Having known Ms Whitelaw, I remember so well what she taught me about placing the right volunteer in the right capacity to maximize results. She said the secret a good staff member had was to empower that volunteer to lead others.
When I think about Roy’s involvement with the Chapter for the past 6 years, I realize that indeed I had done just as Ms Whitelaw had taught me. From the start, Roy was motivated to work towards the “big picture” and had the foresight to develop and enact upon long term goals for the Chapter. He was responsible for one of our first multi market sponsorships when he saw the opportunity for his bank to leverage their recent merger and re branding through an alliance with the March of Dimes. He soon became Revenue Chair for the Knoxville Walk and was then career pathed to be Division Chair. In that role, he helped to rebuild the board by strategically reaching out to a more diverse membership that also reflected a more high level caliber of volunteers. He implemented annual Board Retreats to better engage and sustain the board members. He chaired the local Golf Classic and was instrumental in bringing the “star power” of UT Coach Bruce Pearl as Honorary Chair. Last year, the event doubled previous year’s revenue and its budget.

Roy‘s leadership skills soon contributed to his election as the Chapter Revenue Chair. In this role, he worked to rebuild the committee and help the Chapter to launch its cause marketing and re branding initiatives. He also has reached out to other Divisions in the State and to other Chapters in the Region to assist them in their change process towards greatness. Last year, the Tennessee Chapter had significant growth in profitability, met March for Babies goal and took giant leaps in growing volunteer leadership. For 2010 the Chapter has most of our MFB Revenue Leaders in place and is working to have over 25% in sponsorship in place. Roy personally recruited the event leadership in the Knox Division.

Roy is now 2009 Chapter Chairman. Roy personally gives a significant financial contribution to the Chapter and also implemented the Chairman’s Challenge to each Division to have 100% board giving pledged in order to receive a special gift from him. He has also developed a meaningful role for the Chapter Vice Chair, tying them to leadership for the Chapter Revenue Committee.

When asked what motivates him to go above and beyond for us, he refers back to his first year with us when he was able to experience a tour of the NICU. He still has a vision of the one pound baby struggling with all the IV lines and equipment. He says that he just cannot stop until no other baby has to begin life this way.