The year was 1992 and I was given the opportunity by our board of directors to be NCDC CEO. I was young, inexperienced, and frankly very naive. As I was sitting in Ray Clouse's office on his last day as CEO. He gave me one final piece of sage advice. "Dosch" he said "this is a damn lonely job." I nodded my head to acknowledge his final words of wisdom but my inner voice was saying well it may be lonely for you Mr. Clouse but not for me. Today, 27 years later I must admit that Mr. Clouse was absolutely right. Sometimes this is a very lonely job and I don't say that looking for sympathy because there are so many attributes of this job that are wonderful and amazing and engaging and fulfilling. But yes Mr. Clouse was right. There are times this can be a lonely job. I remember so clearly the first day in this position. I waited until after 5:00 o'clock to begin moving into that corner office so as not to seem too anxious or pretentious. And I finished moving in at about 8 o'clock and that evening I know I was the only one left in the building at that time and I sat in the big chair for the first time. And it is difficult for me to explain the overwhelming sense of responsibility that I felt. In the years working next to Mr. Clouse there were times when I did not agree with his decisions or his strategies but I always kind of brushed those off as knowing that, you know, the CEO was ultimately responsible for the success or failure of this organization, not me. But today that had changed and I was reminded that it was President Harry Truman who kept a sign with the phrase "The buck stops here" on his desk and that phrase truly became a reality and a not so subtle burden that would become my ever present companion for the next twenty seven plus years. In those early years I felt the responsibility of having to be knowledgeable about virtually every facet of our business. This perceived requirement was truly overwhelming as I struggled to keep up with what was the growing scope of our business. The reality that I faced in those early years was that I thought in order to be a successful leader of NISC you needed to be strong in accounting and finance. You needed to be a champion and an advocate of our employees. You needed to carry the NISC brand into the marketplace in an unrelenting effort to keep our pipeline of new business full. You needed to be an extraordinary technician always staying abreast of emerging technologies in their application to the NISC enterprise. You needed to have a keen legal mind protecting our organization from undue risk. And a very important responsibility was to have the ability to translate the ever changing requirements of our members into products and services that would expand the NISC enterprise. Managing a complex schedule of implementations being a expert on project management and providing mission critical support to our members were also perceived responsibilities of this job. They say that wisdom comes with age and the realization that it was impossible for myself or virtually anyone to truly carry out these perceived responsibilities led me to understand that in order to provide the leadership that NISC would require meant building a strong and diverse Vice President group, a competent managers group, an emerging talent represented by our team leads. To be effective these groups would bear much of the burden of this organization. They would bring their subject matter expertise, their strong and diverse opinions, and most importantly a sense of servant leadership to our organization. Putting this leadership group together is and will be a painstaking process. It was to be a group of Type A personalities driven, committed, and selfless. The reality was that this unique combination of leadership would take years to assemble with several misses along the way. Always looking for the correct seat on the bus for each of these leaders. Today, when I think of our accomplishments here at NISC. I don't think about the products or our facilities. It's not our membership base or our financial position. Rather I believe our greatest accomplishment is the management team and our base of employees that has been and is being built. The vice presidents, managers, team leads who provide leadership, guidance, mentoring, innovation, discipline, and inspiration to our organization and to the entire group of NISC employees who are focused on serving each other and serving our members. Together each of us with our own unique personalities and skill set share the responsibility of delivering technology and support to over eight hundred members systems across the country. I am not the smartest person in the room and the burden of leading this organization is not just on the CEO shoulders, thank goodness, but this leadership group and the incredible collection of thirteen hundred and forty eight employees have demonstrated that we are a force to be reckoned with. Competing with some of the largest and most powerful software companies in the world and winning. Yes, winning. Creating a culture that although is not perfect is strong, unique, compassionate, focused, and driven is our most important strategic initiative. If we get that right well then NISC will continue to grow. Continue to improve the level of products and services we deliver to our member owners and continue to nurture and evolve a culture that allows our employees to grow in their skills and abilities and be fully engaged in truly meaningful and impactful work. Thanks for listening. I appreciate you, Vern.
