Greeting from warm (if not sunny) Jacksonville, Florida. I'm here for the annual Marketing professionals' gathering (although there are plenty of folks from every aspect of the UW world).
It's been a great experience. The are sharing the LIVE UNITED campaign, and emphisizing to us that this isn't just a tagline - it's a way of life. It's a way of explaining our new focus on these three areas: education, income and health.
The welcome reception last night was held at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, home of the NFL's Jaguars, hosted by Publix Supermarkets and Jaguars' owners Wayne and Delores Weaver. I got the chance to speak with Mr. and Mrs. Weaver for a few moments and they are just the most delightful and down-to-earth people. They've made four separate $1 million gifts to the local United Way since coming to Jacksonville with the team in 1993. Very impressive.
Today's first presentation was by Bill Toliver, Managing Director of The Matale Line. To say he was inspiring is to understate his presentation. He spoke on 'The Moral Obligations of a 'Movement Leader,' and he told us that our country is hungry for change and hungry for a leader. 'If non United Way, then who will it be?'
He encouraged us to find the right leaders in our community, discover how many of them we need to reach the tipping point, and decide what sort of commitment are we asking of them (and it needs to be more than just financial).
One other comment I want to share with you. Alex Sanchez of United Way of America was commenting on creating champions for change and told the story of Wendy's founder Dave Thomas. As he was looking for investors in his fledgling chain, occasionally he would find himself discouraged. Whenever that happened, Dave would go into a Wendy's, and order a meal. As he ate his hamburger, Dave would say to himself, 'this is a great product. If I can't sell this, I need to find another line of work.'
The same goes for those of us in the United Way movement. If we can't sell this great work that we do, we need to find another thing to do.
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