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Available in multiple languages |
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Listen to the latest podcast hosted by our amazing Salt Lake ChapterMoral & Ethical Leadership Podcast |
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Conquer Your College Application with 4 Questions with Gina Pomar |
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Archived BYUMS Webinars: General and Women in Business2014-2017 |
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1. May 14, 2021
Dear Management Society Members,
I hope you know that I don’t take that salutation lightly; you are dear – each one of you. You are also members of the BYU Management Society, whether you are currently able to affiliate with a local chapter or not. You are part of a large group of individuals from villages, towns, and cities across the globe who stand shoulder-to-shoulder, committed to living and sharing the principles of moral and ethical leadership within their spheres of influence.
Last March (2020), as we faced a global pandemic together, I wrote to you directly. I wanted to make sure that you knew that we were still here and remaining faithful to our shared mission, even if we weren’t able to be together in person. I shared my personal adventures with making and eating 40-year-old gelatin and living to tell the tale. I mentioned that my only pandemic hair stylist was my husband, who learned how to cut my bangs by watching YouTube videos. That has continued to be true for fifteen months. The rest of my hair is now streaming down my back, giving me a very 70’s look (That’s 1970’s, not my age—quite.)
I continued to send direct emails until May (2020), as we found our feet with our new “normals,” offering virtual opportunities for listening and learning together. Our chapters stepped up in huge ways, working virtually to meet needs both locally and regionally. I’ve been impressed, yet again, by the fantastic leaders we have across the globe. You’ve collaborated regionally, offered skills training and networking using virtual tools, and generally lifted each other. One of the great joys I have found is “attending” meetings in different areas. I have learned from the speakers and from the great questions of the attendees. I didn’t need to be a member of the Boston chapter to register and attend a meeting with Jared Conley, MD/PhD of Massachusetts General Hospital; I’m a member of the global BYU Management Society! (So are you.) I was welcomed from across the country to a virtual learning feast. What a joy! (Any chance I can get some graduate level credit for attending, Boston Chapter?) I have experienced other incredible learning opportunities with chapters in Dallas, Salt Lake, Utah Valley, San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, and Utah Valley. If I spoke—what a friend assures me is the Adamic language – Portuguese, I’d have signed up for the Curitiba chapter’s virtual event.
I’ve also “attended” all of our global webinars and have come away inspired with insights into how I can be better and do better. Couldn’t make it to a global webinar? No problem! Many of them are archived on this page above.
I should have given you a “long post alert” at the beginning of this email, but I’ll pause to do that now. I’m hoping you’ll humor me and keep reading. We aren’t out of the pandemic yet and I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about that.
Fourteen months into this, I have been reflecting on the various meanings of the word “abide.” I have a better understanding today than I did last March that abiding means so much more than just living somewhere. The shepherds “abiding in the fields” (Luke 2) were doing more than existing; they were keeping watch over their sheep and they were also anxiously and patiently waiting for the promised Messiah. The scriptures tell us to “abide” in our covenants and that if we do so, the Lord will abide in us and we will abide in Him. The “abiding” this past year has been awful, joyful, difficult, exhausting, amazing, grief-filled, and miraculous. And we are not done. Our friends in India and Brazil are suffering from the brunt of the pandemic, as I write this letter. In the US, we’re seeing younger adults being hit with this disease. We can’t stop caring about and caring for those around us, including continuing to take precautions and praying for each other and for ourselves. I hope that we will continue to abide in faith, in love, in our covenants, and in being examples of moral and ethical leadership in the world. I look to each of you to help us continue in this great cause.
With deep appreciation,
Claudia Walters
President, Global Board of Directors
BYU Management Society
2. June 8, 2020
Dear BYU Management Society Friends,
As you are all aware, our mission is to grow moral and ethical leadership in the world. I have always thought of the word “grow,” not in the sense of creating something new, but in the sense of increasing something that is vitally important. Our members are all over the world and all of us have occasion to be reminded on an almost daily basis how important moral and ethical behavior is in our personal lives and as citizens of the nations in which we live.
For those of us who live in the United States, the past few weeks have reminded us that we still have a lot of work to do. Seeing all of the people of the earth as children of God, who are equal in His sight, surely is a basic principle of being a moral and ethical leader. The horrific death in Minnesota of George Floyd has brought long-time racial injustice to the forefront in this country. It has me pondering how I can do better—how I can listen with an open heart and see my brothers and sisters as God sees them. I invite each of you to do the same. Humility, patience, kindness, and charity should guide our thoughts and actions. I invite you to discuss the difficult issues of racial bias with your families and decide what actions you will take to make the world better. Looking the other way while our brothers and sisters suffer is neither a moral nor an ethical response.
A few months ago, I read the book, “Just Mercy.” I won’t pretend it was an easy read. I found that I had to take it slowly, just as I had when I read “Schindler’s List.” Both weighed heavily on my heart, but both also offered real examples of individuals who stepped up to do the right thing. When we know better, there is also an obligation to do better.
One final thought: Many years ago, my father gave me a copy of a poem that meant a lot to him. I kept it on the wall of my office, when I was on the city council in my community. It reminded me daily of what kind of person I was striving to be.
I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho-heave-ho and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam, and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman: "Are these skilled--
And the men you'd hire if you had to build?"
He gave me a laugh and said: "No, indeed!
Just common labor is all I need.
I can wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do."
And I thought to myself as I went my way,
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care
Measuring life by a rule and square?
Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made Plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker, who walks the town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
—Charles Franklin Benvegar
May we all be builders,
Claudia Walters
President, Global Board of Directors
BYU Management Society
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