Please allow me to introduce you to the membership of the Center for Human Resource Management (HR Center) in the College of Business at Florida State University. The members of the HR Center are top level Human Resource professionals who are responsible for the strategic direction of the Human Resource function in their firms. The membership link highlights the accomplishments of the members of the HR Center.

The mission of the HR Center is to facilitate networking among HR professionals and FSU faculty and students to establish and transfer current best practices that support the advancement of HR as a business discipline in member organizations.

Membership in the HR Center provides a variety of benefits. First, HR Center members formally meet twice a year - once in the fall and once in the spring. One meeting is usually held on the Florida State University campus and includes a full day of activities including presentations from national experts, HR Center members, and the Florida State University faculty all centered on cutting-edge HR issues. This meeting also provides members the opportunity to network formally and informally with other top HR executives and university faculty and students.

The other meeting is our planning meeting. Members meet as a group to select the topics for the fall meeting and develop a first draft agenda. The format of this meeting is a half-day of work combined with a few hours of fun. To achieve both of these goals, the location of the spring meeting varies, but always takes place in a relaxed and fun environment. In the past we have met aboard The Gallant Lady, a yacht generously donated for a day trip by JM Family Enterprises and at Busch Gardens and Tropicana Field in Tampa.

In addition to the formal HR Center functions, membership in the Center establishes a research partnership between the members and the faculty. This benefit allows members to call upon faculty from the HR Center to collect and analyze data from their organizations to answer questions they may have. The HR Center also provides an email distribution facility that allows a message sent from one member to be distributed to all other Center and faculty members. Members frequently turn to this facility to obtain prompt, current information on pressing HR problems that they face.

The HR Center is an excellent example of effective collaboration between HR professionals in business and academia. The HR Center was designed to bridge the gap between organizational practitioners and university professors in an effort to enrich our scientific and applied understanding of important human resource issues. Please let me know if you would like to join us in this exciting venture.