URMIA Board of Directors Nominations

In this episode of URMIA Matters, URMIA Executive Director Michelle Smith sits down with Julie Groves, URMIA’s Immediate Past President, Chairperson of the URMIA Leadership Development Committee, and Director of Risk Services at Wake Forest University; Marjorie Lemmon, an URMIA past president and Director of Risk Management and Insurance at Yale University; and Matt Tuttle, a current URMIA board member and Manager, Risk & Insurance Services at the University of Utah to talk about volunteering with URMIA. In addition to hearing their volunteer journey, we’ll learn about the nominations process for the upcoming Board of Directors election, how the election works, and what considerations candidates should think about before throwing their hat in the ring. Our guests are not only professional colleagues, but also great friends so this should be a very informative and entertaining discussion!

Interested in running for the board? The board of directors consists of 15 to 21 directors who are elected to serve by the voting members. The 2024 URMIA election will fill open positions on the board of directors, including one (1) president-elect, three (3) institutional member director seats, and one (1) affiliate member director seat. Nominations close July 17 and the election will open on August 1. Results will be announced in early September. Nominate yourself or another member who would be a stellar addition to URMIA’s board of directors.  

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Transcript

S5 E11 Board Nominations Transcript 

Jenny Whittington: Hey there. Thanks for tuning into URMIA matters, a podcast about higher education, risk management and insurance. Let's get to it. 

Michelle Smith: Hello everyone. Today on URMIA matters, we're going to talk about URMIA's upcoming election of officers and board members. We have an open call for nominations through July 17. And for more information you can go to the URMIA website and follow along, maybe through the conversation today, www.urmia.org/board nominations. My name is Michelle Smith. I'm the executive director here at URMIA. And we have 3 distinguished URMIA members with us on today's podcast. Julie, Marje, and Matt. Let me give a quick introduction for each of you, but be warned- I'm going to throw in a few fun facts in addition to your title and campus affiliation. So, listen closely. Are you ready? All right, Julie Groves is the director of Risk Services at Wake Forest University, where she has worked since 1999. She holds her ARM designation and is the immediate past president for URMIA. She also chairs the Leadership Development Committee. Julie is a volunteer for other professional organizations and personal ones as well, including the Bookmarks Inc, which is a nonprofit bookstore and literary organization committed to literacy and igniting a love for reading in children. Welcome, Julie. 

Julie Groves: Thank you, ma'am. 

Michelle Smith: Marje Lemmon, ARM, CPCU, MBA, and a distinguished risk manager from URMIA, is the Director of Risk Management and Insurance at Yale University, where she's been since 2003. She was previously the risk manager for Ann Taylor Stores Corporation, always impeccably dressed, I must say. Marje has served in several volunteer roles with URMIA, including chairing the Honors Committee, working on our insurance services, RFP, was a co-chair for my first URMIA conference in Boston, and is an URMIA past president. Welcome Marje. 

Marje Lemmon: Thank you for giving me an excuse to go shopping before the annual conference. Michelle. 

Michelle Smith: Quite welcome. Matt Tuttle, MBA, CPCU, and ARM, is the Manager for Risk and Insurance Services and has been at the University of Utah since 2014. Matt has also served in several leadership roles with URMIA. He was the co-chair of the 2018 annual conference and is currently serving as a member of the URMIA Board of Directors, leading our strategic goal #1, connecting members to each other. One of his favorite topics I know I've heard a lot about is certificates of insurance. So, if you want to talk about COI, reach out to Matt. You could also find Matt on many of our monthly water cooler conversations. Thanks Matt, and welcome to the show. 

Julie Groves: I got excited there for a minute because you just introduced us by our first names. And I thought we had reached the Oprah/Cher/Madonna level of fame that you didn't need to give us our last name, so we appreciate that. 

Michelle Smith: It's a yes and situation. You get the first name only and then a little bit of intro. So again, and we're going to talk through the upcoming election of officers, hear a little bit about your volunteer roles in the past and how to become a successful candidate to be a board member or president-elect so. I'll toss the first question to you, Julie. Explain to everyone what the role is of the Leadership Development Committee, which you chair. 

Julie Groves: Sure. So, the Leadership Development Committee is actually one of the three committees that are named in our association’s bylaws. In a nutshell, the committee is responsible for soliciting and collecting nominations for president-elect and for any open board seats, and then we confirm that all the nominees are eligible for the positions, and we provide the final list of candidates to the URMIA Office and the folks at the URMIA Office actually manage the election. And as the immediate past President, I have the honor of chairing the committee. 

Michelle Smith: Thank you. Thank you. And you have committee members who serve on the committee with you. 

Julie Groves: Yes. We do. The bylaws dictate a certain makeup of committee members, but basically, we have several committee members who have served on the board at one point or another. We have several committee members who have never served on the board, and we have an affiliate representative as well. 

Michelle Smith: Perfect. Good representation of the membership, then. So, all three of you have served in different leadership capacities. I mentioned a few of your roles in your in the opening. Can you tell the listeners about some of the roles you've served in? And Matt, let's start with you. 

Matt Tuttle: Well, Michelle, you did such a good job with introducing me. I'm hoping you had announced all those. Now it's been a pleasure serving in the various roles that I've had the opportunity to serve in with URMIA. My first service opportunity began as co-chair of the 2018 annual Conference in Salt Lake City. I'm hoping a lot of you that are listening were able to attend that conference. I think it's one of the best. And serving in this role allowed me to have exposure with the URMIA board and also with the URMIA Home Office. So, I was able to learn a lot from my interactions with the board and with the Home Office and that piqued my interest in continuing to serve, so when my time ended as the co-chair of the 2018 annual Conference, I applied to run for the board and luckily I was selected for that.  

And now I currently have the opportunity of heading up the strategic goal #1 connecting members to each other task force, which I've really enjoyed, and I've also served on various committees and task forces in my role as the leader of the strategic goal #1. And like Michelle mentioned, one of those is the monthly water cooler discussions that we started not too long ago where we get together and discuss whatever's on our mind and we connect with one another. We talk about books that we're reading, vacations we've been on, and bounce houses, snakes, you name it, on campus. So, it's quite fun, and I look forward to those every month. We developed the quarterly colleague connections where we have all the new members that have joined in the last quarter attend a zoom meeting where we talk about all the benefits that URMIA has. We created a committee to send out emails to all the new members that join each month.  

We've implemented engagement ambassadors to welcome those that are new to their first annual conference. They don't have to walk around alone, they'll have an engagement ambassador there showing them the ropes. So, there's a lot of things that we've been working on and there's a lot of opportunities for all of you that are listening to volunteer and be part of URMIA. There's no excuse thinking, well, there's no place for me to go. There's no place for me to serve. There's plenty of opportunities. And I don't want to steal anybody's thunder, but Julie's working on something great for strategic goal #1 that we'll be announcing shortly that will better connect members with each other as well. So, it's great to be here with you all, and thank you for this opportunity. 

Michelle Smith: Great. Marje, would you like to go next and share with our listeners what your volunteer roles have been like over the years? 

Marje Lemmon: Sure. But first I want to ask, Matt, do the snakes go in the bounce houses, or are these like totally separate experiences on college campuses? 

Matt Tuttle: The nice thing about the monthly water cooler discussions is it always comes up at the right time, right? So, whatever's happening on campus, you bring it forth. So, that's been a discussion on my campus. So, we're able to have those discussions. But yeah, make sure you stake them down. 

Marje Lemmon: Good tip. OK, so my volunteering. I actually, what is it called when you've been around for a while? Like senior members? Old? 

Julie Groves: Ancient of days. 

Marje Lemmon: There we go. Whatever. So, I started in leadership. Actually, it was, you saw the committee called the Inter-association Alliance Committee and I chaired that committee for a couple of years. So, that would have been probably back in like 2006, 2007. Somewhere around there. Was elected to two terms on the Board of Directors. So that was 2007 to 2013. Then became president-elect, president, immediate past president. So, I was thinking about that. I actually took over as president this September will be 10 years since I've done that, so it's been a long time. Again. I'm an old person. I've been around for a while. 

Michelle Smith: Happy anniversary. 

Marje Lemmon: Yeah. And then after that, I actually started chairing the Honors Committee. Was the Honors Committee chair for, I don't know how many years, probably five, I think. But my role in that position just ended last fall. So, now I actually technically don't have any leadership. Now, I can just be like a helper, which is awesome just as well. So, done a lot, seeing the organization from a bunch of different angles, so it's pretty cool. 

Michelle Smith: Great. Thank you. And Julie? 

Julie Groves: So, I volunteered for a committee at my very first URMIA conference in 2008, and I served on the Communications Committee, which we don't have any longer. But I was on that for a couple of years, and then I was the co-chair of that committee for three or four years, and I served on the scholarship committee. I helped with the bylaws task force several years ago. Matt just mentioned strategic goal #1 the committee that he's been leading. He does a great job with that. I've been volunteering with that. I've been on the board. And then obviously just wrapped up my term as President last year, so you know. As Marge mentioned, it's great to be able to be involved in a lot of different areas of the association. 

Michelle Smith: Yeah, it sounds like your previous volunteer experience has helped prepare you for your board role is, would you say that's true? 

Julie Groves: Yeah, I would definitely say that's true, and I think we'll talk about this a little bit later on. But you know, the reason I started volunteering and volunteer for the Communications Committee is because I have experience in other areas of my life and that's something that I'm interested in. So, you know, that's something I would say to anybody who's listening if there's something that you really enjoy, and I'm sure there's a place for you to volunteer for that, you know, reach out and do something that you like. I would not probably ever volunteer for the Finance Committee because that scares me. But, you know, it's also a great opportunity. If there's something you would like to learn and you don't know about, this is a great place to do it. So, whatever you have done in your past in your life, that all will inform you know ways that you can volunteer for URMIA. So just tap into that. 

Michelle Smith: That's awesome. And Matt, what originally got you started as a volunteer or as a member of URMIA? I mean, a lot of sometimes the story goes that a supervisor taps you to join the group. But what was your personal path? 

Matt Tuttle: Well, it's actually kind of funny because you may not know it, but I'm an introvert. And I can pretend to be an extrovert when I have to be. But typically, I like to sit in the background, kind of watch things kind of transpire. So, my involvement was by accident. So, when I started 10 years ago with the University of Utah, my boss Jerry Allred said, alright, Matt, check out urmia.org. Learn all you can from urmia.org. And as I was perusing the website, I went to the annual conferences page, and I was looking at all the places that. Jerry has been and I saw that they've never been to Salt Lake City. And I was like, sweet, this is my chance to go stay at that nice five-star hotel that I can't afford on my own being part of a state institute. So, a little selfishness, thinking, man, if we can get the URMIA annual conference in Salt Lake City and we can stay at the Grand America, that's a sweet deal. So, I said, let's just try it. Why not? Right. So, I put our name in, I put Salt Lake City down as a great destination. I worked with our conference planning folks. They put together a nice marketing material that we submitted to URMIA, then little did I know at the first conference I ever attended in Minnesota, they announced at the annual business meeting, we'll be going to Salt Lake City in 2018 and Matt Tuttle's the co-chair. Man, my blood pressure went through the roof as just. Like wow, I didn't know I was going to be the co-chair so that. 

Michelle Smith: Quite a welcome. 

Matt Tuttle: Yeah, it was. So that just teaches everybody read the fine print, right. But I'm glad it all worked out the way it did. I was paired with a great co-chair with Cheryl Lloyd. A lot of you may know her, but she's awesome. And she took me under her wing and kind of. And she introduced me to all of her friends and all of her contacts within URMIA. And Michelle, or Cheryl and I, our senses of humor go right in line. So, we just had a great time together and we put together a great conference then then from there you know, like I said, it led me to be working, it led me to work with the board as I was telling them about the work that we're doing for the Salt Lake City annual conference. And I liked everybody on the board. Marje was the president, and is this great interacting with everybody, getting to know them personally as well, and the friendships we formed then I was thinking I like this. So that led me to apply for the board. Then all of the other volunteer opportunities I've been part of. So, it is all by accident and I'm grateful for that accident. So, and that's a tribute to all of you. So, thank you. 

Michelle Smith: Well, and thanks to Jerry for pushing you to connect with her. That’s a great story. That's a great story. So obviously, your time in these roles has been rewarding in different ways to each of you. And if it weren't, you wouldn't continue volunteering, right? So, was there anything that was unexpected about serving in any of these roles, any of these positions? 

Marje Lemmon: I think I underestimated how much fun it would be actually. Kind of like touching on what Matt just said, the relationships that you make, I mean you, you grow so much professionally, you learn so much, you know, while you're helping the organization there, everybody always says you get way more back than what you give.1000% the case. I've gotten so much out of this professionally and personally, friends that I've made, but just really enjoyed the time doing it. I think URMIA makes it easy, and the people within URMIA both in the Home Office and the membership, make it easy, and I just think it's so it's way more rewarding and way more fun than I expected it to be. 

Michelle Smith: That's a nice surprise. Love it. Julie or Matt? Any unexpected? 

Matt Tuttle: I’ll just add well stated, Marje. I think you get a lot more out of it than you put in. Right. And I think it comes from the connections you make and the friendships that last. I think they'll last forever. You know, maybe they'll be reading my obituary one day when I'm older, or I'll be reading theirs and they'll be a sad day. Right. Those are the types of friendships that we form within URMIA. And that's what it should be about, right. Because you always want to be able to have a phone number where you can call somebody and say, hey, how are you dealing with this on your campus? And I think in order to have those relationships, you have to be involved in URMIA. Sure, you can look at the community and all that, but when you're involved in actually talking to people and working in committees or task forces, you'll form those relationships a lot quicker. And it's funny, the other day I was thinking URMIA does not only stand for “university risk management and insurance association,” it could also stand for “you are missing in action.” I know it sounds a little cheesy, but if you feel like you're missing in the action, I encourage you to nominate yourself, or nominate someone else that feels like they're missing in the action to be part of a committee or a task force, or to serve on the board, because there's plenty of opportunities and I I loved how Marke stated it. You get a lot more out of it than you put in. 

Marje Lemmon: I love that “you are missing in action.” I like that. 

Julie Groves: I would second you know exactly what Marje and Matt both said about the relationships I mean. Not to be as morbid as Matt and the obituary comment, but I mean, I do think some of these relationships have made in URMIA are going to last for the rest of my life. You see these people outside of URMIA related and work related things, and it's just really great that they're, you know, there's like a whole second family that's come from my involvement in URMIA. I think the other thing I would say that is sort of a surprise kind of more along the lines of what Matt was saying is you just never know when you join URMIA where your path is going to take you. Because, you know, I'm a huge URMIA fan and I was just happy to serve. However, I could, but I never, ever thought I would be President of this association. I'm like, like Matt. I mean, I know it's hard to believe, but then if you don't understand, you should go read the definition of an introvert. But I am a major introvert and so I don't nominate myself for things. It's really not, you know, I don't like, throw my hand up often, but it has become so rewarding to be a part of this organization and then someone nominated me for president, which was just a real honor. So, I had a great experience doing that and would do that again in a heartbeat. So, you know, I would say if you volunteer for URMIA, you may go in a direction that you never thought you. 

Michelle Smith: That's wonderful. It's so great to hear that volunteer experience is so rewarding, and personally and professionally. And provides you with resources and relationships that may not have existed without the organization. That's what, that's why associations exist. That's why you become a member. So, thanks for sharing those stories. Appreciate that. 

Marje Lemmon: I have to say that one of my most favorite days in my leadership roles at URMIA was the day when the election results came in and I was able to call the person who won the election for President, who was a very good friend. And I got to call Julie and tell her she got elected to the board, which was also really fun. I was like this. Is a really fun day, yeah. 

Julie Groves: It's a good perk. It's a good perk. 

Michelle Smith:  That's great. So, while putting on that hat, the board hat, or the past presidents hat, what suggestions do you have for anyone who might be interested in serving in one of these leadership positions? So, we'll have the president-elect position that will be open this fall, as well as three positions on the board that come from an institution, and then one additional position on the board, which will be an affiliate position. Our for-profit business folks have a seat on the board and that one will also be up for election this fall. So, the folks who are interested in nominating self-nominating, or for those who might be working in the future towards one of these roles. What advice might you have for those folks? 

Marje Lemmon: I would say, first, read the qualifications because there are qualifications and we want to make sure that people that are nominated meet those qualifications, so we don't have to tell them, “Sorry. You technically can't run.” But if you read the qualifications because you're interested, or even if you're reading it to nominate somebody else, and you find that you fall short, make that up. Like not make it up like pretend. I mean, like doing it. This is not a fraudulent election. You know, do what you need to do to fill in those gaps so that next year you could run, or maybe it will take you two years or whatever. But get it for anybody that's even new and not thinking maybe leadership is on the horizon way out. Get involved from the get-go. Like Julie said, she volunteered for something at her first conference. Matt jumped in it, pretty much when he joined. So, I took a little bit longer. I think it took a year before I got involved. But there's opportunity out there, get involved and get to know the organization and the people in it and everything that goes on because the more you know about it, the better you can serve. When you do get. Into those leadership roles. 

Julie Groves: Yeah. And I would just echo that, I mean and there are a lot of ways to kind of get involved that you may not even think about. I mean, volunteer to work at the registration desk at the annual conference or sign up to work on an URMIA Cares project. Matt talked about strategic goal #1, there are five strategic goals and there's a committee for each of those goals you know. So, volunteer to work on those or be like Marje and Matt, volunteer to work on an annual conference committee. You don't have to start off by volunteering to be the chair of the committee, but just volunteer to be on a committee and you know, the thing is, is that, you know, it is sort of a process, right? So, you, I mean you can't come in and volunteer for three things and then expect the next year you're going to get on the board, right? So, you need to, you know, part of it is for you to learn more about our organization, for you to be involved in our organization. And as we've said, I think each of us already you grow when you're when you are involved in all these different aspects and so, you know, look at it first as a means to help yourself grow and then look at it second, as you know, potentially a path that can take somewhere. 

Matt Tuttle: Yeah, well said. If you meet the qualifications and you want to put in the work, right, it involves work. It's not a, I don't know, an easy path to be in a leadership role. You have to present at annual conferences. You have to put your face out there. You have to be involved, but if you meet the qualifications and you feel like you're missing in the action like I stated before, I think this is a great opportunity, and I think the best way to start is with the annual conference, right, handing out bags, moderating a session, whatever it may be, just to get your foot in the door. And URMIA is run by its volunteers, right? We have a Home Office. They do a great job, but it's a small Home Office and we're a big organization and we're growing each day. So, the volunteers play a big part in that. 

Marje Lemmon: The other thing I would add is for those that either have done the leadership thing and I don't know, they're interested in doing it again, or that haven't done it and it may not be right for them, tap other people and suggest it to them. Like Matt said, someone said to him, hey, you should get involved. I originally joined a committee because Mary Bryner. Who, you know, left URMIA years ago, but tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey, you would be great for the Inter-association Alliance committee. Why don't you join the committee? Like I think most of the people that you talked to that are heavily involved. Somebody tapped them on the shoulder and said, hey, you should do this. So, think broadly, even if you're not thinking about running yourself, think broadly about who you think would be a good person to be within URMIA leadership and tap them. 

Michelle Smith: That's great. That's great. And so, if someone got really excited by hearing this podcast and they wanted to take the next steps, what would they do? What should they do with that next step? 

Matt Tuttle: Yeah, I'm hoping a lot of people listen this podcast and it's a great opportunity. I think we laid it out pretty well, with how to get involved. And so, if you want to nominate yourself or you want to nominate someone else, like URMIA makes everything easy in my mind. I love how easy they make it right. They know that we have full-time jobs. And that we're doing this as on a volunteer basis, so they make it easy for us. So, with the nomination process, it's easy as well. So, I know it, there's announcements that go out saying, you know, nominate someone, the deadlines coming up. So, you'll see a lot of communication from URMIA telling you where to go to do those nominations. But if you go to the website, urmia.org, you'll see under announcements where there's a picture of Craig McAllister currently, there is a link that will take you to the nominations page, and from there you'll fill out the simple nomination process, right? It doesn't take a lot of work if it takes you, I don't know, 5-10 minutes, and you submit it and you're done. But it's a simple process and I encourage you all if you are thinking of someone or you're thinking of yourself, go check it out and put your name down or put somebody else's name down. 

Michelle Smith: Well, that’s awesome. Thanks, Matt. 

Julie Groves: Can I share something that the Leadership Development Committee is currently working on that might be helpful for the people who are listening? 

Michelle Smith: Oh yeah, absolutely. Perfect. 

Julie Groves: So, we are working on a project. We're tentatively calling the “path to leadership” kind of as Marje has already alluded to and this is tentatively scheduled to be rolled out to the membership in the fall. But it's basically for anyone who is interested in serving on the Board of Directors, which is a prerequisite obviously to serving as eventually as President of the association. But if you're interested in serving on the board, this is just a checklist of things that people should be doing for the association. You know areas they should be involved in before they run. And I mean if you check every box on there, you will be elected. It's not that, but it's just something that will ensure that you as a candidate will have a well-rounded experience in the association. So, you know, it's all really just things we've already mentioned many times in this podcast already, and the main thing is to get involved, so look out for more on that in the months to. 

Michelle Smith: Thanks for sharing that, Julie. I think that will be a very helpful addition for the association for the candidates who are interested in running and for volunteers to, you know, look down the line a little bit as one of these potential opportunities. So, any last thoughts for listeners from the three of you that would like to share? 

Julie Groves: I would like to add one last thought. If you have run before and you didn't get elected, don't let that discourage you. Run again. I had to run 2 times before I got elected to board and I ran twice for president. So, you know, and I know lots of other people who are in that same boat. And, you know, sadly, I know people who ran and didn't get elected. And it really bothered them, and they sort of removed themselves from the organization or haven’t been as active and we don't want that for anybody. We do want to just encourage everyone. If you don't get elected the first time, please don't take it personally. Take it from me. I know it's not fun to lose, but. And in fact, let me just say, when I ran for president the first time, and I didn't when Jenny had everybody stand up at the annual conference to say all the losers to stand up at the annual conference luncheon and I think later Marje paraphrased it has Jenny saying “everybody is a loser. Stand up.” And so, I had to stand up in front of everybody and you know. Well, obviously she's never done that again, and she's no longer here. But I will say, if you can survive that and then run again, I would encourage everybody. Please don't give up after you. Run and you haven't been elected because you know just don't give up, just running. 

Marje Lemmon: Definitely not URMIA’s finest moment  

Julie Groves: We like to give her a hard time about that though. 

Marje Lemmon: It was supposed to be, you know, thank you all. Look at all these great people. We have a plethora of, you know, wonderful candidates who had ended up being all losers. 

Michelle Smith: Oh well, it was meant well. 

Julie Groves: It was, but I'm just saying I'm just saying, if I can withstand that and then run again, you all will never be called out in front of a group if you lose. 

Michelle Smith: That’s funny, that’s great. Any other last thoughts, Marje or Matt? 

Marje Lemmon: I mean do it. Any inkling in your head that maybe I want to do this, jump on it. Just do it. You know, you will never regret it. You will get so much more out of it than you ever expected, and it will be hella fun. 

Michelle Smith: Yeah, I think the other piece of the puzzle is also that this alerts us that folks are interested, right? And if you don't step up for some other volunteer role and this is a great way to at least put your hand up, and let us know that you are interested in in starting the path or continuing other volunteer leadership opportunities might lead to the board position, that sort of thing. So, it definitely gives us a pipeline of potential volunteers and leaders for the future and for the Leadership Development Committee to follow up on. Definitely is a worthwhile effort just to do the nomination. So, we appreciate that information you submitted as well. So, I would love to say thank you to each of you for not only your longtime volunteer role within the association, your leadership roles, but also for being a guest on the podcast today. It's great to have tenured folks, senior leaders, seasoned professionals as guests and encouraging those new professionals who might be in the field just a short time and know that you know there's an opportunity to serve the association to serve their institutions in various roles. And and we appreciate your leadership and and your being. Here today so. This wraps another episode of Ermie on that. 

Narrator: 

You've been listening to URMIA matters. You can find more information about URMIA at www.urmia.org For more information about this episode, check out the show notes available to URMIA members in the URMIA Network library.