August President’s Message: Focus
Dear Members,
As the summer winds to a close (too quickly!), I am thinking a lot about focus.
In general, I feel that once the hecticness of summer commitments is behind us, I can re-focus on my business for the remainder of the year. I can re-visit our strategic plan and the initiatives that we intended to complete this year, and I can re-apply myself and my team to ensuring their completion. With 4 months to go, focus is critical.
And specifically, I am thinking about the focus that the EFBC uniquely provides. Specialty Sales, and I personally, have been dealing with a very difficult personnel situation with a long-time employee. In an emotionally fraught and professionally difficult situation, I always appreciate being able to confidentially discuss with my EFBC colleagues. They provide empathy and shared experience, steeped in the EFBC culture of emotional intelligence, that allows me to focus on the business’s core values and my personal core values.
This clarity helps me move through the situation in line with our values, and get out of the “head trash” that can bog us all down when we are facing difficulties in our businesses. I am grateful to the EFBC for that focus.
In other news, the EFBC is currently actively recruiting to our committees. This is a member-run organization, which is what makes it great. That requires members to volunteer their valuable time to keep the organization. The good news, and I speak from experience, is that it is a two-way street. Being on the board of the EFBC has been an enlightening experience of personal growth for me personally, and I highly recommend it.
We are currently looking for the following:
- Marketing & Membership: The M&M Committee is looking for members with marketing experience or interest, specifically in content marketing, that can help us share the value of the EFBC with even more prospective members. We will be developing a strategy and working with staff to create, share and measure content to drive new member growth.
- Programming: The Programming Committee is looking for members who have an interest in driving the ideation and execution of all the events we provide to members.
If you have interest, please reach out to Liz Fidanovski or Bob Carmody, our current Governance Chair, who are actively working on committee succession and recruitment.
Lastly, I’m excited to share that we’ve recently rolled out an update to our EFBC CommunityHub mobile app. You may have already noticed the new, sleeker design. The homepage now features a “summary” of all the pages available in the menu, providing a dashboard-style overview at a glance – from posts and events to groups and the discussion board. This update is aimed at making it even easier for you to stay connected and engaged with our community. If you haven’t downloaded the app and activated your account yet, please do so by clicking here to download it from the Apple Store and here to get it on Google Store.
Warm regards,
Darrin Shillair – EFBC President 2024-2025