Friday, January 12, 2007

Fun at the BBA?


Last night was the Bedford Business Association's (BBA) monthly meeting. Bedford Township is a old farming community in Michigan (near Toledo, OH) that is a great place to raise my family. I LOVE IT! The BBA is an organization of about 300 business located in Bedford, and is set-up similar to a chamber organization.

I find the meetings unwelcoming (is that a word?) to new members. Maybe it is just me....a young business chick, fresh to the community, eager to make a difference, and excited about the opportunity to grow. So, I decided to attempt to make an impact.

I stood at the door to the meeting armed with a stack of blank name tags, a pen and a question.
WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE GROWING UP?

A simple question, everyone had to answer before entering the meeting. It was FANTASTIC!! People's faces lit up!

"Wow! I haven't thought about that in a while."
"You know, I really wanted to be a race car driver."
"Oh dear, you are bringing back happy memories."
"I wanted to slice meat." (OK, inside joke here, but that's what a Deli Dude said. I wrote "Meat Slicer" on his nametag. He got some hassle, and changed to football player.)

The point in all this was to learn something interesting about the members. And have some fun at the BBA meeting
(I know, sounds crazy, right?)
IT WORKED!!

I had fun, a few people told me they did too.

If you came to this meeting.....What did you learn?

If you did not....What have you done to impact an organization?

Oh yeah....I wanted to be an Astronaut.



.....mmmm, stay tuned for next month's question.

2 comments:

Debby said...

Angie, I am so proud of you. When I group has been around for many many years, there can be solid traditions and rituals. You went out on a limb to shake it up.

Debby said...

Whoops! I guess I should read twice before hitting the publish button. It should read a group, not I group.