How Volunteering On The BICSI Board Shapes The ICT Industry

We break down how BICSI leadership really works and why volunteering is one of the most direct ways to improve the ICT industry. Justin Hobbs shares what the Board focuses on, how the LDC protects the election process, and why servant leadership matters more than titles. 
• why volunteering keeps ICT moving forward 
• what the BICSI Board of Directors does at a high level 
• how operations and strategy stay separate 
• what the Leadership Development Committee does as checks and balances 
• what kind of candidate thrives and who should not run 
• the real time commitment including quarterly meetings and election-season interviews 
• term limits, accountability, and preserving institutional knowledge 
• the nomination process from application to interviews to the member vote 
• pushing past imposter syndrome and choosing willingness over perfection 

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Transcript

How To Support The Show

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Submitted by apprentices, installers, technicians, foremen, project managers, estimators, designers, customers, IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect this world. If you're listening to us on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps help us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage, and enrich the lives of people of the ICT industry. Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, what are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, everywhere, everywhere I can figure out how to send the video out. I do a live stream where you get to ask your favorite. You know I am your favorite, RCDD. Questions on installation, design, estimation, project management. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now. But Jugger, Jugger, what's the name of the six week? Breathe in.

unknown 1:46

Breathe out.

Why Volunteer In ICT

Meet Justin Hobbs

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Relax. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free. If you find value in this content, number one, share the content with somebody. Number two, you can would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can even schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course. So as I mentioned, I've met a lot of interesting people in this industry, a lot of very talented people, knowledgeable people, dedicated people. But you know what? The industry wouldn't go very far, wouldn't move very forward, wouldn't stay up with technology if people weren't volunteering their talent, their times, and all this stuff to make this industry better. And there are many, many ways that you can do that through membership committees and stuff like that. But today's episode, I want to talk about the upcoming Bixie Board of Directors election cycle. It is a way that you can contribute to help make this industry better. And they've kind of revamped it a little bit. And so there's a little stuff we want to talk about on how to get there. So I'm going to bring on one of my favorite guests. He's been on before, and him and I always seem to catch up at Bixie conferences. Justin Hobbs. Justin Hobbs, welcome, my friend. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I'm doing well, sir. Thanks for uh thanks for having me on yet again. It's always good to be back. It's always good to see you guys.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Always a pleasure to have you on, my friend. Why don't you go and just give us the 50,000-foot view of who you are and uh why should people listen to you?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Well, people should only listen if they think that what I have to say has value, but uh I've been in the technology industry since I was eight years old. Um I was an indentured servant to one of my cousins who was a warp puller, you know, in houses back in the day. Uh and when I was out of school in in the summertime, uh, yeah, they wanted to get me out of the house. So that's what it did. But uh I started as what we would call a button masher, you know, those uh uh logical networking folks, the network engineers, uh uh server systems admins, all that kind of fun stuff. Um and then the dot-com bus kind of really hit hard, and you know, all the certifications I had, you know, a thousand character string behind my name didn't work anymore. So a good friend of mine um who passed away in 2018, he was a good mentor, uh, also in RCD in the tech. He got me into this industry, and uh I've I've I've been in it ever since. So some of my strengths are, you know, obviously um aviation, now healthcare, strategic thinking, uh efficiency thinking, that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

So you know, I we let's let's let's give credit. Who was that mentor?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

His name was Paul Daniel Ratcliffe.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Very cool. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

He was he was in his mid-40s, he passed away of pancreatic cancer, left behind uh a wife and three kids, three young kids. And uh I wouldn't be where I am today if not for him.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

And then you know what? That tells the story of most dedicated people in this industry, and and the industry needs more people like him. And we the industry has a lot of people like him, but we can always use more people like him, uh obviously. And you know, the funny thing, I gotta admit this, Justin, because when I first met you, you were working for the uh the Charlotte Airport or a company that I don't did were you an employee of the Charlotte Airport, or were you a company that contracted the Charlotte Airport?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

So I began at the airport as uh as an installer working for a vendor, yes. Um we used to do a bunch of jobs out there, and then they finally opened up a position there, and I got hired on. And uh I was a an official city employee at the airport. So I was a city of Charlotte employee assigned to the airport. And I spent, I would say I spent about 18 years out there if you count my contract years and my full-time years, and then uh things changed.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

You know, I I travel, I travel, I don't travel a lot for work anymore, but I travel some. I used to travel every week, but that's kind of nil now. But a common con a not a common connection point for me is Charlotte Airport. Yeah, and I can't go, I can't walk to the airport without thinking, hey, my bus and my buddy Justin helped design and do this stuff here.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah, we did a lot of stuff out there. If you if you're walking down the concourse of the airport and you look up near the gates and you see a zone enclosure in the ceiling, that's your boy right here. And the reason why we did that is because we were doing future planning for more cameras, more infrastructure, more building automation stuff, and also newer passenger boarding bridges.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

So some of the passenger boarding bridges out there were well over 30 years old and needed to be replaced, but that's a huge project, takes a long time to do, and they wanted to add more devices on these passenger boarding bridges and other things. So we were trying to be forward-thinking and put in the infrastructure now while we were doing renovations to support that in the future. But I don't work there anymore, but I can tell you I can spend yards for days, man, on that upboard.

Planning Infrastructure For The Future

SPEAKER_02 6:46

So today we're talking about the Bixie board of directors and and why you should volunteer and the and and the process of what that actually looks like.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah, so let me just interject here really quick. Um I'm only speaking for myself. Uh I'm not formally representing Bixie. Uh I can just talk about my experience and some of the things that I have gone through uh without exposing things that I should not.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

And nor would we want you to expose anything you're not supposed to for as far as you know what the what Bixie is going to be planning or doing. Because I one thing I've I've learned, especially with organizations like Bixie, those the bigger corporate organizations, you know, just because they say they may do something doesn't mean that'll ever come to fruition because and that's nothing bad, because they may they may do their their research into and realize that's not the traject the trajectory we want to go, and they decide to go a different route. And so you wouldn't want to say that they're doing something to have them say six months later, oh well we because of you know this new program coming out from the government or or whatever, we're changing directions, going in different directions.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah, it's it's not that the board has anything to hide, it's just that what you just alluded to, yeah. Things take a little bit of time, and we don't want to say things that we shouldn't say.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, we want to make sure everything's accurate. So so today's show is just only going to talk about what your personal experiences are for as far as running for the board of directors, that process of running for the board of directors, and kind of what you see being done day to day within the confines, because they do have a document. I'll make sure I put the link in the show notes. So if you want to become a uh a member of the board of directors, there's some things that you got to know uh for as far as what's allowed and what's not allowed. So let's start off with uh start off with the simple thing, right? So what does the Bixie Board of Directors actually do?

SPEAKER_00 8:36

So if you look at Bixie as a whole, it's it's separated as the board of directors and the operations. So the board of directors is focused on strategy, high-level strategy. Not getting down into the weeds. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

That was simple. There you go. So so let me ask you this. So I I I knew you before you uh went from uh became on the board of directors. What surprised you the most when you first joined the board of directors?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So a little correction here. I sit on the LDC, the Leadership Development Committee, and that has a separate role than what the board of directors does, but we work in tandem and alongside the board of directors. So we we see a lot of what they do. It's actually our job to be kind of checks and balances for the election cycle. That's what Leadership Development Committee is all about, and that's a new committee that got started a few years ago. Um but as far as the board of directors is concerned, um, it's made up of just regular members. You you literally do not have to have any certifications at all. Any Bixie certification. You don't have to have one, you just need to be a Bixie member. But what the board is looking for and what the LDC committee is looking for, are folks who have that high-level efficiency mindset to go out and look for ways that we can advance the Bixie first mentality globally.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

One of the things I I truly liked about is um in one of the paragraphs in that document that I'm gonna link below. Um, it I'm I'm just gonna paraphrase that because I I didn't memorize it. But it basically says it's open to anybody of any race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, you know. They really just want to know, are you gonna make Bixie better?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

That's what they really Yeah, that's always the the goal. I mean, you can go to the Bixie website, you know, www www.bixie.org. And then as soon as you pull up the homepage, you go to, I think it's the far right on the top ribbon, it says about us. You click on that, and then there's another uh link underneath it, and uh hang on, I'll find it here in a second. It says like who we are. I I mean, and it tells you everything: the the mission statement, the core values, the the vision. It tells you everything, and that's what the board is trying to fulfill from a very high level.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Excellent. So for somebody who's listening to the show who might be uh maybe an installer or technician or a project manager, what impact does the board actually have on their daily work, even if they don't realize it?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So the board it right now its main focus is is trying to expand Big C to be the global ICT industry of choice. Okay. So if you've got a high-level mindset where you can think outside the box and you can think globally, the board would love to have you. So as a regular ICT installer or something like that, if you have an idea of how we can reach more regions or we can influence more um global entities to adhere to and and uh you know, I guess comply with uh the the published Bixie standards and and way of doing business, the board would love to have you.

Who Should Run For Leadership

SPEAKER_02 12:06

So, you know, when I think of a board of directors, I envision this this conference room with a whole bunch of people sitting around a table, a layer of smoke just below the ceiling because everybody's all smoking their cigars, everybody's in their three-piece suits, and they're they're they're you know they're they're plotting the future direction of the industry, the future direction of of of Bixie. I know that's not an accurate, an accurate view, but that's just kind of you know, I guess that's because of movies, right? Because that's what you always see in movies. What kind of a person is gonna thrive on the bo on being a board member and maybe who shouldn't run?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

So those folks that's gonna thrive, you know, those who demonstrate what we would call enterprise framing, which if you you're gonna have to do some reading, of course. You need to understand what the organization organization really is. You need to understand how it operates, who it's reaching, okay. You need to see the whole organization holistically rather than you know just a single program or vendor interest. You know, obviously going back to your previous question just for a moment, you know, we definitely want to make sure Big C provides the best, highest quality, you know, standards, written material, stuff like that, the way that we do ICT. And the folks that actually are in the field are gonna be some of the best, really. That's my personal opinion. I I came from the field. And I have a personal opinion that those of us that come from the field, we make the best designers, and we can actually see what actually works, what doesn't, and we can make these wonderful changes. Um if if you're still wondering if this is for you, here's what the folks that we want to avoid. You know, uh folks that are looking for a title don't want that. This is not about a title, this is not about um you know, a regional or or vendor bias, none of that. This is about servant leadership. If you decide that you want to be a part of the board or the LDC committee or anything like that, come in with a humble heart, a humble mind, and be ready to work and serve the organization. This is not a crown to wear.

Time Commitment And Term Limits

SPEAKER_02 14:22

I I like that servant leadership. I I I I know a little bit about you now that you said those two words together. I know a little bit about you now. And you know, the thing about, you know, you know, any kind of committee, you know, volunteer work or or ball board of directors and stuff, you know, like you said, you're you are not going to be the smartest person in the room. Nope. You're not. But you know, being surrounded by people smarter than you, what's gonna happen is it's gonna elevate you. Of course. And you're gonna learn stuff from being a part of that process. So let's talk about what does it take? Let's say that you've you've decided to give do this route and you you threw your hat in the ring and the Bixie membership voted on you, and you become a board, you know, a member of the board, or the LDC. What does the real commitment look like? You know, what what can they expect? What workload can they expect to be put on them?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

So um the LDC committee and I believe the board also meet quarterly, so about every three months. The LDC committee has a little bit more responsibility, and we'll get into that later, but you know, expect you know, a pretty long meeting, probably about two, maybe two hours every quarter to discuss new issues, uh, new directions, new policies, new procedures, new changes, all that stuff. Expect that quarterly. And as an elected board member, you're expected to attend at least 75% of all the scheduled meetings. Also, if you are a board member, and if you notice, you know, when we were in Orlando this past, what was it, January, February, late January? Anyway, um, all those folks that were introducing the speakers and all the breakout sessions and you know, what's new, what's it do, all that stuff, those were Bix C board members.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

So, you know, so you'd be doing a quarterly meeting, and you and I have talked offline too. And uh so you got that two-hour commitment once a quarter, and then you said uh in our conversation that you may get tasked with additional things, you know, and it it kind of depends. How do you balance the responsibilities between um your career and the being a part of the LDC and your or even even your personal life? How do you balance that load?

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Well, you know, because I have two beautiful girls that are ages eight and five, I have a live-in father-in-law, I have my wife who um works at a preschool, I have my full-time career, I'm also volunteering for volunteering for Bixie, and then I have another organization that I'm a part of as a regional leader. Um it takes a lot of heart, it takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot, a little bit of sacrifice, it takes the gusto and the want to actually be a servant leader. I'm gonna keep repeating that term because that's what it is servant leadership. Um how I balance it is, you know, I maintain, you know, some pretty strict calendars. Um as far as the LDC committee, we are entering our election season, uh, and we can talk about that a little bit more later, but there's scheduled interview windows for potential candidates. So it is a commitment for the LDC that we have to commit to at least, I think, eleven uh 30-minute window um time frames throughout I think June and July. I think even May. I think May, June, July, to interview these candidates, assess whether they are, you know, worthy enough to move on to a second round of interviews so that the second round interviewees that pass can be voted on. So LDC members, we are like the gatekeepers.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

So just let's be real, what's the hardest part of being on the LDC committee or maybe even a member of the board of directors?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

So it's basically it's a time commitment. Um you also have to make sure you know your heart's in the right place. Um you know, Bixie has taken great lengths to make sure that the processes that we we uh we go through to elect uh and to hold these board members accountable is fair, honest, and just um as a board member, if you're an at-large member, you get a two-year term, one two-year term. After that, if you want, you can um you can try for a second two-year term, but you have to go through the same process again. Interviews, questionnaires, things like that, to make sure everything's fair. If after that second term, if you don't want to try to run for an executive role, you're done. And you can never ever run again. That's to ensure that you know we we keep fresh minds and fresh perspectives and fresh mentality into uh the the board. That's what they want.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Yeah, because if you keep doing the way the things that you always did, you're not gonna you're not gonna you're not gonna improve with as new technology and new processes come out. So I like that they limit that. I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

There's a lot of limitations now on terms, term numbers, and term limits. Uh one thing though that that needs to be said is that if you are a Bixie president, which again, Mr. Bill Foy is our current uh Big C board president, um, when his term is up, he will immediately transition into the Bixie past president role, which is the head of the LDC. There's a specific reason for that, and that is to make sure that any institutional knowledge that was gained during his term is not lost.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

What's the most rewarding part about being on either the LDC or the board of directors?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Right now, for me, it's it's giving back to the organization that has given me the career that I have found myself successful in. It's it it's literally giving back. We are such a large community globally, and we're still growing. And right now, that servant leadership heart is just really, really thumping for me. Uh, I'm happy to give back, to give my best, to give my all, to give my time, my talents, and do the best I can for the community.

Application Vetting And Interviews

SPEAKER_02 20:31

So let's this let's say we have somebody out there listening, and there's they're they're listening to you and I talk about this this opportunity, and they're thinking, man, that's really cool. I want to do that, I want to be a part of that, right? Uh can we actually do this? So we've already talked, let's talk about the nomination process and how to get on the ballot. But you already covered the the first couple steps of that. So I'm not gonna ask you that again. But what I will say is what does a strong candidate look like?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Well, right now, um Bixie has a set of core competencies that they're looking for. I cannot disclose those. Um right now I will say that Bixie is looking to expand its global influence myself personally. Um at the uh recent conference in Orlando, I spoke to almost 50 individuals, and I really focused on a lot of our international community. I spoke to folks from Taiwan, Japan, India, our new uh um regional president uh in Saudi Arabia. I cannot remember the wonderful gentleman's name. I met him and his wife. Um we have a board member that is from Cala. He's representing uh the Cala region. And that's what we're looking for as as an LEC member. Well, that's what we're looking for. We want that global input so that big city can then grow itself and get that visibility into what we need to be to be a global powerhouse in the ICT industry. And maybe powerhouse is the wrong term, but But we just want to make sure we're bringing the highest quality product to the global stage. And that takes global um knowledge, understanding, and input.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

So there's a there's a uh a a candidate application form that you gotta go to a Bixie web page and fill out. It asks you some questions. There's even a spot there where you gotta agree to do a uh a background and a credit check and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yep. Um Well, if you want to serve on this this global work stage, you've got to be you gotta be reputable. You can't be just double off the street.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

And you you would just want somebody in that role to be somebody trustworthy, and that's how you'd figure that out most of the time. Um so you know, once you feel that out um and you get nominated by let's say the the LDC call you know calls the person up and says they talk to them, say yes, this is a good candidate, and they put them on the on the uh on the on the on the thing, the ballot to be actually be voted on. What looks what does it look like after that?

SPEAKER_00 22:58

So yeah, the LDC committee, uh what our job is to literally vet every single person that applies. If you pass the the initial check, you get a 30-minute interview. And it'll be with with at least two of the folks on the LDC committee. And you will get asked a certain set of questions, cannot divulge those right now, and we will score you. That's our job. If you get a high enough score, then you will get a second interview that will be much longer. If you pass that, then you are up for election. Now there are some non-contested positions at some point, um if if if it is ran uncontested. And Mr. Purnell, who is Bixie's board uh attorney, may call me up and say, Justin, you said that wrong. Made a culpa.

unknown 23:52

Mr.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Purnell is a great uh is a good dude. He's he he keeps us out of trouble. But yeah, after that, then you're up for election. If you're elected, you're on the board. Or you're on the board.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah, because I know I know Bixie sends out the uh uh the thing they'll notify you to that that the elections are happening, and so you get you're not you're not elected by the LDC, you're not elected by the board of directors, you're elected by the membership, if I'm if I'm correct, right?

Voting Advice And Final Challenge

SPEAKER_00 24:16

That is correct. If you if you're going to be an at-large member of the board or you're going to be a member of the LDC committee, you are elected by the general populace. If you are at bare minimum a Big C member, you are a voting member. And just like what we say here in the States, you should go out and vote. If you care about the organization that you're part of, if you're if you're looking at more than just some letters behind your name, get out and vote. It doesn't take long.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

So what would you say to the person who's on the fence right now? They're thinking about it, they hear all this stuff, and they realize it's gonna be a lot of work just to get on the ballot, a lot of work to get elected, and then even more work afterwards. They're sitting on the fence, I might want to do this, I might not want to do this. What would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I'd say, do not uh succumb to the imposter syndrome. I took a shot in the dark. I saw it and I said, you know what? I'm just gonna do this. I'm either it's either gonna work or it's not gonna work. And guess what? It worked. Here I am, and I'm happy to serve. So it doesn't matter if you're just an installer one, if you're a member of Bixie, I've said it again, you're eligible. You can make a difference. There is no imposter syndrome stuff here.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

And some of the best ideas come from do it. And some of the best ideas come from, like you said earlier, people from the field, especially the new people who have fresh set eyes. Because sometimes, you know, we get so involved in the day-to-day stuff, the day-to-day pulling, terminating, testing cables, designing, project managing. So we get so involved in that day-to-day stuff, we can't see the force because of all the trees. And then somebody from outside who comes from maybe a different industry or whatever, and they kind of look at us and says, This is this doesn't make any sense. You know, my dad always just said, just because that's the way you always used to do it, isn't it the way you should still do it, Sonic? Yeah. Well, Justin, I appreciate you coming on the show.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Anytime, pal. Uh got a couple things. Uh I've been uh, let's see, on the shelf in the back, you know, there's some magazines uh up there from ICT today. I keep writing for that. I think this was my fourth year writing for ICT today, trying to continue doing that. Look forward to serving uh this uh LDC committee for this year and next year's um election year, and then I don't know, we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll run again because if I if I want to do it again, I have to run just like everybody else, and I'm subject to the same process as everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

So listen up. You don't just accidentally end up in the board. It's a decision that you make, it's a process to go through. There's intention, there's commitment, and better yet, a willingness to serve something bigger and better than yourself. As Justin said several times, and I agree with him 100%, servant leadership. But here's the reality the future of this industry is not going to be shaped by the people who just raise their hand. It's shaped by the people who say, you know, I'm ready to do this, I'm willing to do this, I'm willing to put in the time. So the question isn't, am I ready? The real question is, am I willing? Until next time, everybody. Remember, knowledge is power.