The five of us in the second generation embarked on a Partnership Charter Retreat back in 2000. Our parents stepped back and gave us the green light to see if we could design our own sibling partnership – with the help of our two Partnership Guides. To our parents’ credit, they trusted us to develop a comprehensive plan for us to continue their business into the future. After a kickoff dinner with our parents, the five of us spent three days working through more issues than we imagined. We talked, cried, laughed and negotiated back and forth.

We emerged from the three days with a comprehensive plan for our roles, how we would communicate and work out our differences. We worked out compensation issues, our vision, and how we might even bring our own kids into the business someday. We learned a lot about collaborating, ourselves and each other – and that’s after knowing each other all our lives!

We credit that process, and our annual Partnership Charter Retreats since then, with helping us be successful family business partners – going on two decades now! The Charter process clearly helped our family enterprise thrive and prosper.