AMG’s
May Gayle Mengert welcomed Ethiopian
children arriving in Israel as part of a delegation from the Greensboro Jewish Federation, an
organization that supports, sustains and revitalizes Jewish life, since
1940.
At a time when the news is filled
with stories of hostility based on racial, cultural and religious differences,
it can be refreshing to find people and organizations like AMG, Association Management Group, one of the
Carolinas’ largest professional homeowners association managers, who honor and
embrace differences. The news can seem bleak: A 2014
Pew Research Center study found that the number of countries with a high
level of social and religious hostilities hit a six-year peak in 2012 at 33%,
up from 29% in 2011 and 20% in mid-2007.
Yet there’s hope as well: the same instant access thanks to the Internet and
social media that shows the dramas of everyday intolerance playing out in often
tragic ways also, happily, connects us to a new phenomenon called The
Values Revolution. Documented by Global Tolerance, a social business that
combines profit and purpose to make the world a more peaceful, equal and happy
place, The
Values Revolution is a movement by consumers, especially Millennials, those
born after 1980 and between the ages of 18 and 35 (and one of the largest
generations in history), to want business to do good work–corporately and in the world.
Many
of us agree...and the numbers are compelling: Nielson’s third
annual 2014 global online survey on corporate social responsibility
discovered that 67% of 30,000 surveyed consumers in 60 countries prefer to work
for socially responsible companies, 55% will pay extra to do business with
those companies, 49% donate or volunteer at organizations doing
social/environmental work and 49% were interested in racial, ethnic and cultural
tolerance, which includes religion. AMG personifies those values in its five
offices across North Carolina and South Carolina with a healthy do-gooding
culture. Nearly 100% of employees volunteer for a variety of causes–from 5K
runs benefitting a local food bank to disaster relief in Haiti.
It’s
an inclusive culture created by AMG founders Paul and May Gayle Mengert and, at
its center, is religious tolerance. Paul
Mengert, HOA thought leader, CAI (Community
Associations Institute) industry educator and author of the book Understanding and
Improving Group Decision-Making notes “When one takes the time to
really understand differing perspectives, cultures, religions and backgrounds,
great results are often achieved.” Case in point, he successfully worked as an
international housing consultant in Kazakhstan in the 1990s after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. Over the course of 5 years working in a
country with ethnic challenges, he and his colleagues privatized most of the
nation’s housing–and made deep, life-changing connections.
Paul also served on the US Board
of Directors of Givat Haviva Educational
Foundation, one of the oldest and largest Middle East peace education
institutions. Givat Haviva is a non-profit that aims to build an inclusive,
socially-cohesive society by engaging factions in collective action to advance
a sustainable, thriving community based on mutual responsibility, civic
equality and a shared vision of the future. He was a part of the board that won
a UNESCO
Prize for Peace Education to honor exceptional effort in the areas of peace
education, the promotion of peace and non-violence, and for work done for the
resolution of conflicts through dialogue. For two decades, the Mengerts have
also supported The National Conference for
Community and Justice of the Piedmont Triad, Inc. (NCCJ), a human relations
organization that promotes understanding and respect among all cultures, races
and religions through advocacy, education and dialogue.
AMG
is a standard-bearer in the HOA national community, respected for its use of
the latest technology and business best practices to help clients build
effective community associations. With a mission to help protect associations’
interests and enhance the lives of community members while improving property
values, it makes sense that they would be on the leading edge of religious
tolerance. The Mengerts get it: they understand that building effective
communities extends beyond their business. According to May Gayle, AMG Vice
President and member of the Guilford
College Board of Visitors, leadership on the issue of tolerance by the
business community is important. “In the business of helping people manage
their communities, we have learned everyone’s opinion really does matter,”
she concludes. “We’ve seen that the
valuing of people’s ideas and mutual respect lead to the solution of many
problems.”
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