Executive Development Forum
Purpose
Many entrepreneurs and business owners feel that they have no one to talk to about their business issues. They can talk to their staff but are reluctant to discuss certain issues and in some cases the issues are about the staff. Small business people in particular are faced with this issue and normally have no where to turn. They would like to receive the opinions of other people who may have already dealt with a specific issue. In addition, issues are often confidential in nature and cannot be discussed with just anyone. Finally business leaders are struggling in many cases just to keep their business running and do not feel they have the time or resources to seek outside help.
Another issue faced by busy business executives is personal business development. Issues like planning, management, customer service, time management and sales are very important issues faced by executives but they often say they do not have the time to attend improvement sessions due to conflicts with their business schedule.
The Executive Development Forum has been created to address these needs. It is a group of small business people who are part of a business development and support group. An objective of the group is to identify common areas where they need to make improvements. In addition the members of the forum are a functional support team for the other members somewhat like a Board of Directors.
Structure
The Executive Development Forum (EDF) will consist of no more than 10 members in any one forum. A new forum must have a minimum of 5 members.
The EDF will meet once a month for 2 hours with a facilitator.
Each member will also be entitled to 30 minutes of individual coaching from the facilitator each month. There will be no carry over of these sessions from month to month.
The facilitator will prepare the agenda for the monthly meeting, notify all members and prepare the meeting area.
The monthly meeting will consist of approximately 1 hour of executive leadership training and 1hour will address specific issues of concern of the members. Members will email or call in issues to the facilitator no less than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. The member will identify the urgency of the issue and highest priority issues will be dealt with first. It is up to the facilitator to insure that no one member overwhelms the group with issues.
Members of the forum will be from different industries. No two (2) members can be direct competitors.
Once the group is formed, all new members will have to receive approval from the existing members in consultation with the facilitator. New members can be recommended by existing members or the facilitator.
Potential members must submit references that will be verified prior to acceptance into the Forum.
Membership & Meeting Guidelines
In order to insure that the issues covered during the sessions are relevant for all members, Forums will consist of two types. One will consist of members with 1 to 10 employees and another will be of members with 10 or more employees.
All potential members must have been in business for a minimum of 6 months.
The potential member must be an individual entrepreneur , owner, partner, CEO or President of the company they are representing.
Membership is a commitment of 1 year from the member’s first meeting.
Members are expected to attend all meetings. Absences should only be based on a family or business emergency. A member who misses 2 meetings in a row will have a consultation meeting with the facilitator who will make a recommendation to the EDF regarding their membership status. The members reserve the right to revoke membership if it is determined that the member can no longer be an effective contributor. All final decisions are at the discretion of the facilitator.
Meetings will be scheduled by the members of the EDF on a date and time acceptable to the group and facilitator.
Once the date and time are determined, the meeting will occur on that same day and time each month. i.e. the 3rd Thursday at 8AM.
All meetings will be once a month for two 2 hours.
All meetings will start and end on time.