Executive Club Newsletter

January 2010

Take Time for Health

Lisa Mettler, RN, Mettler Center

by Ellen Schmidt

Champaign Country Club
Thursday, January 21, 2010

11:30 a.m.: Registration and Networking

11:45 a.m.: Buffet Opens

12:15 p.m.: Mtg/Program

Don’t miss our January program! Lisa will be talking about strategies to make exercise and eating well feel more doable for busy women.

Registrations are due by noon on Monday, January 18, 2010. Please indicate if you are bringing a guest. Register online now!

*Remember, there will be a $5 late fee for reservations received after the Monday Noon deadline. Attendees with late or no reservations will be permitted to attend as seating is available.

Pre-register online and send a check for $15 to ECCC, P.O. Box 61, Champaign, IL 61824-0061 OR pre-register online and pay on day of luncheon. Contact the Treasurer with questions about registration.

It’s January and at the beginning of each New Year many people make resolutions. An ECCC friend in my Book Club arriving about 10 minutes late for our December dinner meeting said that she had a resolution for 2009 to be on time and wanted some assurances that she was really sort of on time. Of course we chuckled about it and the conversation moved on.

Prior to this dinner, I had decided that being on time would be one of my resolutions, or should I say an opportunity for improvement, in 2010. This was prompted, in part, by an article I’d read recently by Michael C. Munger entitled, “Sorry I’m Late” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. It is written about academia, but I expect it translates to the business world very well.

Munger, chair of political science at Duke University, notes that most meetings start late even though it annoys everyone. He predicts that as soon as you read his four rules of lateness, you will recognize the behavior of several of your colleagues, and maybe yourself. The four types are: The platonic traveler, the paradox of the busy, closeness hurts, and the first will be last.

The platonic traveler. This is the person who allows only the optimal time to travel to the meeting, never allowing leeway for the unexpected delay. The other people at the meeting are regaled with the breathless story of the unique situation making the platonic traveler late that time. Munger challenges readers to record their arrival times at meetings for a couple of weeks. If you are always late, you are a platonic traveler. In the real world, though, you are a pain in the neck.

The paradox of the busy. Munger observes that the busier you are, the more likely you will be on time. Busy people manage their time well because it is valuable. They develop rules to avoid frittering away the day. Competent people adjust; ambitious people improve their skills. If you can get better at your job (and time management is a big part of most jobs), then you will be given more responsibility. Incompetent people believe they are busy, but they are just inefficient. Colleagues who are always late are revealing signs of a larger incompetence in many other, less visible, parts of their lives. Hence, competent busy people are rarely late.

Closeness hurts. For this group of latecomers, the closer their office is to the meeting room, the later they arrive at the meeting. If someone is coming from another city, the meeting’s importance is somehow mentally elevated. Even if they just have to walk to another building, they tend to be on time. But if the session is just down the hall, they wait until the last minute. Then when Ms. Close does show up, five minutes late, she says, "Oh, sorry I’m late. I was just making a phone call." And that excuses being late … how?

The first will be last. Ms. First shows up, parks her folders, sees the room is empty, and heads for the coffeepot. Because she is two minutes early, she thinks she has time to chat with the staff or check the mailbox, then finally arrives 10 minutes late, but her papers and BlackBerry sit there in mute proxy, a talisman of timeliness. Then this sometimes turns into a revolving door of distractions and small errands by others delaying the meeting time even more.

Munger concludes that there are limits to how late most people are willing to be. Five or seven minutes late, and most of us aren’t really ashamed. But arriving 20 minutes late is embarrassing. And to keep others waiting for half an hour violates a pretty serious, if unspoken, social norm. We tend toward lateness because each of us hates waiting more than we feel bad about making others wait. But manners and conventions are precisely about solving that sort of problem. So let’s work together. To paraphrase Erich Segal: Being on time means never having to say you’re sorry.

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Sorry-Im-Late/49148/

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ECCC Business Forum

Save the Date!

by Andra Lee

Please mark you calendars for the semi-annual ECCC Business Forum, Thursday, April 29th from 5 – 7:30 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn. Drinks and appetizers will be served, and the featured speakers will be Laura Cornille-Cannady and Shirley Stelbrink of Learning Alliances, presenting about interacting with different generations in the workplace. Please look for further information soon. Space will be limited.

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ECCC Book Clubs

2009 Reads

by Jennifer Greene

Looking for a good book to read in the New Year? Check out one of the books read by the ECCC book clubs in 2009!

Wednesday Night Book Club

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Plain Song by Kent Haruf

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

The Women by T.C. Boyle

The Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

December by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Thursday Night Book Club

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Suite Française by Irène Nemirovsky

American Eve by Paula Uruburu

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson

Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Monday Night Book Club

Mary Emma & Company by Ralph Moody

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Run for Your Life by Marilyn Levy

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Jewel Trader of Pegu by Jeffrey Hantover

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky and Sandra Smith

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

(The Thursday night ECCC Book Club would welcome new members. Contact Celia Elliott for more information. )

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Bring a Guest for Free Month!

by Jennifer Greene

The time is almost here for you to bring a guest for FREE!!! We have chosen April as the month when you can bring a prospective member to Executive Club for no charge.

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Good News Travels Quickly

by Jennifer Greene

Congrats are in order for the following ECCC members!

Deb Reardanz was recently promoted to President & CEO of Clarke-Lindsey Village.

Karen Blatzer welcomed James Christian Blatzer on Thursday, December 17. Baby Jimmy was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. Karen actually had made reservations to attend our ECCC luncheon that day, but Jimmy had other plans!

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December Speaker Summary

Central Illinois Children’s Choir

by Ellen Schmidt

Our December meeting included a holiday performance of the Central Illinois Children’s Choir. The children delighted us with a variety of songs including some for the holiday season.

A little bit about the chorus.

Excellence in choral singing is the goal of Central Illinois Children’s Chorus.

Founded in 1978, CICC provides choral music instruction, vocal training, and performance opportunities for singers in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

The chorus includes four choir levels and draws members from communities within a 30-mile radius of Champaign-Urbana.

Members are taught sound vocal technique, musicianship, musical styles, and performance etiquette. They learn repertoire covering a diverse range of music, languages, and composers.

CICC singers present annual concerts in winter and spring, perform with area orchestras and with the University of Illinois, School of Music, and participate in choral festivals, as well as community, corporate, and private events.

Most importantly, CICC choristers experience the joy, discipline, pride, and teamwork of high-quality choral singing.

For more information about the Central Illinois Children’s Choir please access their website at www.ciccsings.org

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ECCC January & February Birthdays

by Jeannette Beck

January Birthdays

01 Cindy Clennon

01 Emmie Fisher

01 Shayla Maatuka

01 Janice McAteer

01 Anna Mehl

02 Ellen Schmidt

08 Julia Overstreet

11 Annette Duitsman

12 Linda L. Hamilton

12 Rachael Wright

18 Maria Ehmann

18 Safiya Noble

21 Carol Koenecke-Grant

22 Terri Carr

22 Sunny Jeong

22 Julie Roth

28 Linda Bauer

28 Joan R. Zernich

29 Karla Peterson

30 Maria Trenhaile

31 Jan Kiley

31 Jacqueline Phillips

February Birthdays

02 Tina Prow

03 Marjorie Williams

05 Mary Dennis

08 Martha Leary

09 Stephanie Record

11 Babette Hiles

11 Sandra J. Moore

11 Vicki L. Trimble

12 Jody Elder Littleton

14 Linda Jo Hascall

14 Linda Myette

15 Jennifer Busey

16 Celia Elliott

17 Connie L. Barrowman

17 Chris Slater-Vohs

20 Denise Knipp Bates

21 Elizabeth Murphy

22 Lisle C. W. Casper

24 Laura Wetherell

25 Jane Brockway

25 Phyllis K. Hurd