“Meeting Planning: More Than a Hobby” (Religious Conference Manager profile)

“Meeting Planning: More Than a Hobby”
By Bob Andelman
Religious Conference Manager Magazine
October 2006

Hobbies? Who needs hobbies when you spend your free time planning meetings and conferences?

If Harry Schmidt has free time — when he's not in his professional capacity as president of Christian Life College in Mount Prospect, Illinois — he likes doing nothing better than reviewing site plans, sifting through contracts, and bringing order to chaos.

“Everybody has hobbies,” Schmidt says with a chuckle. “Some enjoy golfing; others, boating. I really enjoy the dynamics of meeting planning and helping organizations get the right fit.”

Schmidt's meeting planning truly is an act of service.

“I don't accept remuneration,” he says. “I know it's a great livelihood for some meeting planners on the professional side, but I have always done it as a volunteer. Hotel people are always surprised when I don't ask for a commission. Then they're a little suspicious of my motives: ‘Why do you do this? Does the organization pay you? Do you get a per diem? A kickback? A rebate?’”

And why does this gentle soul take on so much additional responsibility with no personal benefit?

“I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing a good event,” Schmidt says.

He believes he can make a difference for church groups.

“Many times, religious organizations and churches don't understand their buying power,” he says. “They have an opportunity for getting a much better product that will showcase their meeting better than they're used to. Without understanding their own power, they may relegate themselves to a third-tier hotel property, for example. I've enjoyed showing religious groups that the dollars they generate can upgrade their event and image by getting them into a better hotel or convention center for the same dollars. There's a right place and a right venue, for the right organization.”

With his devotion to meeting planning, it's no surprise to learn that Schmidt believes wholeheartedly in RCMA's mission.

“Becoming members of RCMA provides many meeting planners a ‘Wow!’” he says. “My first RCMA conference was in 1988 in Milwaukee. What I so appreciated about it was the way it brought together the entire industry. It was a fantastic opportunity under one tent to network with hundreds of suppliers all at one place. I was thoroughly energized by it.”

Over the years, Schmidt became a big fan of the conference tutorials as well.

“The tutorials provide entrée to meeting planners with little or no experience,” he says. “And, at the same time, depending on the length of your service, you can still be challenged by them. I have been a meeting planner a long time, and I still walk away feeling inspired.”

Christian Life College (formerly Chicago Bible College) is a small religious college with 135 students all studying a single major: a bachelor of arts in church ministries.

Schmidt graduated from the college in 1972 and went into the world as a church planter, initiating and establishing — as its pastor — Gateway Church in Momence, Illinois, a congregation that is now 30 years old and thriving.

“Being in the Chicago area, I kept a relationship with the college,” Schmidt says.

After 11 years with the new church, he became administrative dean at Christian Life College, eventually advancing to executive vice president before being named president in 1996. The college itself hosts Ascension Convention, an annual conference that attracts 2,500 young people over Easter weekend.

“You can't be in this environment without hosting conferences and seminars,” he says. “And in doing that over 25-plus years, I got connected with other religious organizations in the Chicago area. People found out that I enjoyed doing meeting planning and hotel negotiations. I would receive phone calls: ‘Would you lend us some expertise?’ So I just expanded that.”
Getting to Know

Harry Schmidt

Background: Born and raised in Davenport, Iowa

Family: Schmidt met his wife, Donna, when they were 10 years old and growing up in Iowa. They both like to travel and antique. “As we travel, we have to hit an antique shop once in a while. How can you not like early Americana?” The couple has one child, Jennifer, who is 21 and a junior in college.

“Devoted: Miller Works Hard for RCMA” (Religious Conference Manager profile)

“Devoted: Miller Works Hard for RCMA”
By Bob Andelman
Religious Conference Manager Magazine
December 2006

You'll have to forgive Elaine Miller if she seems a bit distracted.

After all, how focused would you be on being interviewed if you were reclining on a hotel balcony in Jamaica, eager to get on with the vacation that you recently earned?

“I won second prize from RCMA in the Member-Get-A-Member Contest,” she says. “Coming from Michigan, you can't help but enjoy this weather. I'm sitting on a deck, looking at the ocean. It's all because of RCMA and my relationship to God. That's made me what I am today.”

What she is is executive director of events and planning for New Mount Moriah Baptist Missionary Church in Pontiac, Mich. It's a job she has held since retiring from General Motors in 2002 after 30 years.

But Miller is hardly new around the church; she was its first administrator — as a weekend volunteer — when New Mount Moriah formed 17 years ago, eventually moving into event planning. “We have about 1,200 active members on any given Sunday; we have 3,000 to 3,500 on our rolls,” she says.

Jamaica, incidentally, is not the first trip Miller has won by turning folks on to RCMA. A year earlier, she earned first prize in the contest: a seven-day biblical trip to Turkey. She plans to take that one sometime in 2007.

This is a devoted RCMA member.

“I let them know that RCMA is a religious organization that gives you knowledge about event planning and hotels, and there are classes to give you information,” she says. “There are vendors you can build relationships with. I can get good rates from them and negotiate good prices.”

At General Motors, Miller began as a secretary and rose to work in engineering as an administrator with operations. “I retired from GM to do ministry,” she says, “but I use a lot of the technology and administrative skills I learned at GM here, such as how to deal with people, how to understand people, what makes people tick. Understanding the real personas, as opposed to the pretensions. I've grown a lot, helped the church to advance with technology, people skills, training, and development. My objective is to train other people.”

In her role as executive director of events and planning, Miller plans all her church's events, including conferences, meetings, and special events. Her menu of 10 events includes two big ones: the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship Regional Summits and Full Gospel Baptist Church State Conferences.

She is responsible for planning, getting speakers, and confirming engagements.

“And I support marriage retreats and women's conferences; men's conferences; and intercessory prayer conferences,” she adds.

Although she has been a factor in the development of New Mount Moriah Baptist Missionary Church since the beginning, Miller says that her life has dramatically evolved since she joined the operation full time in 2002.

“It has changed tremendously,” she says. “I travel much more. I've had a chance to network with the international ministries and meet Christian people in other states doing what I do. I've gained knowledge. I benchmark against other ministry conferences. My pastor, Bishop William H. Murphy Jr., has had a very important role in my development and in my efforts to gain knowledge. We're a team. My whole goal is to look at other ministry church functions and how they do programs. I want to be on the cutting edge of what's going on in ministry development.”


Elaine Miller

Born and raised: Liberty, Miss.

Family: One of seven children; mother of two children

Education: Business administration degree from Alcorn University in Michigan; studied psychology at Michigan State

Inspiration: “My mother was instrumental in instilling the morals and spirituality of my life. She helped me understand people and life. She's my hero.”

Hobbies: “I love golf, I love traveling, cooking, and meeting new people.”

On the Side: Miller is pursuing CMP certification. “It's a distinction that's recognized across the market,” she says.

“The Big Time: Clemmer Embraces Challenging Job” (Religious Conference Manager profile)

“The Big Time: Clemmer Embraces Challenging Job”
By Bob Andelman
Religious Conference Manager Magazine
October 2006

Is there anything tougher than following in the footsteps of a legend?

No matter what line of work a person is in, the challenge of living up to a respected predecessor in a key role is never easy.

That's why, when RCMA board member and President's Award recipient Linda de Leon announced her plans to retire as meeting planner for the Seventh-day Adventists World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., it created a great opportunity — and apprehension — for her protégé and successor.

“I was honored and pleased that the organization thought I could pick up where Linda left off — not that anyone could fill her shoes,” says Sheri Clemmer, who became the church's new meeting planner in July 2002.

Fortunately for Clemmer, who assumed responsibility for the organization's day-to-day meeting needs, as well as its fall and spring meetings, de Leon stayed on until the church's general conference session in 2005.

The Seventh-day Adventists' quinquennial (occurring every five years) is a citywide, 12-day conference that attracts 60,000 attendees. As religious meetings go, it's a monster.

“Linda did not retire until after that,” Clemmer recalls. “The church allowed me to shadow her for the remaining years leading up to that event with her as a mentor, sort of on-the-job training.”

The accidental planner

Like many, Clemmer is an accidental meeting planner.

“I fell into it,” she says. “I started out as a medical secretary a number of years ago. I worked for our denomination at our hospital in the 1970s and then for a private-practice doctor, part-time for 15 years, while our children grew up.”

In 1994, with her children heading for college, Clemmer sought full-time employment again. She took a job as an administrative assistant in the Seventh-day Adventists' stewardship department and stayed in that position for six years.

Clemmer then accepted an opportunity to join the church's treasury department and worked as a volunteer coordinator, particularly assigned to 450 student missionaries headed to points far and wide around the globe. “I arranged their travels, visits, and insurance,” she recalls.

That was the job that established Clemmer's bona fides for the quinquennial. She learned the ins and outs at de Leon's elbow for three years leading up to the 2005 conference; in 2010, when the group will use the Georgia World Conference Center and Georgia Dome in Atlanta in 2010, she'll be on her own.

A year into those preparations, does she feel prepared?

“Um … No!” she says, laughing. “We won't feel prepared until it's over!” But Clemmer isn't alone in this Herculean task.

“We have a committee and 14 sub-committees and sub-subcommittees. It's not all on one person's shoulders — there's no way one person could manage it alone. We have committees for music, security, AV, platform, and the program. There are many, many people who have a lot of important tasks. We try to keep others on track; my job is to know everything that's going on.”

More Than One Meeting

As big a job as the quinquennial is, it's not Clemmer's only responsibility.

“I may review a contract from a hotel for a meeting,” she says. “I may try to negotiate that, have a breakfast included, have a space fee waived. I will work with the department that requested the contract, see if it meets their needs. I may work on the Atlanta meeting and hotels. I will contact our division officers. I attend several different committees here in the building. And I'm part of the administrative committee, so I'm aware of what's going on in the building.

“We also pay all the hotel bills out of our office,” Clemmer adds. “I have an administrative assistant who does that, but I have to sign off. We also do letters of invitation for our international guests for visa purposes. I just know that I'm busy all the time.”
Thinking of Work

She often finds herself on the job even when she's not.

“I recently came up with a local artisan shop that shears its own sheep and dyes the wool,” Clemmer says. “I had seen it in a magazine while I waited for a medical appointment. I thought maybe our Shepherdess group — they're the wives of pastors — might like that.”

There are, of course, numerous perks to the job, including travel.

“As I've taken digital pictures of places to which I've traveled, I put them in my screensaver,” she says. “If I'm eating lunch, I love to see those photos. It's great to have those memories and meet people that I wouldn't meet otherwise, such as mayors. That's a nice perk.”

Still, there's no place like home.

“I am a homebody,” Clemmer says. “I miss my family greatly when I'm gone. I'm always counting the days when I'm gone. Not that I don't have a good time, but I'm always happy to come home. It's just the way I am.”
Sheri Clemmer

Family: “I have a husband, Darryl, and a lovely golden retriever, Sienna, just like the color in the crayon box. We've been married 33 years and have three adult children: a daughter and two sons. I'm empty-nested but have two grandsons that I can't wait to get home to.

“My husband is the director of a retirement community; we live on the grounds. My perspective there is that I'm really young. The average age is 83. It's been a great place to raise our three kids.”

Hobbies: “Music is my strongest hobby. I enjoy playing the piano. I have conducted choir in the past. I also enjoy cooking, especially when the whole family comes over.”

Born and raised: Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Clemmer's family moved to a suburb of Silver Spring, Md., when she was 2.