June 13, 2011

It's Monday already!  Another great week behind me.  How time flys! Last week I visited our Chicago MSU Alumni for a couple of days.  Talk about energy - wow!  They are doing great things celebrating MSU.
 
From Chicago I flew to Dallas to attend the 21st Annual Greenleaf Servant Leadership Conference.  Over 650 leaders attended this great program.  Greenleaf really speaks to the true meaning of a servant leader.  The phrase “Servant Leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, he said:

"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

I challenge you to think about yourself.  Are you a servant leader?  Can you respond to the questions above?  Spend some time checking out the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.  I think you'll enjoy the website, greenleaf.org. 

After the conference, I visited with my brother John and my niece Lauren who live in the Dallas area.  They went with me as I visited the DFW Alumni club. The club hosted a "SParty on the Club Fred".  A couple of hours on a double decker boat with friends and a water slide!  Great fun!

Home now to catch up on some office work and do some house cleaning. What's up this week? A visit to alumni in Berrien Springs and Midland and a presentation to the Colonial Plymouth Kiwanis Club.  The spirit continues!  See ya' next week! 

May 2011

It's been several months since I've pulled together a blog!  Wow!  Where has time gone?  I'm back at it and that's what counts!  I've put "BLOG" on my list of weekly to-dos.  I have plenty to share!

Looking back, my life has been "non-stop"!  To begin, I've changed jobs!  After 26 years with the Division of Residential and Hospitality Services, I moved to the Michigan State University Alumni Association.  I work with a great team of Spartans!  I look forward to going to work each day with so much excitement!  Working with alumni around the world is amazing!  Just like my Kiwanis friends who are so committed to the works of Kiwanis, Spartan alumni do bleed "green and white".  So what happens if you are a Kiwanis member who also bleeds green and white?  Look out world! 

I have had the opportunity to meet Spartans throughout the country while traveling to the Men's and Women's Big 10 Basketball Tournaments, Men's NCAA Basketball Tourney, Golf Outings, club meetings and socials, etc.  It's wonderful to feel the Spartan Spirit!

So, what's up with Kiwanis?  My first year as Trustee is in full swing.  Working with my districts and now as SLP Vice Chair for The EliMiNaTe Project, keeps me answering lots of emails, conference calls, visits and meetings around the country.   I love it!

Yep, sometimes I feel like I am meeting myself coming when I'm going!  I always keep a suitcase packed just in case...  I wouldn't have it any other way :)

See you again soon!