Kris Anne will be participating in the "Using Your Management Skills for Service" Panel.
I went to BYU in 1970 and graduated in Recreation Education in 1974. I met my husband, Paul Gustavson, my senior year in college and we married the summer of 1974. He then went to graduate school at BYU and I worked to put him through. After that we both took jobs at Amoco Oil Indiana in Chicago, Illinois. I was an assistant to a chemical engineer, where I worked for 2 years, then when was pregnant with our first child, I quit to be a stay-at-home mom. I essentially have stayed home since then, and have dabbled in the professional world in a few different ways. When my husband started his own management consulting company in 1985, I did all the office work. We had an office in our home, (actually, in our bedroom, to begin with). I also did some Team Building/Outward Bound type workshops for some of our clients, using my Recreation Degree knowledge tied in with business principles. I became aware of an organization that taught about the right brain/left brain and became certified in that, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Theory. Then I began giving workshops around that, usually to my husband's clients. We have worked together in many different settings throughout the last 25 years, me dealing with brain dominance and teaching and learning and team building. I never worked 40 hours a week for a whole year, but was gone sometimes for a whole week at a time doing workshops across the country. When my last child was in high school, I stayed home with him and didn't do much work during those 2 years.
When I was 20 years old, I wanted to be a stay-home mom. I pretty much lived the dream, although that dream was just a dream and life gives you things you would NEVER dream of. My mother helped my father in his career as a veterinarian doing the books, being the nurse, etc., so maybe that's why I ended up supporting my husband in his work. I think more than that, we are a team in marriage and in life and it was natural to help him get his own company started and we have worked together ever since. I also had a tremendous interest in his field of work and regret not applying for the same program at the same time as he did to get a masters in Organization Behavior along with him.
I found that doing part-time work was satisfying and still allowed me to be the kind of mother that I wanted to be, which has been the most fulfilling experience so far in my life. I'm looking at my 8 grandchildren and thinking that this may be more fulfilling.
On the other hand, teaching is very fulfilling and as I have done workshops to help people understand their brain dominance, I delight in the times when life changing experiences happen to people. Of course, teaching is a skill that can benefit the church in many different ways. I also was camp director for 5 years at an amazing camp in the Sierras, Camp Ritchie. My education and experience in the work field was invaluable in that calling.
In 2007, my husband and I were called on a part-time service mission to serve in the HR department of the church. We kind of invented our mission. The HR department wanted to use our skills, but we didn't want to charge the church our regular fees, so we suggested that it be a mission. The mission department, our bishop and stake president didn't know how to handle the call and the paper work, as it didn't fit into their protocol. But we finally got it all figured out and were soon working for the church for free, living in our home in California, serving in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake. I did most of my work from my house, doing telephone interviews with individuals who were applying for paid jobs at the church and did a few workshops for different departments. Paul gave half of his working time to the church, mostly at the Church office building, but we did go to Germany, England, Russia, Nebraska and Hawaii for various reasons on our mission.
Even though we are not on our mission any more, we still provide professional services for the church. Some of it we are paid for, some of it not. Most recently, we are developing a training program for the mission president in our area to help teach the missionaries skills he is concerned about.
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