2006 Individual Development Vice

2006 Individual Development Vice-President - Shawn Brueshaber

Dear Local IDVP and ID Directors;

Welcome aboard to the 2006 ID Team! Congratulations on your recent election or appointment to your position. The Individual Development Area of Opportunity is the one and only branch of the Junior Chamber that differentiates our organization from all others. Our organization's core mission revolves about the purposeful development of leaders. All else must flow from and support this mission.

This means that the Individual Development Area of Opportunity at the local level will, from this point forth, take the initiative to develop your chapter's members as leaders. When a chapter has strong leaders and many of them, all other endeavors of that chapter are naturally enhanced. When a person makes the commitment to be a better leader, it influences others to do the same. In due time, an organization's culture can be changed irrevocably for the better by dedicating itself to developing others.

If your chapter is there now, excellent! That means you will have to challenge yourself to go further. If your chapter is not there yet, then you can be that leader than brings them to that wonderful state of being. Ultimately, it is in your hands as the IDVP to spearhead your chapter's leadership development programming. You will not be acting alone nor can you do it all. But you are the navigator that can, if you so desire, to steer your chapter to the promised lands just over the horizon.

To be an effective leader requires one to embrace personal transformation. Until you decide to make a commitment, all the training and practice of being a leader is partly wasted. You must want to change yourself to be a leader. The tools and training are the easy part. It is the stalwart dedication in the face of fierce storms or light breezes at your back to work towards this ideal that is the hard part. Leadership development is hard. If it were easy, everyone would be the ideal CEO, ideal business entrepreneur, manager, or parent. It is the things in life that are hard that bring us the greatest reward for our efforts.

This is where all the personal and professional development projects come into play. These projects serve as the basis for helping you and your members make that transformation into powerful servant leaders who in turn will grow new leaders. Everything from learning a new craft to coaching a member on how to overcome the fear of public speaking has a higher purpose - developing leadership.

Your own leadership development is of high consideration to your ID team and me. As former IDVPs, we know what this task means and what we are asking of you. We don't ask anything of you that we haven't asked of ourselves. We also know that in each of you is the potential to be that ideal CEO, ideal chapter president, or ideal parent.

In the 2006-year, we have a nautical analogy at play. If a sailing ship is like a chapter, then you as the IDVP are the navigator and a trusted leader in your own right. Help develop your chapter's leadership and in turn, challenge yourself to be a better leader. Practice leadership, study leadership, embrace spiritual development, try new things, touch the hearts of your members, aid the families of your chapter become closer, get fit, learn to be an effective interviewee, speaker, debater, and writer, and push yourself, and we will be there with you to guide and help you.

Never hesitate to call your MIJC ID Team or me. We are here to help you on this noble journey. We are here for you! Friends, may your sails be full, the wind at your back, and bright stars shining for you in the heavens.

Shawn R Brueshaber
2006 Michigan Jaycees Individual Development Vice President