Minutes from meeting 03/01/10

During this Monday's meeting we welcomed our speaker, Ted Gilson, who is the Placement Director at New Horizons Computer Learning Center in Gainesville and a membership director at NCF SHRM among many other things.

Mr. Gilson talked to us about the importance of networking when it comes to a present or future career, and how to effectively build a useful network.

He informed us of current day professional network building websites, such as Linked IN, which can help an active or passive job seeker create a network and potentially find a job.

Now some Gator SHRM announcements:

-Elections were held today after the meeting

-Our next meeting was scheduled for Monday, March 15, but it has been cancelled to allow all of our members to attend our fundraiser at I Love NY Pizza that day from 7 PM to 9 PM. So make sure you go and support Gator SHRM's first fundraiser!

More updates to come soon!!

Updates from Feb. 15 meeting

We had a meeting this past Monday where we did paired mock interviews designed by Valentina. Thank you Valentina!

Here are the updates we discussed at the meeting.

New schedule:
-Meetings will be every other Monday for the rest of the semester.
-If you are on a committee, committee updates will be discussed directly after Monday meetings. This eliminates the need to schedule other meetings.

Schedule for the rest of the semester:
March 1
March 15
March 29
April 12

We have confirmed HR professional speakers for two of the four meetings. With the schedule planned out, we will be doing marketing for meeting attendees.

Elections:
-As part of being a student org at UF, we are required to have elections for the following positions for 2010-2011:
-President, 2 Vice Presidents, Secretary and Treasurer
-If you hold another position (like fundraising or marketing) and want to keep it next year, just email us.
-If you are interested in one of the elected positions, email us.
-Elections will be held at the March 1 meeting.

NCF SHRM meeting:
Thursday, April 8 at 3:30 p.m. Tell us if you are interested in going.

National Membership:
-Still available for $35.
-Benefits include online networking database, HR and email publications, and scholarships.
-National membership is required for the organization's executive position holders and a minimum of 8 people in the organization to remain registered with nationals.
-To avoid making specific people foot the bill for the entire organization, we will be holding a fundraiser soon to raise the money for national membership. Ashlei, Kristen and I are meeting to finalize a date for one of the fundraisers that Samantha has found.

Note: The NCF SHRM meeting is actually tomorrow, Thursday the 14th, at the same time. Therefore we will just try to go as a group next month. Feel free to go on your own if you would like!

Minutes from meeting 1/11/10

Today's meeting featured a speaker from the Miller Center for Retailing who came to speak about the various employment opportunities available in the retailing business.

Our speaker went over the different types of retailers (such as discount retailers, department stores, specialty retailers, big box, etc). and several types of jobs within the retail business.
Two of the most important jobs within the retailing business that our speaker went over are retail manager (who oversees the look of the store, designs store layout, manages personnel, makes sales plans, etc.) and buyer/planner (who manage the flow of merchandise from manufacturer to consumer, negotiate with vendors, help manage staff, etc.) Both of these jobs require strong interpersonal skills, since they involve communication with both employees and vendors, some analytical skills, and the ability to work in a team (which are all qualities of someone pursuing human resources as a career). Retail Managers and buyers/planners earn between $50,000 and $60,000 as their initial salary, and that number can double in 3 to 5 years. Of course, another important job within the retail business is a human resource specialist, who is in charge of the recruitment, training, placement, advancement, and welfare of employees among other things.
In order to prepare for a career in retailing, our speaker suggested doing PAID internships only (unpaid interns are often assigned meaningless tasks, such as getting coffee) and enrolling in several business and marketing classes, including the Sears Seminar Series (MAR 2290), which allows students to meet professionals from the retailing business in weekly seminars. Also, the Miller Center for Retailing is a great resource for anyone interested or even curious in retailing. You can visit the center at 200 Bryan Hall, or reach them by email: cecilia.schulz@cba.ufl.edu


Now some GatorSHRM announcements...

The final logo is up on our blog website! Check it out!

The Towerhill Insurance tour will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 2nd from 8:30 - 11:30 AM
Here is the itinerary for our visit:
8:30 - 9:30: Introduction of HR Team Members/Overview of HR operation in the P&C insurance industry
9:30 - 10:30: Benefits/Payroll
10:00 - 10:30: Recruiting/Employee Relations
10:30 - 11:00: Training
11:00 - 11:30: Q&A
There were only 3 spots left after our meeting today so make sure you contact us if you are interested right away!

There will be a presentation called "Careers in Human Resources" on Thursday, Jan. 14th at 2 PM in Matherly 120
The Director of human resources for JCPenney will talk about how students can break into a career in HR.

NCF SHRM will be here in Gainesville on January 21st from 3:30 - 5:30 at AvMed (4300 NW 89th Blvd. Gainesville, FL 32606)
We are thinking about going together as a group so let us know if you are interested so we can get a carpool together!

Look out for the GatorSHRM facebook page coming soon!

We are looking into several fundraisers/socials (with 101 Cantina and Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Company) so we need your support so we can make them happen!

Since it is Ashlei's last semester here at UF, an HR position will open.
For more information and to send resumes email Ashlei at aharris@uff.ufl.edu

For more information about the MSM (Master of Science: Management) program here at UF, email Kristen at kreuther@ufl.edu

The tentative date for our next meeting is Feb. 8th at 7 PM.
We will keep you posted with more updates!!

Finalizing our Logo!!!

Minutes from meeting on Nov. 9th

Background and purpose of GatorSHRM was presented at this meeting.

To become a National SHRM member it costs only $35 for students! This membership provides you with newsletters and information on the HR field. It also allows you access to local NCF SHRM meetings that occur every 3rd Thursday of the month. This is great for networking. We will be attending those meetings in the spring semester! Applications for national SHRM were available at this meeting. Please email GatorSHRM@gmail.com for an application if you did not pick up one.

Four members of the NCF chapter of SHRM attended the meeting to give insight about the HR field.

Here is some background on the NCF members:

- Eva Del Rio, M Ed.
Principal Consultant and Founder of the business HR Pro on Demand
She is involved in HR Consulting – the business she owns provides HR expertise for small businesses. Some other companies she has worked for in the past include Gainesville Sun and various engineering companies. She started as receptionist and fell into HR in the recruiting sector. Her masters degree is in education and she has her PHR certification.
- Robin Harpe
Principal Consultant and Founder of the business navigate your life
She is a motivational speaker, but started her career as a receptionist and then got into the HR field. In the past, she has had to lay off 1,200 pharmaceutical reps, which she considers to be one of the hardest things she has done. She then worked her way to become an HR generalist.
- Pete Eiden, SPHR, GPHR
Manager, Employee Relations and Compensation for RTI Biologics
He is currently the president of NCF SHRM. In college, he was originally pre-med, but decided he didn’t like biology. He then became an undergrad in psychology and then went back to school for his MBA. He says his MBA was very useful in dealing with numbers in HR.
- Ric Gwin
Assistant Vice President of HR for Tower Hill Insurance
Started as a teacher in Ft. Myers, then worked for a company where he was in charge of running a United Way Campaign. He then worked in HR for a hospital and dealt with legalities of HR (HMOs, etc).

Some highlights of their insight are as follows:

- HR field is full of people from all backgrounds and majors
- Companies over 100 employees are the ones most likely to have strong HR sector
- People in HR in a company are “in the know” of what’s going on in the company and usually have a strong influence on top execs – Involves a lot of trust
- HR is an up and coming and growing field – Those in HR careers started as paper pushers -- Now HR careers are more strategic
- Not a boring and stagnant job - No two days are alike
- Extremely important for people in HR to fully understand the industry the company is in
- HR manages risk and liabilities
- It is a great asset to have knowledge in finance, statistics, and analysis of these
- Get an internship!

The NCF SHRM members were asked what they thought were the hardest and most enjoyable aspects of the HR field. These were their answers:

Hardest-
- Laying people off
- Company and employee issues you get pulled into -- Can feel like you are in a war because you are being pulled toward the interests of management and employees – It is very important to know who you are and what you value when making decisions
- Dealing with petty issues – Solutions and things you can’t find in textbooks
- Sometimes people in HR get too carried away on the employee side -- Must remember your career and your own personal goals and development
- Being in the HR field is like being in an aquarium on a daily basis – Very visible position -- Must be very accessible

Best-
- Being influential and gaining trust of decision makers in company and being apart of that elite group
- Being able to design a company from the ground up -- Being able to design a job, find the right person for it, and then watch them shine
- Learning all aspects of the business -- Not a stagnant position
- Helping people and developing trust with a manager
- Lots of options of sectors to get into in the HR fields – benefits, recruiting, hiring, training, compensation, etc.
- Constant change

When it comes to the different sectors of HR, some notes they said are as follows:
- Employee relations sector – this is the sector where the firing of employees occur, but this is not the only sector, especially in smaller companies
- Compensation sector – maximize effectiveness and efficiency of positions, very analytical position

*Ric Gwin, Asst. VP of HR for Tower Hill Insurance, offered a tour and viewing of the HR dept. at Tower Hill – we will be taking him up on this offer for the spring semester

Look for updates for the exciting thing was have planned for the spring semester!

First info meeting November 9, 6-8 p.m.

GatorSHRM is a new student organization on the UF campus. We are affiliated with the national Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) as well as the local North Central Florida Chapter of SHRM. Human Resource Management is a field that enables an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, maintaining, and managing employees effectively. These tasks include hiring, compensation, performance management, safety, benefits, employee motivation, training, and more. We are looking for bright and creative students to help this organization become a true success. There are many networking, leadership, volunteer and resume building opportunities available. We invite you to learn more about this organization, our goals, our benefits and how you can play an important role during our information session to take place on Monday November 9th, 2009 in the Career Resource Center's Library from 6-8pm. There will be free food and students from all majors and classifications are encouraged to attend. Please RSVP at GatorSHRM@gmail.com. For more information about SHRM please visit http://shrm.org

*If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to get involved, please email us at GatorSHRM@gmail.com for a membership application. We will post details about the meeting on here after November 9.