Report from Midwest Institute for Organization Management

>Whew! It's 92 degrees in Madison today, but inside air-cooled Grainger Hall (a new addition to campus since my graduation from Big Red), more than 100 chamber of commerce and association executives and managers are attending "chamber school," the Institute for Organization Management.

"Institute" teaches business leaders how to instill the very best practices in organization management: In the required 96 hours of courses, we are kept updated on legal, financial, governance, communications, leadership, electronic communication, advocacy, team-building, human resources and consensus building issues and techniques.

We hear each year how protecting the organization from costly missteps is one of the CEO's primary objectives. We learn how to do it the right way. We find out what we can do better to serve our members and to strive for excellence.

You can't run a chamber without it.

Our class started out in 2008 - the year floods inundated southern Wisconsin - as 30 chamber managers. The following year, our ranks diminished due to the weak economy, but we were joined by about 15 organization executives. We'll graduate together at the end of this session, but we will no doubt continue to share ideas by e-mail and social media.

It's always good to be back in Madison, even when it's sweltering and humid. It's especially exciting to face a second graduation here, and come away with ideas and strategies for building a stronger chamber to help our members grow and thrive into the future.