Clarity

I will always remember 2007 as the year of absolute clarity.

In the late-1980s, I attended a workshop put together by the customer service manager at the software company for which I was working. He based the workshop on a book called "The Strategy of the Dolphin", which is one of those "Who Moved My Cheese" kind of books that was advocating dolphin-like behavior as the way to succeed in business. I still remember the quintessential quote: "The dolphin says, 'I want us both to win, and to win elegantly and resoundingly, no matter the difficulty or the time it takes.'" Or something like that.

More importantly, the manager talked about part of the dolphin strategy being to "find your bliss" -- find work you truly love and believe in.

I found my bliss in 1984 when I went to work for a nonprofit in Chicago, in the Development office. When I left there in 1987, it was to work for a company who provided fundraising software to nonprofits. In 1993 I left that company to start my consulting firm, offering software-related services to nonprofit organizations.

So -- for nearly 24 years I have been helping nonprofits make effective use of software resources. I hope to continue to do this until I retire to the California wine country in my dotage (because somehow I know that I will still love sparkling wine in my dotage.)

Fast-forwarding a couple of decades, I entered 2007 knowing that near the end of it, I would turn 50. The first time this occurred to me, I shrugged my shoulders and had another sip of champagne. But the thought would not go away and seemed to demand some kind of action on my part. From there, something else took over.

I thought perhaps I'd have a party and ask friends and family to make gifts to a nonprofit instead of getting me anything. Then I had to decide on a nonprofit for which to request contributions. I knew it should not be one of our clients, so I was weighing other options when more powerful forces took over.

I had an opportunity to discuss a work project with an organization in Washington DC. I flew there for a day and arranged my travel schedule so that I would have a little free time to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The previous blog entry will tell you what I found at the Museum and how I left there having decided to ask for gifts for the Museum, and to make my 50th birthday a celebration of memory.

I spent much of the summer and fall planning a party -- space was offered to me, I found a caterer, prepared invitations, compiled a list of invitees, tried to explain to my family what I was trying to do. The usual stuff. The invitations went out at the end of October, with the party scheduled for December 1, 2007.

My available time in November was spent thinking about this party and how to celebrate and honor memory. One of the ways I wanted to do this was the prepare some presentations that would run throughout the evening.

Ultimately, I prepared three presentations. One was about the US Holocaust Memorial Museum; one was about my family and friends, many of whom attended the party; and the third was about our clients.

It was as I was writing the client presentation that everything fell together in one of those moments of clarity.

At the Holocaust Museum, I had listened as Elie Wiesel spoke about the importance of memory; about how forgetting means the end of everything. And I had been moved to tears by his words, because I thought about how nonprofits preserve and protect culture, civilization, humanity -- all that Elie Wiesel said would be lost if we are allowed to forget.

Writing the client presentation, seeing the names of all the organizations we've worked with since 1993, and thinking about my conversations with people at these organizations, I remembered myself saying these words again and again: Institutional Memory.

Software is an organization's memory.

And so I found myself writing these words:

Our work is about memory: We help organizations create,maintain and use data as institutional memory.

Elie Wiesel is a truly amazing man who found a way to survive the holocuast and dedicate his life to protecting humanity from the dangers of indifference. Forgetting leads to indifference, and we cannot allow people to forget. Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor, a Nobel prize winning author, a scholar, a professor.

I am none of those things. Yet in my own very small way I contribute to the preservation of the collective memory.

I have always understood that this is important. I have always valued knowledge, memories and information for their own sake.

Now, poised to turn 50 in a few hours, I know why.

Clarity.

If you are interested, the presentations are available for viewing on our website. If you return to the home back and follow the link for the Accidents and Inspiration Benefit, there are links to all three presentations at the bottom of that page.

If you feel inspired to make a gift to the Holocaust Museum, please make your check out to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and send it to me at CJW Consulting & Services, Inc, 8331 Central Avenue, Morton Grove, IL 60053.

I will happily send you a personal thank you along with wristbands saying "Never Again" and "Celebrate Memory" -- and I will pass your gift along to the Museum who will send you an acknowledgment for tax purposes.