Looking Back
Wow, quite the week on the Maine HR Cafe.
Looking back at the daily view metrics shows a whopping surge in site views.
Why? I joined the grassroots advocacy efforts of the SMFT’er — SHRM Members ForTransparency.. I was not alone in these efforts. Beyond the core steering committee of SMFT, SHRM made the tactical blunder of first silently, then blatantly censoring HRTalk dialogue.
Short background: SMFT is running an alternative slate of write in candidates for this year’s SHRM Board of Directors election. SMFT is basically a watchdog group that is concerned about the leadership direction of SHRM. Traditional BoD seats are migrating from certified HR
professionals to a smattering of CPAs and other non-core professions. There is other malfeasance as well, best revealed by an open-minded stroll through the SMFT website.
Typical SHRM Board elections are sleeper affairs. A singular, non-competitive slate of candidates is offered and 5% of the 200k-plus members bothers to rubber stamp the results. This year was turning into a typical snooze fest until SHRM went ethically rogue and started deleting/censoring HRTALK posts and banning members briefly from posting.
This was like knocking down a hornets nest, catching it, and then not knowing what to with it. In other words, a whole bunch of HRTalkers got riled up and became intensely interested in voting for the loyal & legitimate opposition.
The election deadline is Sunday, September 9, 2012 at noon Eastern Time. Time will tell as to what will happen.
Important lessons learned. Preserve your personal reputation and ethical integrity by taking the high ground with edgy attitude. Assitude is not an effective form of advocacy as it creates defensive reactions.
I am proud to have been one singular voice speaking to & for many.
May transparency & authentic leadership prevail.
Excellent post, Bob. It remains to be seen how transparent the election results will be.
Maggie Robinson Zieg said this on September 8, 2012 at 7:19 pm