and Corporate Affiliate Members:
This week my relationship with NASTD reaches a milestone. Since 2004 I have been one of the many Corporate Affiliate members active in NASTD. During the past three years I have had the exceptional privilege to serve the organization in the roles of secretary, vice chair and chairman of the Corporate Affiliate Council. Wednesday I became a “former” and joined the annals of others who the memberships of NASTD have allowed to serve the organization in these capacities.
The transition is bittersweet for me. I take pride in the things accomplished and reflective over things still to be done. On the positive side, with fewer official responsibilities to NASTD, I’ll have some time back in my calendar.
On the other hand, as I entered my twelve months as chairman, I had a long list of things I had hoped to accomplish. Twelve months can seem very short in retrospect.
I did have a strong wind at my back from the great work done by my processors: Bill Zion, Stacy Roland, Sheldon Green, Barry Harbaugh, Gary Coleman and the many others before them who created a current that swept me into the channel of progress. Many roadblocks were knocked down by that foundation coupled with a dynamic of willingness on the part of many other members of the affiliate council – both those in official capacities and the many volunteers – and the guidance and support of my many mentors among the NASTD state membership and professional staff.
I am most proud of the things we have accomplished together. Through teamwork and partnership we have helped NASTD weather external storms that have upset other organizations. We have all participated in the transformation of NASTD from one seen as focusing narrowly on telecom to one with an ever broadening perspective of how technology can help state government surpass its goals. We have become an organization that not only contributes to the local economy of the communities we visit during our conferences and seminars we now tangibly give back to worthy organizations in those communities as we did last year to students of the Robert E Lee School in Montgomery and this year to the Oregon Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Above everything I hope that I am seen as a chairman who fostered openness, transparency and inclusion. I hope that I have served the corporate affiliates, the state members and the organization with competence.
I leave the role of chairman with confidence in the future for the organization.
I have passed the reigns of leadership of the Corporate Affiliate Council to someone I respect and who has great energy and exciting vision. On Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Council we heard Bulent Taskan talk about his goals to move to greater levels of collaboration, not only with state members, but between each other in our contributions to NASTD. Bulent talked about the effectiveness generated by affiliates and state members working together through NASTD to solve problems. He said that working together we are much more powerful than any of us acting alone. Even though we may occasionally compete with one another for individual business opportunities, the dynamic fostered by our mutual involvement and commitment to the goals of NASTD drives accelerating progress.
This will not be the end of the road for me with NASTD. This is because NASTD is much more to me than simply a membership in a professional organization. I participate in other professional organizations, but I cannot describe any of those organizations in the terms I use to describe NASTD.
Above all NASTD is a community. At times it even feels like an extended family. The relationships between the people involved in NASTD are not only professionally beneficial, they often become personally important. NASTD meetings and seminars can come to feel to me like extended family reunions. I have not only advanced professionally because of my involvement in NASTD, I have gained an enhanced professional network, learned valuable lessons, recorded fond memories and developed friendships that will last my lifetime.
To all of you involved in NASTD please accept my heartfelt thank you for the opportunity to serve this excellent organization as a member of the affiliate council leadership.
It is an honor and a sincerely felt privilege.
Guy W Clinch
Immediate past chairman of the NASTD Corporate Affiliate Council