Monthly District Spotlight: Featuring District 2
In the North Florida Panhandle, District 2 includes the Bay County SHRM Chapter in Panama City and the Big Bend SHRM Chapter in Tallahassee. Both Chapters were recipients of the 2019 SHRM Excel Platinum Award and are off to an impressive start in 2020.
Bay County SHRM
2019 SHRM Pinnacle Award Winner
Bay County SHRM was awarded the distinguished honor of being recognized as a Pinnacle Award winner by the Society of Human Resource Management for the Chapter’s efforts to support the community and chapter members after Hurricane Michael. As part of the recognition, the Chapter received a $1,000 prize award. The Chapter donated this award to the nonprofit organization, Rebuild Bay County, so that they could further assist their community in hurricane recovery efforts.
Community Impact
So far this year, Bay County SHRM has held two volunteer workdays at The HOPE Project. During the first workday, members cleaned up a lot of hurricane damaged outbuildings and successfully moved the memorial for a special Vietnam Veteran. During the second workday, members loaded, moved and unloaded two trailers and 5 trucks to assist The HOPE Project with their move to a new location. The HOPE Project uses rescued horses to help bring hope to our Heroes who may have been injured physically or emotionally. Healing Horses Healing Heroes. All staff members are volunteers. All donations received go to the care of the horses and services to our veterans and families.
COVID-19 Response
During COVID-19, Bay County SHRM quickly shifted their in-person chapter membership meetings to virtual chapter meetings allowing members and guests to continue to have access to critical resources. The chapter also began offering free special meetings to keep chapter members and others in the community informed on COVID-19 related items.
Big Bend SHRM
Big Bend SHRM is continuing to elevate the HR profession by serving our members and the community at large. As a part of their strategic planning process, Chapter members were surveyed to gain feedback on the relevance of our mission statement, receive input on the newly created vision statement, and identify strategic opportunities. As a result of these efforts, Big Bend SHRM revealed a new Chapter vision statement and revised mission statement. The new mission statement serves as the compass for the chapter’s initiatives for 2020.
2020 Chapter Strategy on a Page (SOAP)
Big Bend SHRM’s chapter goal this year is to elevate the HR profession through growing membership, serving the chapter by offering professional development and networking opportunities, increasing Chapter reserves, and focusing on Board operations through documenting and streamlining key processes.
2020 Talent Revealed Initiative
In alignment with SHRM’s Getting Talent Back to Work and 2020 strategic objectives, Big Bend SHRM’s 2020 initiative will be Talent Revealed. This initiative will support the talent groups of individuals previously incarcerated, young professionals, individuals with disabilities, veterans, ageism, high school students and trailing spouses.
The goal of this initiative is to: Educate our members, employers, and the community on the benefits of hiring the above talent groups; Collaborate with organizations that currently support the above talent groups; and Advocate by providing resources to support our members, employers, and the community meet their talent sourcing needs.
New Chapter Website
In January 2020, Big Bend SHRM implemented a new website for Chapter members. The new website provides members and visitors with easy access to the latest Chapter information and HR resources. It also provides members a way to connect and collaborate through the use of an online member forum, quickly register for Chapter events, access recertification certificates, and manage membership preferences.
COVID-19 Response and Support
In response to COVID-19 and the impact it had on our workplaces and workforce, Big Bend SHRM immediately began offering forums and free webinars to provide support to our members and the HR community. These free programs and resources included a COVID-19 Collaboration call for HR professionals to collaborate and share best practices, a COVID-19 Resource page on the Chapter website, and various webinars focused on new COVID-19 legislation.
Diversity & Inclusion and Workforce Readiness
In support of the 2020 initiative of Talent Revealed, Big Bend SHRM’s Diversity & Inclusion and Workforce Readiness Chairpersons developed a “New-Diversity Community Hack-A-Thon” event to be hosted in August 2020. This event will include a panel discussion facilitated by a well-known “new diversity” thought leader and mini-job fair in collaboration with the local CareerSource.
SHRM Certification Study Group
Big Bend SHRM kicked of the annual Spring Certification Study Group in March 2020 with 9 participants!
