FROM THE PRESIDENT, January 2021

Welcome to 2021!

I hope this finds you safe and healthy. As we prepare to start a new year, the one we just completed calls for reflection.

All of us have been challenged in ways we could not have imagined. Shifting between confronting racial issues and inequities, managing the pandemic professionally and personally, and supporting the missions of our workplaces with already hectic workloads called for us to react quickly, think creatively and remain nimble. It feels like we’ve been sprinting throughout an entire marathon. But after all, it’s what we do.

Looking back on 2020, I’d like to applaud IPMA-HR leadership and staff for taking opportunities to turn challenges into successes. To list only a few of many:

• We selected Cara Woodson Welch as IPMA-HR’s new executive director.
• We shifted the Annual Conference to a virtual format and saw record attendance. With more than 880 attendees, we were able to provide development and engagement opportunities to the largest audience in more than a decade.
• We launched the Racial Equity Resource page and the Coronavirus Resource page to assist members in addressing imperative and emerging issues.
• We hosted the free COVID-19 Roundtable series to share our experiences.

Engage, our online community, proved to be a valuable space for discussions and sharing resources.

• We moved the certification process and other professional development opportunities online.
• We continued to grow the membership.

I’m humbly looking forward to serving the Association that has provided so much for me throughout my career. My array of professional experiences, as well as my involvement and past leadership within IPMA-HR, allows me to bring a reflective and ambitious perspective. As I envision what I want to do as president, my focus is on the following:

• Assessing, further updating and operationalizing the HR 20/20 Report: The IPMA-HR Guide to Transformative HR. Now, more than ever, we must step up as HR leaders and continue shifting how we view our work through the lenses of business acumen, innovation, strategic orientation and equity.
• Understanding the needs of members and examining the Association’s value proposition (i.e., identifying and clearly stating our “why”).
• Working to attract and engage emerging and diverse professionals as IPMA-HR members.
• Working to ensure IPMA-HR remains visible and relevant via resource offerings, programming and advocacy. This work includes strengthening our social media presence, extending our research and benchmarking, and providing even more flexible professional development opportunities and certifications that are valuable throughout one’s professional career.
• Continuing to use technology and other creative ways to keep everyone connected.
• Exploring additional ways to work together across chapters, regions and internationally to build on our strengths and grow the Association.

Taking the principles detailed in the HR 20/20 Report as our vision, IPMA-HR’s leadership will provide a network of support. As we lean into 2021, you will be able to look to me as a thought partner for trends, issues and ideas regarding the HR community, our profession and the Association. As a connector at heart, I welcome opportunities to connect with you through meetings and events, emails, phone calls and social media, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, concerns, successes and ideas for how IPMA-HR can work for you.

Before I close, I want to give my praise and thanks to past presidents from whom I learned so much and gained inspiration. My sincere thanks go to Cheryl Cepelak, IPMA-SCP, for her outstanding leadership during the past, unprecedented year. From guiding the transition to our new executive director to implementing a new way of working across the Association and for all HR leaders, I appreciate Cheryl’s creativity, agility, support and friendship. I know IPMA-HR has benefited greatly from her leadership.

Now, on a personal note, it is vitally important for each of us to maintain our own well-being. As HR professionals, we need to nurture our health and cultivate our support networks in order to sustain our ability to provide support for our organizations. My hope is that you find inspiration in IPMA-HR by accessing our resources, professional and personal development opportunities, networking events and friendships. And so, to quote Brené Brown, I want to say, “No one belongs here more than you.” IPMA-HR is about each of you.

I look forward with great enthusiasm to the year ahead and the success we will build together.

Cheers!

Pam Dollard, IPMA-SCP
pamdollard.ipmahr@gmail.com