Sept 2015

Moving Forward On The LESI Value Proposition

By James Sobieraj, President, LES International

In my last column, I explained that the Board this term will focus on the LESI value proposition, i.e., the LESI deliverables that attract new members and retain existing members, and that at our Winter Planning Meeting we determined that the highest priority deliverables are meetings, publications, communications and education.

Since the Board’s current term began in April, we have been moving forward on each of these deliverables. The chairs of the Meetings, Publications, Communications and Education Committees have been formulating plans that have been submitted to the Board for review and discussion during our monthly conference calls. The next step is to convert plans into action, and I am pleased to report that is already occurring.

For example, the Education Committee, chaired by Martin Schneider and Allen Baum, have identified twelve different action items, a timeline for completing each one and the person(s) with primary responsibility for each one. Progress on each item also is being tracked.

One action item is to prepare a unified education calendar, and make it available on the LESI website so members can easily find out what education programs are being offered around the world by our various societies, and the date and other details for each event. With the help of Martin and Allen, I sent a letter to all national society presidents requesting information about the education programs they have planned for the next year. We already have received responses and are posting them in the upcoming courses column of the education committee web page (www.lesi.org/committees-community/lesi-committees-overview/management-committees-overview/education-committee). The Education Committee also is reevaluating the delivery and content of our IAM 100, 200 and Train-the-Trainer courses at annual and regional meetings. Martin and Allen met with the meeting chair for the 2016 International Conference Beijing, and plan to offer Train-the-Trainer and IAM 100 Basics courses in Beijing next May.

In future columns, I plan to provide updates on the other key deliverables— meetings, publications and communications, as well as further updates on education.

I also welcome your input on how LESI can improve these four key deliverables. Please send your suggestions to me at Jim.Sobieraj@lesi.org.

Society Visits

Since my term has started, I have had the privilege to attend the annual meetings of LES Britain & Ireland, Switzerland and Japan. All of the meetings offered cutting edge content and excellent networking, and all done in a way that was unique to their country’s culture. We can learn a lot from each of our fellow societies around the globe. I encourage you to take advantage of opportunities to attend meetings of other societies. I think you will find it to be a rewarding experience.

I look forward to several more society visits this year, including meetings in Oslo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, New York and Hamburg.

I hope to see you at one of these meetings.