Yesterday and Today

On April 15, 1970, the Southern Connecticut Chapter received recognition of its charter from our national organization, which was known, at the time, as ASPA (The American Society for Personnel Administration). ASPA was founded in 1948 by a group of just 28 individuals, and we became its 133rd chapter represented by 45 local area Personnel members. (Today, SHRM has over 490 affiliated chapters!)

Our early officers and members were associated with such companies as Barnes Engineering Company; Standard Packaging Corporation, Nash Engineering Company, Glyco Chemicals, Inc., Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Hewitt-Robins, Inc., Xerox Corporation, Warnaco, Liggett Drug, Pepperidge Farm, Citizens Utilities, and Clairol, Inc. to name a few.

Our first Chapter President, Edward Tarczali, Director of Personnel, Barnes Engineering, indicated there was "a need to bring professional resources in the fields of personnel administration and industrial relations together, particularly considering the increasing number of major U.S. firms locating their corporate headquarters to the Southern Connecticut area.

The chapter focused on "improving the competence of personnel and industrial relations administrators to raise the standards of performance in all phases of personnel and industrial relations."

This year, our chapter will celebrate its 40th anniversary of its founding. While we, as a profession, have changed our name from Personnel to Human Resources, we have also expanded our roles and impact on business and industry. No longer are we just focused on "personnel and industrial relations administration." Today, we are management partners of vital businesses across all industries, domestically and internationally.

We have grown as business has grown. We are global. The Society of Human Resource Management, nationally and locally, has been there to support this dynamic growth.