William Taylor
A new year generally brings a renewed sense of optimism and a focus on new opportunities. Yet, as we begin 2017, it seems there is a good deal of “VUCA” in our lives. For those unfamiliar with the term, VUCA stands for: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity. It is a term that was introduced by the military, to describe the state of the world at the end of the Cold War. It is also a term that is frequently tossed around by Management Consultants and Executives when describing the challenges their organizations are facing. While VUCA causes anxiety for many, I believe our industry has always been well-equipped to deal with the many challenges of VUCA. Moving individuals and families is a highly complex task that requires patience, empathy and expertise in a wide array of fields. Success in our industry is defined by the positive impact we make every day in the lives of the thousands of individuals we assist. Business simply does not happen without an effective Global Mobility strategy!
While many were happy to see 2016 come to an end, the year closed on a positive note for our BAMM community as we celebrated the holidays at our annual holiday luncheon. We shared a few laughs with our industry friends and raised money for our two charities, FIND Cures (http://findcures.net/) and Jumpstart Northern California (https://www.jstart.org/where/northern-california), via our silent auction. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our members, we raised a total of $20,000 for our charities in 2016!
Our 2016 Conference was again a sold-out affair, with over 420 attendees. Our theme was “Moving Talent Forward”. We heard from Talent leaders at Adobe and PayPal, who reminded us that Global Mobility continues to play an essential role in helping organizations grow and retain key talent.
Last year’s spring meeting, held in San Jose, featured a panel led by Pearl Law Group, with Global Mobility leaders from Visa, Netflix and Varian Medical Systems. Attendees learned about structuring a Global Mobility and Immigration program around the needs of the business. Our corporate benchmarking session for our Spring meeting topped 60 attendees! We enjoyed some delicious sandwiches (as I
recall) and a sun-drenched happy hour on the veranda.
The Intuit team was kind enough to host our BAMM fall meeting at their spectacular campus in Mountain View. In the spirit of “Ted Talks” we ran a series of “BAMM Talks” that featured an enlightening presentation from an Intuit HR Executive, as well as presentations from thought-leaders at Altair Global and Deloitte. The fall meeting once again featured our mini-trade show for our Keystone and Mission Sponsors. Our annual trade show is a unique opportunity for our sponsors to connect with our corporate members and introduce their service offerings.
Last September we held our first ever “volunteer day”. Two groups of BAMM volunteers built playhouses for families in need, with Habitat for Humanity. We are planning several volunteer events for 2017 that will allow greater participation.
Giving back to our community is a key element of our organization’s mission. It is tremendously
rewarding to help those who are less fortunate. I hope you will be able to join us at one of our 2017 volunteer events.
Last November, we held our first ever YP40 event, in San Francisco at the gorgeous NEMA property. With nearly 75 attendees, the event was a huge success! We are planning four more YP40 networking events in 2017, so please come out and welcome members who have recently joined our industry. There are NO age restrictions on our YP40 events.
The BAMM Board is committed to ensuring the continued growth and success of our organization. We have over 825 members (369 corporate members!). BAMM is proud to be one of the most admired regional Global Mobility organizations in the country. One of the comments I hear most frequently when I travel is that our BAMM members always demonstrate an amazing sense of camaraderie. I could not agree more!
Our priorities for 2017 include:
- Launching our new website with the goal of making it easier for our members to engage with the BAMM community.
- Partnering with our sponsors to offer networking and learning opportunities beyond our quarterly meetings.
- Providing cutting-edge educational content that connects Global Mobility with key internal and external partners.
- Partnering with our Platinum Keystone sponsors to co-host educational webinars and YP40 networking events.
- Organizing volunteer events that can accommodate all of our members, so that we can give back to our Bay Area communities!
- Smiling, laughing, dancing and having fun with the many individuals who make our industry AWESOME!
I am truly grateful for the opportunity to represent our organization. Our members are changing lives every day while helping their organizations grow. They do it with kindness, passion and a dedication to helping others. Few professions offer such rewarding “work”!
The number of individuals who give an endless amount of time and energy to BAMM is too long for me to list on this page. Suffice to say, our conferences, meetings and other events do not happen without the dedication of our Board of Directors and the many, many volunteers who are incredibly
passionate about our organization and industry. A special shout-out goes to our sponsors, who continue to step up year after year to ensure BAMM has the financial resources to support our programming and events throughout the year. We are forever grateful for your support!
My sincerest “thank you” to our Board, our volunteers, our members, sponsors, speakers, and guests.
William Taylor President, BAMM
