, seconded and approved.
B. IATC VP Election – After round table discussion on thoughts on the IATC Vice President Election and the communication related to it, Peter motioned the club to support the vote for Diana Hinecliff for IATC Vice President, with the understanding that the delegate is not bound to the recommendation based on what may come to light at the conference. Motion was accepted, seconded and approved.
C. Vote on New Member: Sue Bennett was welcomed to the club. Motion was accepted, and approved.
D. Annual Summer Party – Will be on the second Thursday in August (8/10/17). Barbara and Bill Kelly will hold the evening at their home. Richard motioned that $100 be given from the club to Barbara and Bill to cover the expenses of drinks. Bill and Barbara will provide drinks. Everyone attending should bring something to share. The motion was seconded, and majority approved. Bill and Barbara protested the necessity of the club money.
E. Sofia and Walt routed the 2017-18 speaker schedule. March and May are open for speakers. Please consider signing up, if you haven’t already. - Announcements:
A. Jan – The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass has an Exhibit called Quantum that will run until August 20th, 2017. Multi-media, sensory installation experience inspired by natural phenomena translated into light, sound and time.
B. Jan – Update on the benefits Concert held in March; It raised enough money to fund a domestic abuse program.
C. Jan – The Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass - Art After Dark happening May 18th from 5-7p. Cam noted that guest will be encouraged to write and place post it notes.
Cam Maurice: Change, Stress & Energy
Change is a Fact of Life. There are all sizes of change. Organizationally and Personally.
Helen spoke of her father’s quote, “If there’s anything you can expect, its change,” and how it is an important philosophy for life.
“Only normal in life is the setting on a washing machine.”
Kurt Lewin outlined the three stages of change. Stage 1 – Unfreezing, Stage 2 – Moving and Stage 3 – Refreezing.
Cam spoke in retrospect on the astonishing number of things that had changed in life since she was 14 years old.
Stage 1- Unfreezing. Characterized by resistance: Anxiety, fear, turmoil, insecurity, loss. “Growth is reaching up and letting go.”
There’s always resistance in stage one. There’s a lot of feeling involved. It takes energy & time to adapt to change.
Cam spoke of the different environments, and that some businesses close to adjust to change. A Hospital on the other hand cannot close to adjust for change. In an example of a Hospital in Tuscon’s ER, Cam spoke about exasperation at “all these emergencies”. Cam had replied, “But it’s on the sign outside.” No one plans to have an emergency.
Peter spoke of an example when he was a young engineer tasked with rolling out the change of a new numbering system and the reactions he received.
Middle Management tends to already be involved in change before it gets to the workers. It is always good to give more information if possible, but stay away from the “might” or “maybes”. The best test of a change is if it can be tied back to the organizations mission statement. Most Organizations don’t change just to change.
Cam spoke of a situation where a Dean asked for input on possible impending changes. The staff found out that the change was already decided on and was going into effect prior to when they were going to discuss. This is an example of poor communication. Management shouldn’t ask for input, if no input is needed.
Stage 2 – Moving. Characterized by decision: moving toward, moving away from or against change. Implementation, reorganization begins.
Cam gave the example of moving away from change as being too old to learn. Jean Jepson spoke of a training a middle school staff how to use computers and a 1st grade teacher didn’t want to learn it. Said they’d never use it and didn’t need it.
There was group discussion of teaching a new driver to drive a standard shift vehicle. Once you learned how, it was difficult to verbalize for the new learner.
Stage 3 – Re-Freezing. Characterized by adaption: integration stabilization, increased comfort, normalization.
Once you get to stage 3, you don’t even think about it. Cam spoke about working in an office with new computers. She signed in with her name and received an error message “Bad Name”. Cam also relayed a story about getting familiar with the mouse of a computer by playing solitaire.
There are three types of energy: Mental, Emotion and Physical. Adequate energy and resources are needed for change. Adjusting takes energy. Change comes from two different places, externally or internally. Organizations always need to tie back to their mission statement.
Peter spoke of changing a wood room to be more automated, and after 4 hours the one guy who replaced 12 couldn’t handle the button pushing.
Richard asked if personality had an influence in change. People can be positive reactors to change, negative reactors to change and wait-and see-ers. Need to get to know your staff to be able to allay fears of change. Identify who can lead change and channel the negative reactors to productive tasks. Problem employees can act as road blocks.
“The greatest sin of sins is not to grow.” From the 1984 Wall street Journal article on the sponsor of the US Diving Team. The successful implementation of organizational change requires: the staff affected have sufficient energy to absorb and adapt to the key implications of the change and the organization have the resources (people, money, technology) to invest in the change process.
There is socially affected mood & depression. We all need to adapt for the mood. Barbara shared about the big push on change in regards to the Presidential Election. Richard shared stats on whether people were afraid the US had lost its Values. 30% of Democratic, 30% of Independents and 80% of Republicans answered “Yes.”
Enough is not enough. Cam spoke a story of a salesman who worked exceptionally hard to increase his sales by 25%. The Manager was so please they wanted the sales person to increase their sales more. She also spoke about the Airlines stock dropping once the stock holders heard that the profits were being giving to the employees as raises.
“If you’re lucky, you can make a living. You don’t need to make a killing.”
The Life Event stress Test was put together by two cardiologists, Holmes and Rahr, who suspected a correlation of major life events and heart trouble.
Burn Out is defined as to fail, wear out or become exhausted due to excessive demand. As one gets older, one has less energy. Not getting enough sleep also increases the lack of energy and possibility of burn out.
Funeral Directors are very aware of the life stress test. If asked after a funeral on whether to move, they typically recommend waiting at least a year.
Everything is dependent on the person, on whether the event is stressful. What is stressful to some, may not even affect others. Everyone should get to understand how much change they can handle. Each little thing can be like a duck nibbling on you. Don’t get nibbled to death by ducks. Take a careful thought to the decisions made after a major event so as to not create more stress during an already stressful time.
The evening adjourned at 9:00 pm.
Next meeting is Thursday 9/14/17. Jan Smith’s talk: “What do we do with our stuff when we are gone?”