President’s Message
Dear RSPA Southern Family,
As we head into the final stretch of the year, I want to take a moment to thank each of you for your con nued energy and dedica on to our profession and community. It’s been an exci ng season, and there's s ll much to look forward to.
By Ken Andriano
Regarding our ongoing Execu ve Director search, please note that the process has been placed on hold temporarily. We were asked to address this during our EXCOMM mee ng at the World Conference. Thank you for your pa ence and support as we work to make the best decision for our region's future.
A hear elt thank you goes out to our Nomina on Chairs and Commi ee Members who have worked diligently to bring forward a strong slate of candidates for both our State and Southern Boards. Your efforts are deeply appreciated and cri cal to the health and success of our leadership pipeline.
Nomination Committees at Work - And We
All Owe
Them a Big THANK YOU
nominating chairs for 2026-27
• Southern – Tom Parkes
• Alabama - Jenny Robb
• Arkansas - Chris Stuart
• Kentucky - Tom McGraw
• Georgia - Allan Jensen
• Louisiana - Bill Phillips
• Mississippi - William Foreman
• North Carolina - Adam Thomson
• South Carolina - Craig Wells
• Tennessee - MJ Garnett
The process was to accept applications from mid June July 25th. The committees would then meet, hold interviews, and submit the slates by September 6th. The slates are published no later than September 10th.
Per division bylaws, there is a 5 week period to allow a member to apply to challenge a position that is not the President or 1st Vice President of any board. A member should contact our Executive Director for complete instructions on how to challenge. This is a very rare occurrence for us. If there are no challenges, then the nominated slates are set on October 21st.
This is an exciting time for our division with new people and ideas helping to direct our division. It is important to follow the process, and to usher in our next leaders. If you are interested, the best place to get started is with your state board. There is always a job for an eager member.
Southern
President Ken Andriano
1st VP Allan Jensen
VP Darryl Lewis
Sec/Trea Emillia Viljoen
Alabama
President JC Freeman
1st VP Jeff Barrera
Sec/Trea Jenny Robb
Arkansas
President Paul Pautsch
1st VP Gail Nankervis
2nd VP Raul Bermudez
Secretary Wya Miller
Treasurer Daniel Cornelison
Georgia
President Bill Anderson
1st VP Stewart Atkins
2nd VP Jonathan Benne
Secretary Bobby Schindler
Treasurer Adam Christopher
Kentucky
President Chuck Brown
Others TBD
Louisiana
President: Anna Monhartova
Vp 1: Lucas Richardson
Vp 2: Hassan Abbas
Sec/Treas: Victoria Krutzer
Mississippi
President Michael Edge
1st VP Bo Gard
Secretary William Foreman
Treasurer Turner Hughes
North Carolina
President Jarrod Liston
1st VP Alec Moore
Secretary Kevin Brundle
Treasurer Lane Evans
South Carolina
President Tom Ruth
1st VP TBD
VP TBD Tennessee
President Geoff Browne
1st VP Brian Perry
VP Courtney Colton
Treasurer MJ Garne
Secretary Mark Srouji
The Virtual Business Conference full details are coming soon. The dates are Thursday a ernoon and Friday morning, October 16 and 17. Speakers include Tom Daglis, Greg Prudomme, Tim Buwick, Bill Schillings, Jenny Gray, and a panel on racquet sports. WOW. Pricing is s ll just $45, and you can earn 6 educa on credits. There will be a 3 week window to watch the presenta ons a er the event.
pat.whitworth@rspa.net
Chuck Brown chuckb0815@gmail.com
More Leadership Tips
From Lee Cockerell - former Execu ve VP for Walt Disney World
If you must have performance reviews then at least rate your fellow managers on the four competencies of Technical, Management, Technological and Leadership but please don't place an overall brand on them with one of the five or six ra ng scales many organiza ons like to use. If you tell a high percentage of your people they are average you pre y much lose their commitment. The difference between interest and commitment is huge.
The main problem with performance reviews for management is that the boss usually has the least knowledge of the true performance of their direct reports. If you must have performance reviews then let the direct reports rate their manager and give him or her their merit increase and bonus. Now that would make a lot of bosses behave themselves and cause them to become a lot be er leaders. Remember you have a reputa on. In fact you have many reputa ons. You have a reputa on with every single person who knows you. That is why you really have to pay a en on to being a great leader. You really do have to watch what you say and do as they are watching you and judging you every second of every day. You the leader has a whole lot to do with your fellow team members either being interested in their paycheck or commi ed to the vision and mission of your organiza on. Commitment means they will go all the way. Interest means they will usually show up at the workplace.
Presented
by McMahon Careers
90% of Americans will re re with a nega ve net worth because they did not get focused on their re rement when they were young. If you do what you should do when you are young, you can do what you want to do when you are old. Do you have a plan that is clear and mathema cally accurate for your re rement?
People ask me what I worry about. I can tell you one thing I worry about is: how disorganized people are. Take a management course. Your credibility and reputa on are at stake.
It is always the person who is the busiest who volunteers. These people have a personal management system that enables them to take on mul ple responsibili es. What personal system do you use?
Most people manage their organiza ons business be er than their personal life. At work they have systems and opera ng guidelines. O en in their personal lives they have no system for organizing their goals and responsibili es. A good me management course can solve this.
Recogni on, apprecia on and encouragement are the free fuels which power human performance and we all always have a full tank to give to others. Gasoline may cost a lot but this fuel we call recogni on, apprecia on and encouragement costs nothing. Burn lots of it everyday.
Give your me to people who can do nothing for you.
If no one wants to see you, that is a bad sign and probably the beginning of the end for your reputa on as a great
leader. Find out why and correct the problem.
When you are organized you can do more. Most people can do 50% more than they do today.
I can tell you one thing, and that is in every job I had as a young person, I thought I was underpaid, underappreciated, and many other unders ('unders is a new word I made up')... But one thing I received was great experience, which paid off big me in the later on.
In my life there is nothing more valuable than my me... so when I give it to people, I feel like I am giving them something of value.
To put it more simply, workplace. Inclusion is making sure that everybody ma ers... and that everybody knows that he or she ma ers. This is the leaders main responsibility.
If every one of us creates the right environment, then the whole environment will be healthy. YOU as the leader is the one we are coun ng on to be a great leadership environmentalist.
Don't ignore your intui on as one of your decision filters.
Credibility is a Leader's Best Friend. Get organized and keep your promises. There is no concept which fits every decision you will be faced with in your life. Experience and involving others will become your best friends in decision making.
Leadership for me is simply defined as making the right things happen.
If we all performed like Cinderella, we would be just as famous as she is.
'Success is
going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.'
Dean Graziosi
This quote speaks to the one trait all successful entrepreneurs share: the ability to pivot when things go wrong. High achievers don't break their stride, even when failure is staring them right in the face; instead, they realize their setback only brings them one step closer to accomplishing their ul mate goal. All my best successes have come on the back of my greatest failures.
'Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.'
Barbara Corcoran (Shark Tank)
When I read this quote many years ago, I'd spent too much energy resen ng someone who'd rewarded my many years of generosity with betrayal. It was constantly on my mind, and I had a hard me ge ng over it. Then, I figured if Nelson Mandela [to whom this quote is commonly a ributed] could spend 27 years in prison and not hate his enemies, I could do the same.
