MESSAGE FROM THE CHAPTER PRESIDENT
ENOUGH was my word of the year for 2021, and I believe that coming off of another relentless pandemic year, the DallasHR and the HR community developed a true taste of what ENOUGH truly means. As we continued to transverse through this new world and perspective, we had to continually determine how to collaborate enough, communicate enough, listen enough, support our amazing volunteer leaders enough, lift up the outstanding DallasHR staff mem - bers enough, and just realize that at the end of the day, each one of us is ENOUGH! Our 2021 reality came with many unanswered ques - tions. How do we keep HR professionals engaged, how do we create virtual events that are the most appealing, and then, when should we get back to face- to-face meetings? We have an increased focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts, with our newly formed DE&I com - mittee led by David Comeaux. Survey results provided valuable feedback from members on how we can fur - ther extend those efforts. HR professionals throughout the state of Texas leaned into the community and used HRConnect for valuable feedback and to stay connect - ed with peers. Virtual Roundtable Meetings and the extremely pop - ular virtual HR Coffee Talk (which allows HR pro - fessionals to come together and discuss various “hot topics”), gained a lot of momentum in 2021 and are still going strong! And, while we all felt the exhaustion from different strains of COVID and the hardship of not being with other people, the stellar DallasHR vol - unteers and staff continuously went out of their way to assure that all of our virtual events were engaging, high powered, and full of relevant knowledge. What an extreme joy it was to start off our first in-per - son meetings in 16 months with a fundraising event at
Top Golf in The Colony! It was good for the heart to see so many old friends and colleagues and to spend time just chatting and developing those relationships further. That was then followed by hybrid and in-per - son events for the rest of the year. Again, the volun - teers and staff did an outstanding job assuring that we were intentional about the balance between virtual and in-person events, and while that is something that we still continue to work through and balance, we are gaining momentum daily. One of the greatest accomplishments of 2021 was the Hybrid HRSouthwest Conference. Both successful events were pulled off by the Conference Director, Bryan Yanus, and his strong team of volunteers. In celebration of the Conference’s 80th Anniversary, the permanent “tagline” Learn, Network, and Grow was introduced to emphasize Conference attendee takeaways. I am so impressed with the stamina, courage, and tenacity of the DallasHR staff, volunteer leaders, and volunteers with how far we came during my time as President of DallasHR. I have no doubt that we will continue to learn, network, and grow together as we look forward to whatever the world has in store for us. All I know is that together, we are ENOUGH!
Holly Novak, SPHR, SHRM-SCP 2021 President Dallas HR Management Association Operations Board
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