June is HOT!

 

It’s hot I know it is hot everywhere this summer, but as I write this we are on our 10th day with a broken AC at our house!  We have two portable units running that cool our kitchen and our bedroom, and the new unit is sitting in our garage.  We hope to have it installed by the time Macy comes home with three friends this weekend, but it has been a long week or so! What we’re up to At Cru, I end up helping in many different ways.  Mainly, I’m still leading change management for our huge HR changes that involve a new HR operating model, a new job framework, and a new Human Capital Management system.  By the way, I named our new HCM the “HR Hub.”  Genius isn’t it?  I even “wrote” a few songs about our new HR.  AI is amazing. You can listen to one here. And a little jingle. I know it's silly and cheesy. Recently I was  asked to help review our internal audit function, so I guess you can say that I get to audit Audit!  More about that in the future. When Cru asked Dayna to renew her nursing license so she could be the nurse at our staff conference, it also opened up doors to use that license to serve the community.  Dayna recently received the “A Team” award for 1,800 hours of volunteering at Shepherd’s Hope, a ministry for those that don’t have health insurance. When Tim, who has been partnering with us for 40 years, was in town recently, he said, “Your job is a lot different than when you were working with students!”  It really is.  It’s wild how many different things we have done with Cru over the years.   But, it does all support those individual conversations about Jesus, and the invitation to know Him, grow in a relationship with Him, and go to tell others about Him.  The HR changes are all about that.  So is audit.  Whatever we have done, it all supports reaching everyone with the gospel. Thanks for partnering with us.  We can’t express how much your faithful friendship and support mean to us.  We can’t be here without you!   With love and thanks,

After our primary goal of getting an AC for the house, we have some other plans for the summer. We are all taking turns visiting Cara and her family.  Luke and Catelin head out for July 4 and Dayna and I will be there later that month.

Milestones

 

Macy’s Graduation

Earlier this month we celebrated with Macy as she graduated from the University of Florida!  She graduated with degrees in Psychology and Criminology, and will be headed to Auburn University to get a Masters in Behavioral Analysis.  We are very proud of her!

Macy set a goal to graduate with the highest GPA of all her siblings.  Unfortunately for them, she did it!

We visited Auburn after she accepted their offer and she has already found a place to live with two other students!

Cru Mission Trips

When Covid hit in 2020-2021, Cru’s mission trips numbers dropped to zero!.  The numbers are coming back with a flourish.

This Spring Break Cru also sent almost 2400 students on 75 short Filters of Hope trips. Click here to read the official report with stories.

We sent students to another 60 locations around the world for other short spring break trips, and 800 students and staff met in Daytona Beach for evangelism and training. Stateside and International summer missions will be launching in June!  These are life changing experiences for students.

Have you ever seen Cru's annual report?  If you love details, you'll love it, and if you love stories, you'll love it.  Take a look at it by clicking on this image.

Thank you for being a part of it all! 

With love,

Guess where we are?  See below

A new HR function for Cru

For the past year I have been helping the process of “re-imagining” how HR works in Cru.  It involves three big changes: a new human capital management (HCM) system, a new job architecture, and a new operating model.  We just hired seven new leaders and our HCM system launches on July 1.

I have been leading the change management process which involves communication and training for our HR staff and all of our staff related to the HCM system.

What’s in a name?

In Cru we have called the HR function “Leadership Development & Human Resources,” or “People & Culture,” depending on which part of Cru it was.  It was an attempt to communicate more of what the function was about.  A year ago there  was also an attempt to rename the new function “People Experience,” but there were some concerns with that name. So, I was asked to run a process to recommend the name for this function. There was a lot of strong feelings around what this re-envisioned function would be called.

We established criteria for the name.  We conducted a survey of over 180 HR & Field staff.  I conducted 5 focus groups to talk about names.  After hours and hours of work, there was one very obvious name.   75% of staff felt favorably about this name, compared to the other options. The winner?

The bottom line is that a name doesn’t determine how people experience the function.  Perception is defined by people’s experience.  What people love is the clarity…”I know what that means.” It removes the necessity of translating another name back to HR. Not everyone loves it, but for most staff, it's simple and makes sense.

This change aims to support the calling of each staff member and the mission of every ministry of Cru more consistently and comprehensively. You can continue to pray for this project because the changes will continue to take place over the next year!

A big trip!

We are thinking of updating our hallway like this.

At the Musee d'0rsay

Our kids helped us take an anniversary trip to Paris in early March to celebrate our 40th anniversary!  It was fun and exciting, but we were challenged!  We walked so much, and we had to deal with some health challenges. We rode buses instead of the metro to avoid stairs, and it worked pretty well, but we had some transportation adventures! It was really nice to be together, just the two of us, to navigate and figure it out together. We came home exhilarated and feeling quite accomplished!

 

Thank you for standing with us.

With love,