Motto
Family Mission Statement
The making of a mission statement...
STEP NO. 1. START WITH THE END IN SIGHT...
Family member Kermitt Walrond (5th generation), on a week's leave from his new appointment with Amoco in Chicago (after a 3 year stint in Norway) was kind enough to offer his services as Facilitator cum Devil's Advocate.
Our main task for the evening was to try to arrive at a MISSION STATEMENT for the Family as a whole - What could be easier? - With a little luck we could be out of the hotel in 1/2 hr. - maximum 60 minutes........
To get things rolling Kermitt decided to chart our way through several stages of development, for which he had previously paved the way by sending from Chicago prior to his departure, several copies of a very dynamic book entitled ' The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ' by Stephen Covey. This book was mandatory reading for anyone prepared to attend this evening's brain storming session.The various topics covered in sequence were as follows:
2. Historical facts of the Martin Family
3. What aspects of the Martin Family were we PROUD of.
4. What aspects of the Martin Family were we SORRY about.
At this point in the 'game' we broke up into 2 groups having been given the mandate to answer two very important questions:
1. If we were to stop right now and do nothing further what do we foresee would happen to the Martin family in the year 2004?
This would be the PASSIVE APPROACH.
2. If we continued to act as we were doing now, what do we foresee would happen to the family in the year 2004?
This would be the ACTIVE APPROACH.
Following this last exercise we then broke for a short dinner after which, with renewed vigor we set about the final task of writing the family's MISSION STATEMENT.
This statement we were told should answer 4 questions keeping in mind the various scenarios we had just played out- WHAT would we like to do, for WHOM, HOW would we do it, and WHY?
One of the drawbacks of the evening's session was the fact that while there were a few young family members present there were no very very young members due to circumstances beyond their control, of course. However, as luck would have it, just as the clock struck 10 and we had just dotted our ' I's and crossed our 'T's on our mission statement , in walked one of younger family members who immediately proceeded to give us a well deserved REALITY TEST. After all, this is exactly what we would be faced with at the planned session on the following Saturday with a wider cross section of the family.
Well needless to say, this young adult had some very interesting comments to make about our Mission statement and so we listened to his comments with the result that we ended up with a modified MISSION STATEMENT as well as a family MOTTO.
So 7 1/2 hours later we left the hotel armed with both a Statement and a Motto for the Saturday presentation to the members at large for their further input and comments.
STEP NO. 2 THE ACID TEST.....
As a result of these two days of fun and hard work we achieved our
MISSION STATEMENT
OUR MISSION is to utilize our skills and talents to promote
FAMILY UNITY and in so doing become exemplars to other families
Update: At a Committee meeting held on March 18, 2000 the Mission Statement was amended to read:
MISSION STATEMENT
OUR MISSION is to utilize our skills and talents to promote
FAMILY UNITY and in so doing become exemplars to other families
Update: At a Committee meeting held on March 18, 2000 the Mission Statement was amended to read:
OUR MISSION is to utilize our skills and talents to promote FAMILY UNITY.