Super Session and Annual Business Meeting
But, first, it wouldn't be a trip to Nashville without bringing some country standards out to wake up the crowd. Those were provided by Dolly Parton...well, actually a dead-ringer of an impersonator named Lori Stegner. The musical performance included hits like "Jolene" and the tongue-in-cheek, business appropriate "9 to 5." After the hits and a few jokes, NACM-National Chairman Kathleen Tomlin, CCE got down to business. She was happy to report that NACM has moved past a "bad year" and moved onto better times, with even more room for improvement. "We are eager to get back to being able to tell you that we had a great year," Tomlin noted. She also offered an appeal to members to continue their support of NACM's ample networking and education opportunities and to try to help get memberships back on the rise. Tomlin and NACM President Robin Schauseil, CAE went on to honor those affiliates who pushed forward to foster growth despite a still rebounding economy. This included NACM Wisconsin, NACM East Tennessee (Knoxville), NACM Rhode Island & Southern New England and NACM Upstate New York (Buffalo). On the latter, Regional Manager Adolfo Lupu was proud to return to the stage one year after confidently guaranteeing the Buffalo-based affiliate would earn another membership growth award.
Other guests at the Super Session included NACM Economic Advisor Chris Kuehl, Ph.D., on hand to discuss the unique value of NACM's Credit Managers' Index (CMI), and United TranzActions' Rudet Fountain to talk about the ongoing support for the alliance between his organization and NACM. "NACM is the greatest organization in the world and you-the members-are not only the greatest members, but like our extended family," he remarked. "It's our pleasure to work side-by-side with you as your business partner. We know that business continues to be a challenge, and we're not out of the woods yet. I want you to know that United TranzActions continues to stand by you as you navigate your companies back to prosperity. We've got your back!"
"If you were starting from scratch, what would your business look like?" said Calloway, building off a point made earlier in the day by Chairman Tomlin. "We need to recreate ourselves...we need to start from scratch. To me it's a great idea to sit back take a breath and think why would we not recreate ourselves?" He mentioned companies including Google, which made a business plan out of nothing that existed before; Apple, which watches lines of customer's waiting for the first day of sales for particular products in which consumers "don't even yet know what they do yet" (i.e., iPad); and Jim Beam, a company that prides itself on trying out new ideas quickly rather than waiting through weeks and months of tweaking and meetings, all the while not launching the product or service discussed. What those companies have in common, said Calloway, is a "culture of constant improvement." It's a tenant that should be a given.
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2011 CONFERENCE COVERAGE
Tuesday's Super Session and Annual Business Meeting largely discussed the tasks of the association for the upcoming year and also served as a reminder that companies should imagine what they would look like if they had a chance to start over...and to pursue that idealist model whenever possible.
The session then turned to the tradition of honoring the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management's Best Student Award. The distinction for 2010 went to Ryan Napp, CCE of Herman Miller Inc. See the 
Super Session Speaker Joe Calloway, author of best-seller Becoming a Category of One, served as the session's closer, using Nashville's own Grand Ole Orpy as an example of a business having to reinventing itself and thrive. While that was by necessity, as an aftermath of massive flooding in the U.S. in 2010, Calloway said more businesses and professionals should take an opportunity to really look at things from their most basic levels and try to rebuild.