Member: IAM Leadership Alliance Learning Committee

We’ve all heard the cliché, “make every day count.” In our moving industry of non-stop international shipments for demanding clientele, we should grab every opportunity to build our global professional network and learn from their best practices. However, I initially thought that the “every day” expectation was an exaggeration and that participating in the annual industry events would be suffice—until I was invited by an IAM council member to be part of a committee; specifically the IAM Leadership Alliance Learning Committee.

After two years of arduous work as a committee member, Series 1 of the Training Program was formally launched at the Annual Meeting in Atlanta, November 2022. It was our committee’s pride and joy to know that the program was well received by the IAM Members, but it was an even greater joy for me as I realized and very much appreciated that I got hands-on training while networking and collaborating with industry experts—as we developed a training program for others. All of the activities transpired during monthly direction-setting meetings followed by quarterly progress checkpoints, which put me in a unique position of interacting directly with IAM leadership outside of the annual events.

Each of our sessions was a learning experience as I and five other volunteers expanded our knowledge through interaction and research on curriculum, certifications and continuous learning approaches and paradigms from six council members. Further, the whole experience helped me gain extra confidence, especially as I was one of the few association members from Asia who was given the opportunity to engage. Deep inside, I knew that I was now getting a chance to reinvent myself from being known in the industry as the “loud” one to now being the “bold” one, thanks to the mentoring and support from my committee colleagues.

All told, the spirit of and actual bold step forward in volunteerism makes real the famous words of Mentor Me author Ken Poirot; “Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.” Being a part of an IAM committee or volunteer project is one such opportunity that will aid in making our personal and professional dreams come true.