Twenty five years of teaching allows you to develop a persona that can make students feel proud as well as guilty. It comes from too many years of being the judge, jury and executioner in the classroom. Last week in a moment of professorial frustration, I sent out an email to corporate members who had not registered for the upcoming Gala. I asked that they consider attending or identifying someone within their very large organizations that could attend to represent their organizations, since this is an event designed for their benefit and the benefit of our MBEs who want to meet new potential customers and partners. The intent of the missive was not to invoke guilt, but apparently it did in some, and for that I apologize. Not because guilt might be inappropriate, but because making people feel guilt is hazardous to the source of that guilt - that being me and the Council. I certainly do not want our organization built on feelings of guilt. Our organization is built on the premise that minority businesses can help large businesses prosper and the development of those minority businesses is good for the community at large. I believe this to my core, and I believe our supporters in the corporate world and the minority business community believe it as well. In the future I promise to remember that corporate members are not my impressionable charges who need to be smacked on their knuckles with my electronic ruler.
April 19, 2010
