Interview of Terri Johnson, November 2, 2021

Madalyn: Hello everyone! This is Terri Johnson and she is my interviewee. Would you like to introduce yourself, please?

Terri: Absolutely. I am Terri Johnson, presently I am the state executive director for the Missouri Association of student councils, but in my first life, I was a school guidance counselor for 30 years and a student council advisor during that entire 30 year period. At one time I thought 3 hours of high school social studies but the last 24 years of my career I taught leadership class and I also taught a class for graduating seniors, on preparing for college and figuring out what they wanted to do with their lives once they are graduated. I am also a mom and a wife and a dog owner. 

Mady: How did you first get into MASC and what are your job obligations? How long have you been with MASC? Tell me all about that. 

Terri: The reality is that I did not start attending MASC events until I had been an advisor for a couple of years. I always tell students the story that the way to get people involved when you are a leader is to invite them, ask them to come with you, or participate. A lot of times people are too afraid to do something on their own or they just do not know about the opportunities. I had two adult advisors, one from the high school I graduated from in Kansas City, and one who was a well-known student council advisor in a public school in Kansas City. They both called me and said I think you should bring your council to the MASC district meeting. So I began taking kids and became very involved with the organization. About 3 years later, they said "we think you should run for the district board member position" so I ran and was elected the northwest district board member. I served in that capacity for several years. I was elected and reelected 2 or 3 different items. But finally in 1999, 2000, 2001, the man who was the state director before me, was making sure I had specific experiences. For example, my school ran for the state presidency, so we planned the state convention. 

Terri: He then said, "I think you should go to a national convention." I was like "Yeah-- it costs money and I have three little boys at home." But I got permission from my school to be able to do that so I went to nationals. Then he was like I think you should go to NOD which is the advisor's workshop so I went to that. Finally, after I did all of these things, he said I want you to apply for my position as executive director. Now that I look back on that, and talking with him, he was preparing me for the job that I hold now because I needed those experiences to understand the big picture for MASC. And because I was going to be attending those events. I was elected into the director's position in 2000 and then I took over in 2001. He retired in 2001. And here I am 20 years later still doing that. 

Mady: That is so awesome. I never knew that story until now so that is really cool to know the background of how you came into this position. So whenever you were younger, did you have this mentality that maybe I want to go into this or this is what I want to do with my life?

Terri: I think I have always been in leadership roles. I have never been at a loss for words and I have never been afraid to speak my mind. I have always been somebody that got involved. I was in every club and organization in high school and I was a cheerleader. I ended up head cheerleader. I was an officer in all of the organizations and was involved in the student council. In college, I was my sorority's college prescient and held other positions in the sorority. I have always felt like I wanted to be in charge. I like the organization of it and the excitement of it. The planning and getting better and figuring out how we can do things in a different way. I really feel like when I was a junior in high school I was junior class president. They planned the prom. My advisor for the junior class was phenomenal. I went to a catholic high school and she broke the mold. She was not afraid to be herself. I went to high school in the 70s. She didn't wear a bra. She wore socks with her sandals, which is kind of a thing now but back then it was really weird. she built confidence in us. I had her for psychology which ended up being my college major. I just adored her. But she really believed that the students should be making the decisions, especially about prom. She set us up to figure things out. That was the first time I ever had to negotiate a contract with a hotel because our prom was offsite and we had to figure out the meeting space, how big we needed the room to be for prom. And the food with our sitdown meal. She would prepare us but then when we actually got to the meetings, she made us be the negotiators. I just learned so much from her and I really gained a lot of confidence working with someone like that. She probably is one person that really helped shape me. I would love to connect with her and let her know how much confidence she gave me as a leader.

Mady: That is so that you have grown with that since you were younger and that you have someone like that who has built you into the person you are today because that attitude of "the students make everything go" and they are happening all of the events is really shown in MASC so I have a lot of respect for that and it is so cool. 

Terri:  I think the other thing is Denny, the director before me, was very visionary and he wanted us to grow and get bigger and try new things. I think this is important that whenever you take over a world like this, you have to watch what has happened in the past and not make big changes to start with to let others get accustomed to your own leadership style and how you do things. But then you have the opportunity, as they begin to trust you which is a huge piece of leadership, then you can get people on board to do some of the things that you want to do. So he was a really big influence on the way that I do things now. I can not deny that my mom and my dad were like " just do it. Just go do things. Just try things." and my dad always use to say to us "Cannot never did anything." He always said that.  I would say "I do not know if I can." He would say "Cannot  never did anything." I say that to my boys and to my grandkids and I have said it to my council. 

Terri: We are never going to make big changes if we do not try. We can not use the word Can not when we are building a program. The other thing we need to realize about the whole organization itself, is that there was a man who was the "grandfather" of the student council. His name was Earl Reum. In Life magazine, there is a special article about Earl Reum from when was a high school student, and then a college student. He ended up writing millions of different books about student council and leadership which are very inspirational. 

Terri: At Fulton, he was our consultant. Before me, he did all of the general sessions. Every year I heard earl speak every year at every general session. A lot of the things we do at camp are especially because Earl created that idea or encouraged us to do them. One of the sayings that Earl always says is that "people support that which they create." I know he did not coin that phrase but he said it to us over and over again. When I became the state director, you feel this crazy amount of pressure to do it and do it right and for everything to be perfect. And that weighs on you. You just can not do everything. It was probably about 2 or three years into the position and I kept hearing Earl in my head. "People support that which they create" and so I started divvying up the responsibilities at camp to our staff.  Like "Chad, will you take care of the Olympics?" and "Jeanie, will you take care of the dinner the staff eats on Saturday night?" And "Will you do the duck derby?" The ladies from Lebanon who all 3 were coming at the time, will you guys take care of the carnival? And as soon as I gave other people those responsibilities, the whole dynamic of our staff changed. Everybody just feels this connection like this is their thing that they are responsible for. They want to make it as good as possible and then I dont have to think of and do everything. I should have let that little voice in my head in long before I did. That have been some of the words that I live by. You can not do things by yourself in leadership. It takes a team and it takes people who really buy into what you are doing and that is really how I have tried to accomplish that. 

Mady: I love that. I think the strength and the community in MASC and just in general with whether it is your student council or a class you are taking os just your family at the time. It is the relationship and divvying up of the different tasks that really strengthen the people in your community. I love that and I love that those are words that you live by. That is a very smart way of showing your leadership 

Mady: Going off of that, what other characteristics do you show in your leadership in comparison to other people? What is something that is different about you? We have the 4 different colors. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Terri: Sure, Definitely my personality color is teal. There is no question. I think that brings compassion to the work that I do. I was a school counselor so there is a lot of heart in what I do. People I hope feel connected to me. When I meet new advisors, I try to find something that connects us. Where did you graduate from high school? What do you teach? Do you have children? Do you have a significant other? We are all connected. Brene Brown says that. We are wired for connection. I really feel like the connections and the relationships we build with each other there is something I do and I do well. I try really hard to remember people's names and where they are from and something about them. With the past 2 years of us not being together. Yesterday I was in the southeast district. People have on masks now and they look different than they looked 2 years ago. I was having to say to some people "remind me again where you are from?" Usually, if they can tell me what school they are from then I can remember their name because that is what I do all day long. 

Terri: Sometimes people misconstrue being a Cryer and wearing your feeling on your shirt sleeve for not benign a strong person. Nothing could be farther from the truth about me. I will fight to the death about what I believe in. I can argue with anybody who wants to put up a fight. But I can still be fun and I can be silly if I need to be. I feel like sometimes that color of personality is who I am but I have 2 computer screens and a multitude of paperwork to do to be organized about so I have that silver component. But I jumped on the stage with Danny Batimana at park hill south and danced. We are at summer camp when we were there in 2019. I think all of those things are really important to leadership. I do feel like relationships are really a big part of a strong leader.

Mady: As having relationships with other people through your masc journey so far, who has been your biggest influencer along the way that is part of MASC or who has pushed you to keep going with this?

Terri: Honestly, it is probably my friend Ann who was the student council advisor at Notre dame in Saint Louis. She is not there anymore. She taught at an all-girls catholic high school for 28 years. She drove an hour to school and so I drove an hour to school so every morning at 5:45 -6:00. Ann and I would be on the phone together and we would talk about student council and MASC all the way to school and sometimes all the way back home again in the afternoon. She calls me Daisy. My nickname is Daisy. She would say "Daisy. I think you should try this. Daisy" As soon as I retired she said, "you have got to start going out and visiting schools and being at people's buildings." She was constantly brainstorming with me. She has been a huge influence in my life as a state director. I have really counted on her a lot to help me figure things out when I first got started. But her mom got really ill so she started working in the Washington school district where she lived so we didn't have that hour on the phone to talk to each other. I was with her last week but as soon as we sat down it was like "blah blah blah blah blah" talking about all of these things we loved. The Ideas. Like the brainstorming is phenomenal so she really was a huge influence on the ideas that I ended up coming up with to do things different with the association.

Mady: That is really great. So we are going to switch to another question. It is very broad. What does leadership mean to you and how has it shaped your life?

Terri: Leadership is the opportunity for us to influence the world and make it a better place. Focusing on positive leadership, there is an awful lot of negative stuff going on out there in the world, in our government, and I feel like if we stay on the positive and we think about people and what their needs are then we have done a good job as leaders of our schools our communities our state governments. I talked about relationships and I think that's a huge piece of leadership. It is you surround yourself with people that trust you and that you trust them and then you build on those relationships to be able to influence for good or to do things that will help the maximum numbers of people. And I know simple things like when we have had to make decisions about limiting the number of people who can come to an event. Like registration for winter energizer is a first come first serve and you type as fast as you can and you hope you get in. That is the way summer camp was for a very long time. We realized that was not fair because not everybody can put 15 kids in a computer lab and they can all sign up for themselves. You have to figure out ways that are good for the maximum number of people and still might upset other people too. I have had to deal with weird things that happen at camp and there are no questions there is right and wrong. Kids know it. JCs know what my expectation is and what it is not. If someone does something wrong, there is a way to sit them down, call that to their attention, and help them understand that their decision was not for the greater good. I always say this is why they pay me the big bucks. Sometimes you have to upset people. You have to call people out is maybe a way to say that. I try hard not to demean people. But they know when I mean business. 

Mady: That is a very good thing that things can be good and super positive and up there but when it comes down to it you have to be very genuinely honest with people. You still have to make relationships with people but they are, like you said there is a right and there is a wrong. Leadership comes with being able to find the positive and push people towards the right and calling out the wrong in a respectful way too.

Terri: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Mady: Final question. What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want people to think of when they hear your name and it is upon the billboard? What do you want to put into the world?

Terri: I hope they will say that I loved my work. They knew that I really loved my job and what I was doing. I hope that they will say that I grew to the organization in a positive direction. We have taken on a lot of new and different things. What is really hard is that right now, we were at the top of our game before COVID. Everything was maxing out. The numbers were huge. Every district meeting was bigger than the last one. State conventions were bigger than the last one. My hope is that we get back there. Kids dont know who we are right now. They dont know me. We had summer workshops. At Cape, not one kid has been to Fulton.

Mady: That makes my heart so ...

Terri: I know I know. I have always felt like when I take the stage or when I talked to kids, they knew that I was important or that what I was telling them was something that was worth listening to.

Mady: Very!

Terri:  I dont have that clout now if you will, because they have never seen me before. They have never been to a convention or district meeting or summer camp and it is like starting all over again. My concern is not for me. I dont care if they really know who I am. My concern is that they know how incredible MASC is. And that what we can do for them personally and professionally. The stuff you can put on a resume when you apply for scholarships or you are applying for college. And so I hope that the people will remember me for growing a great phenomenal powerful program that gives kids a lot of cool experiences that helped them become the people they are in the future. I have kids that say that to me now, but I want that to happen. We have got to get back there. 

Mady: It is a work in progress and I am sure that the past 2 years have been a very different time for the association. When I think of MASC I think of the friends that I met. I got to experience Fulton 4 times and state conventions and districts and I could not even imagine what it is like now not being able to meet those people in person. Or taking a picture with you or Marty in front of the pond.

Terri: There is no relationship there. And that is what we have to get back to. Is that connection back to how important it is to go back to Fulton. I have an advisor who is brand new. She was not a STUCO kid . she has never been to anything. She was at a district meeting in the last couple of weeks and said "Well are we supposed to go to the state convention?" There were 3 advisors at the table who had been to Convention and I did not even have to say anything. They were like YES!!! She was like "well should I send kids to Fulton?" And I thought one of these ladies was going to crawl over the table at her. You need to send kids to Fulton. They are going to fight you on this but you need to make them go. 

Terri: As long as we have people like that who still remember the importance and what it gives kids, I tell families and moms and dad and principals and advisors even. What kids get at Fulton is really not just leadership skills. It is not a sit and get. It is not a check off the list that you learned team-building and organization and communication skills. No! You learn way more than that. It is about you becoming a better person. It is about you learning how to act and react to people who are different from you are. And growing in your ability to be in front of a crowd and be okay with that. There are so many things that kids get from our events that they do not even sometimes realize they are getting. 

Mady: I have personally benefited so much and I have realized more about myself and how I live as a person and how sometimes I am super outgoing and sometimes I just want to cry and sometimes I need a list and I need to write all of this down and I have learned more about myself and how I work as a human being as myself and how I work with other people as well. It is not, like you said, a list of things you check off. I could not even imagine people who do not go to Fulton. I can not even process who I was as a person before I went because it was so influential and every year you learn something new, or you meet a new person that not necessarily changes you as a human being but you realize more about yourself. 

Terri: Well it is the "Single Most Significant Learning Experience of Your Life". Earl said that. That is what earl said to us every year. That was his tagline. We still use that and we believe it. It is true. I want to get back there. I want to be able to give those experiences to kids before I finished up what I am doing here.