June 12, 2020
Collective experiences tend to bring people closer together, but what if that collective experience is everyone isolating at home? I think the same holds true—at least for me it has. I’ve never felt connected to so many people while not seeing anyone in person (other than my neighbors from a distance). I hope you have experienced the kindness, compassion, and connection that I have experienced while we all find our way through this pandemic.
If you’re old enough to remember the “keep work at work and home at home” mentality, then what’s happening now is a bit mind-blowing. And refreshing. We are whole human beings managing the ups and downs of life every day. Back when many of us went to the office every day, the personal highs and lows were often left at home. Now, we start conversations by sincerely asking how each other are doing. And we listen. We empathize. We offer support. We share a laugh. That honest human connection is something I hope we continue to experience once we actually see each other again in person.
The CLM community is one of the strongest I know, and the connections made via CLM are so important right now. We have launched our first virtual local chapter meetings with great success (and hope to have some in-person local chapter events as soon as each area starts to open up and make those possible). Our June and July conferences will now all be virtual and FREE thanks to the support of our sponsors and our members who support CLM annually through their memberships. We’re creating some fun networking experiences at those virtual events, too.
On top of all of that, our membership is connecting with one another as they develop content for our conferences, webinars, Claims College, and articles for our publications. They are also just connecting to check in with one another. If you haven’t yet, reach out to someone you met through CLM just to chat. Maybe set up a virtual cocktail hour with a few CLM friends. You all are demonstrating to us now that the CLM network is strong in person and virtually. Thank you.
Stay well and stay connected.
Anne Blume
CEO, CLM
anne.blume@theclm.org