By Renee Hoekstra, CVS – President, SAVE International
One month gone, we’re into February and the SAVE International Board of Directors has been busy continuing to work on all those things that I shared with you in the January issue. There is much going on and we are encouraged about all the possibilities.
A personal thank you to our Membership Tiger Team – what an amazing job this team did in using the Value Methodology to understand our current membership needs, wants and expectations as well as understanding why past members are no longer members. They brainstormed and evaluated options and opportunities and provided a very detailed and informative presentation to the Board at our meeting in January. We’re excited to combine this information with our Marketing Tiger Team outcomes as we focus on our efforts for rebranding in a global market. We will be sending out a scope of work to various marketing firms to get proposals to aid us in this endeavor. We’re moving forward and that is exciting!
Speaking of moving forward, we can announce that the Certification Board and the SAVE Board have approved the option to begin teaching the Value Methodology Fundamentals 2 (VMF 2) course virtually. HOWEVER, don’t rush out to set up your courses just yet. We are preparing a set of new requirements and protocols as well as supplemental teaching slides that must go along with the courses. This information will be provided to all our instructors with current VMF 2 licenses, so look to your emails in the coming week. We will then be notifying the membership at large. Be aware that the courses will only be valid from February 15 to December 31, 2021 in an effort to allow us to monitor the success rate. If you are a VMF 2 instructor, please make sure you have the new VM Guide as a resource for your teaching materials.
I am also excited to announce that the Value Methodology Fundamentals 1 (VMF 1) course is now able to be taught virtually in perpetuity. As I have mentioned before, we are busily working on updates to the VMF 1 course to align with the VM Guide, changes to the Value Methodology Associate (VMA) certification exam to also align with these changes, as well as some new approaches. We are hoping to roll all of this out this summer. Once we are done with the VMF 1 course, we will then be moving on to the VMF 2 course with the same updates, including updates to the Certified Value Specialist (CVS) certification exam.
As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, it seems the two years of my Presidency have been all about change and I believe it’s all for very good reasons. We are hoping that the changes we are making will be long-lasting and continue to move our organization forward. Change can be difficult for many, as it makes us feel uncomfortable, it gets us away from doing things the way we’ve always done them and can often lead to additional work. Many people will avoid change at all costs. Let’s stop and ponder about who we are, value practitioners, along with what we do. Our motto should be “If it isn’t broken, break it.”; we should always be looking for innovative ways to improve performance and outcomes to support continuous process improvement. We are the best at doing these sorts of things, so I know that it may feel that we are in a constant state of flux, but in all reality, it is just happening slowly. I apologize for that, but it takes our fabulous volunteers a little more time as they need to balance SAVE duties, work and home life. Be patient with us – we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but we still have much to do.
We had very informative and effective meetings with our international affiliates this last month and our new Director of Global Affairs, Dorine Cleton, is busily working hard with all our international affiliates, organizations and members to provide opportunities for networking, communication and sharing. We are excited for opportunities to learn from one another about how we can continue to grow and spread the word about VM. Look to Value World for a new “Global Corner” feature to get information about what’s happening around the world.
Another new Value World addition will be provided in March from one of our newest Board members, David Eisenberg, about how we can improve communications within our community. Exciting times!
One last item of note from your President is about our upcoming Value Summit. Look to the article by Mike Pearsall in this month’s issue to get up to date information on our virtual and in-person Summits. I would like to thank all our members who participated in the survey about up-coming events. It appears that more than 50% of you voted to move the in-person Value Summit to June 2022. The Board thought it was important to put the decision in your hands. I am disappointed, only from the perspective that I was hoping to see many of you in person. On the flip side, I’m hoping that this means we will have strong attendance and that many of you will plan on spending a couple of extra days in my home state of Arizona with a little vacation time.
Thanks to all our volunteers and Board members! All of your efforts and support are greatly appreciated. Those of you interested in joining the Board, now is the time. Don’t forget to reach out to the SAVE business office and request your applications as we are looking to fill four Board positions.
Until next month…
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