A change at the top is a watershed moment for any organization. It doesn’t matter if the outgoing leader is weak or strong, loved or despised, visionary or myopic; whenever a leader departs, it offers a grand opportunity for an organization to redefine itself, to rise to a new challenge and to push itself to a new level of success.

So it is with the Society for Human Resource Management after this week’s announced resignation of SHRM president and CEO Susan Meisinger, who is stepping down after six years as the head of the world’s largest organization of HR professionals. No matter how you feel about Meisinger, or SHRM, or the course she set for the organization, her departure gives SHRM a golden opportunity to address the ongoing malaise that permeates the HR profession and, perhaps, help more human resource professionals move up to that long sought-after “seat at the table.”

I have mixed feelings about Meisinger’s departure. On the one hand, she has grown SHRM’s membership, revenues and financial reserves, and she rightly points out these and her other accomplishments in the resignation memo sent out to her staff. It would be unfair to characterize these accomplishments as anything other than what they are—notable and praiseworthy markers of her tenure as SHRM’s top executive.

But I have also been somewhat critical of Meisinger and SHRM’s annual conference over the years, particularly the never-ending push to enroll anyone with $160 in their pocket as a SHRM member regardless of whether they have any affiliation to HR or people management. It seemed to me at times that SHRM was all about the money—getting it, keeping it, growing it larger—and even Sue Meisinger made note of this in her resignation memo when she pointed out that SHRM’s financial reserves have grown “from $62 million to almost $160 million” during her six-year tenure as CEO.

SHRM, under Meisinger, seemed to want to be all things to all people all the time. It’s impossible for any organization to function properly like that, and for the past few years SHRM has always seemed to be more interested in building its war chest than addressing the real concerns of the HR profession.

With Meisinger’s announced departure, however, SHRM’s board of directors has an opportunity to reinvent the organization yet again. In my mind, its new CEO must be someone who can build on the strong financial position the organization is in and perhaps use some of those funds to help HR people everywhere deal with the very real issues that pop up in the workplace every day. In fact, SHRM’s board is planning a strategic review of the organization this year, according to Meisinger’s memo, and it would seem to offer a perfect opportunity for the world’s largest HR organization to really focus on what HR people need to do to be strategic business partners in the 21st century—and how SHRM can help them to get there. (It’s interesting to note that SHRM also undertook a strategic review right before Meisinger ascended to the CEO and president job in 2002.)

Meisinger has accomplished much during her six years as CEO of SHRM, and she will be applauded for all she’s done. But I hope that SHRM’s board also takes a close look at the qualities the organization needs to help HR people better compete in our crazy business world. As I said earlier, it’s a watershed moment for SHRM, and a wonderful opportunity to take a good organization and set it on a course to become a great one.