Wow! This Has Become One of my Favorite Teams!
What do the words passion, energy, creativity, enthusiasm, trust, working together, professional, goal oriented, intelligence and 25 people all have in common?
Read below and you will find out!
The good news is, this last week I was in beautiful, sunny Phoenix. The bad news is, I spent very little time outside. In most situations that probably would have bothered me—but not this time.
Starting Tuesday morning bright and early, I participated in the Marketing Research Association (MRA) board meeting. I have participated on a number of boards over the years and attended perhaps a 100 board meetings. For those of you who haven’t experienced one of these, they are typically close to 16 hours of meetings and a dinner over a 28 hour period.
For some reason this meeting felt different. Perhaps it was the location or maybe the food. As I was sitting in the meeting it occurred to me that it wasn’t that at all—even though I love to eat and the food was great.
- It was the energy in the room!
- It was the relevancy of the agenda!
- It was the leadership (your leadership) of the MRA working together and accomplishing common goals
- It was thinking about the future of research and how to best position the organization to be there for our members
And most of all it was 25 people who are all working together, committed to the greatest industry in the world and creating a very special TEAM!
I am truly honored to be part of this team and am looking forward to our next meeting in sunny Florida in February (and spending very little time outside).
A special thanks to Merrill “I love the name” Shugoll—President of the MRA who engineered a terrific meeting. You were able to keep us on point and on schedule. All of us saw first hand why all of your clients love you as a moderator. You are simply the best!
I look forward to hearing if other members of the team felt the same way.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:11 am
I must admit I was quite delighted by your comments. Thanks to our great leader Merrill Shugoll our board meetings are focusing on long term goals and how to prepare strategically. I am always amazed at the level of commitment, dedication and enthusiasm of our board members. Even when we don’t all agree - we all have common goals and at the forefront of our discussions we focus on what is best for our members, the MRA and our industry. I am proud to be apart of this great team. Thank you MRA board of directors for all of the time and effort you put into making our association the best!!
November 13th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
I’ll echo Colleen and Merrill’s comments. I serve on several boards as well, and MRA has taken such forward strides over the past several years in thinking and behaving more like leaders as our profession grasps very challenging issues that will shape the future of marketing research.
I so value the opportunity to be part of such a team and to learn and benefit from the unique group of colleagues that work together towards meeting our objectives.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:48 am
First of all, thanks to Merrill Dubrow for setting up this Blog! I strongly agree with all of the comments given so far. Being a new person on the MRA National Board, I have found the experience to be phenomenal. I feel honored to be able to meet and associate with such an experienced and knowledgeable group of people. Phoenix was my second official board meeting and I found it to be very productive. I have seen such progress that has been made over the past years in the MRA and attribute it mostly to the great team of National board members, which is why I wanted to become a part of it. I am looking forward to also making valuable contributions with our board team to continue the great work that has been done for our members at both the National and chapter levels.