It’s true: I have stepped down as Chair of Springfield Tech Council. Not away. Not retired. Not leaving. Just down. I’ll give my “why” in a minute, but first, let’s talk about how I got here.

It was the summer of 2019, if I recall correctly, when Nick Lofaro, then heading up AITP (Association of Internet Technology Professionals) of the Ozarks, stood at the front of the room inside Springfield Brewing Company for the third straight lunch event saying, “I could really use a little help.”

I buckled. I approached Nick and asked what help he needed.

He said, “Marketing.”

I thought, “Marketing? How hard can it be?” and jumped right in.

The answer, by the way, is pretty hard. It’s especially tough for a logic-brained, color-blind rube to come up with posts, write newsletters, design graphics, and craft emails that people might read.

The results were decent, though! The numbers for socials and emails were ticking up and, most importantly, so was the event attendance.

Then, out of left field, came the decision I did not see coming: we were ending AITP. There was a plan keep the community going, but I was not in the loop for quite a while...

...when out of the blue came word: Springfield Tech Council was being born! Yep, conveniently timed right as we were all coming out of our COVID bubbles, we were planning a kickoff event to gain buy-in from the community. I found out just a bit before the public; just enough time to do the marketing. My specialty!

Fast forward a few months and our ribbon cutting and first smaller events are behind us when we get a call about organizing a tech conference. This is where I really got pulled in. I’ll do another post about the history of STC Squared later, but I saw this as an opportunity for me to really do something great for the community, and, in hindsight, me.

Let’s talk about my day job for a minute. I love my people at CNH Reman. They support STC and me more than most employers every would. It’s not just allowed that I’ve been chair of the organization for the last several years, it is encouraged and celebrated there. If you’ve never worked somewhere where you are encouraged to give back to the community, you might try it!

However, I took that job with four purposes: First, was to get the network functioning at an enterprise level (it was not). Second, was to build a team to support the company so it could stop using contracted support. Third, was to lend experience to the company’s ERP implementation. Fourth, and biggest for me, was to succeed the current IT Manager when he retired after the ERP project.

How’d that turn out?

I replaced the entire network in the first three weeks. It took a couple of months but, to this day, I think we had the best support team humanly possible with Kim Roberts and John House, Jr. The ERP project kicked off, and they promptly asked me to leave the room because I was asking too many hard questions. (The questions? Do you have a process for that and do you have Work Instructions? Seriously, they didn’t even get me lunch the first day!)

A bit after the project completed, out of nowhere, Kelly Robertson plopped down in front of me and said, “I’m your new boss!”

Now, don’t get me wrong, Kelly is a fantastic human, a great friend, and a good boss, but I was seething mad. Not a call? Not an interview? In a company that insists on posting every opening? Wow! I already had a natural chip on my shoulder for being short, but now I have one on the other shoulder, too.

If you’ve never heard of Jocko Willink, now is the time to look him up. As my rage and surprise subsided over a few weeks, all I could here is Jocko saying: “Good.” Here’s the link.

So, when the thought of putting together a tech conference came about, I thought it was an opportunity to show what I can do outside of just being a tech generalist.

That first one came together through brute-force and it was....OK. But something else happened that day, too. STC had a board meeting. Nick had previously announced he was stepping down, a new President/Chair/CEO (we had many names for the position then) was named and, for some dumb reason, I was elected Vice-Chair. I still remember my great friend and founding board member Jason Arend saying, “Dan would make a great Vice-Chair!”

Joke was on him, though, as just a few months later the newly elected Chair stepped down for personal reasons.

I was asked if I was interested and I remember my exact thoughts: “If I can lead this bunch of C-level executives, owners, and people that are all way above my paygrade and level of accomplishments to build out this community into something amazing and sustainable for our region, I will show everyone my capabilities.”

I took the job, and it has been an extremely rewarding, and often humbling experience.

As I look back on the last five years, we accomplished a lot:

• AITP of the Ozarks was the largest AITP group in the country. We’ve blown away that group’s numbers by surpassing 1000 registered members*.
• We took full ownership of STC Squared and made it the absolute best tech conference. Five iterations are in and we are already planning to run it back again.
• EIT launched in 2023 and will have its fourth turn this September. We may just hit 300 attendees this year!
• We’ve added more year-long sponsors, event sponsors, members, and volunteers.
• Tech Week!
• We hired Emily as our Executive Director (or I would have hit full burnout years ago).
• We needed to strengthen STC’s long-term financial sustainability. We developed a plan and executed it. STC will be in the black for the second straight year. I might be most proud of this accomplishment for our tech community.
• We improved our bylaws and committees’ structure to set up the organization for the future.

What we haven’t done is part of why I’m stepping down, but it is not the whole story.

First, I’m fine. No health scares or anything like that. I need to lose a few pounds (again), but, whatever.

I’m stepping away because I think the organization needs a different set of skills at the top. I was the right person five years ago: motivated, energized, and strong-willed. Now it needs something a little different.

My wife, who has been both tremendously supportive and appropriately encouraging this change, has a craft business I hope you’ve heard of, Sug’s Craft Shack. She and her business need more of my time. She has volunteered a ton of time toward STC, too, and deserves her own post.

My day job has gone from busy to stupid-busy and I don’t see any sign of it letting up. It’s been extremely difficult to find time to do the basic Chair duties and, as you can imagine, they have slipped a bit.

My passion lies in technical challenges and that is where I think I can make the biggest impact for STC and the community now. I have already created an app to automate the Excellence in Tech workflow (more in another post later). I have a couple of other people on board to help, and I see an STC Squared app for the 2027 event next and a path toward upgrading the organization’s underlying software to something much more automated and specific to STC’s needs. I simply could not attempt these things while performing my duties as Chair.

While there is still work to be done, one of STC’s most achievable goals is strengthening our volunteer and leadership pipeline. Continued improvements to volunteer onboarding and engagement will help strengthen that pathway and support the organization’s future.

Sherry Coker has agreed to serve as interim Chair, and I am grateful to her and the team for supporting my decision to step down. It is the absolute best time to get involved with the organization, too. We’re still doing great things, building community, and having a blast doing it. Come join us!

*I’ll acknowledge, we don’t exactly count these the same way because of our corporate memberships. AITP of the Ozarks rocked!

These photos provide a glimpse into some of the relationships, events, and achievements from throughout Dan's leadership journey with Springfield Tech Council. Thank you, Dan!! -Emily & STC Board of Directors