The 2003 Herb Wegner Memorial Award Dinner was memorable for many reasons.
There was an atmosphere of collective celebration and aspiration. The Foundation Chair, Chuck Purvis, set a goal of $1 billion for the Community Investment Fund. Leading CEO contributors were called on stage and thanked. That year’s award nominees, Ed Callahan and Latino Credit Union, were representative of some of the best features of cooperative accomplishment.
But first it started with a “grace note.”
This moment of collective harmony is best illustrated by a 1.34 minute shout out that CUNA President Dan Mica gave to his counterpart at NAFCU. Here is the video:
Blogs later this week will feature other uplifting moments from this historic evening—and some important lessons for today’s leaders.
Breaking with tradition, going off script indicates the speech writer or CUNA wasn’t anticipating any collaborative message. Actually Dan went out of his way to emphasize what he was trying to communicate. Working together and respecting each other dispute differences. He elevated Ken not only with his remarks but with his rank in the Marine Corp. It was very classy. We can disagree without hating each other and becoming enemies. We can still work together on common causes. Pretty relevant in today’s world.
In my own circle of friends, there are some I don’t have much contact with because of the things I see them post or what they’ve said to me earlier. That’s really unfortunate. I know I’m not going to change their mind. One of my co-workers in the past used to day “don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up”. And this statement often comes from intelligent well educated people. Sad.