Giving up a beautiful Saturday in August to work inside is a real sacrifice, but that’s exactly what the New Jersey Convention of States Action team did. We gathered at the Colts Neck Community Church on August 3 for our State Strategy Meeting to plan for 2025.
Following the opening prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, State Co-Director Chris Garzino welcomed the participants and provided a brief outline of the day’s agenda. Chris stated that the focus of the meeting would be on the grassroots, which is the key to accomplishing our goals for the upcoming year.
Regional Director Mike Arnold provided some inspiring comments and observed the good attendance at the meeting. He said that similar strategy meetings are being held in the rest of the states across the region.
Chris showed a video on The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX):
1. Focus on the Wildly Important – What will make the greatest impact?
2. Act on the Lead Measures – Don’t get distracted by Lag Measures, which are the general goals. The specific Lead Measures are the steps that will lead to achieving the Lag Measures.
3. Engagement – Keep a compelling scorecard. Team members are better engaged when they can see their progress.
4. Create a Cadence of Accountability – Regular team meetings will lead to individual commitment through team members holding each other accountable.
Following the video, each Regional Captain listed the goals that their region formulated. These goals were narrowed down to two: Volunteer Engagement and Legislative Strategies. Participants broke out into four groups, with two groups to focus on volunteer engagement and two groups to focus on legislative strategies.
We had a working lunch and discussed ideas to meet our group’s assigned goal. These focus groups were a great way to meet COS members from different legislative districts. Each focus group leader then presented the ideas from their group.
The day ended with a leader volunteering for each of the two goal teams. Legislative Strategies will be led by Uchenna Onyeani, and Volunteer Engagement will be led by Andy Deitch. Many other COS members signed up to join either of the two teams to lend support.
What’s next? We roll up our sleeves and get to work!
