Too much is never enough

If you had asked me at the beginning of the program year would I have now found myself in the position of actually trying to show some restraint on the growth in HOBY Maryland, I'm not sure what I would have told you.  Likely, that it would be an enviable position to be in, and I would probably love to have such problems. What can I say except we may have become a victim of our own success? As of today, Maryland has 207 students registered, six over our goal of 201.  There are actually a few more in the cue that I know about, all of whom could, and eventually likely will register.  I've had to even go as far as tell another site that we could not immediately accept their potential transfer. The counter-balance to this wonderful news is that I also currently find my team...

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Reborn, Renew, React

It was quite the busy week.  My real job was hectic and frequently overwhelming this week, which seemed to be the real sign that HOBY time is almost here.  As I feel the strain of mounting pressures, I know we are but weeks away from May. In no particular order... We reached 188 recruitment by the end of this week.  That puts us just 13 away from reaching goal by the extended March 25th deadline.  It's a big deal because it means we're already ahead of total recruitment last  year.   And, even if we don't make the "deadline," I have a feeling we'll meet goal by the seminar.  All I can say is that I'm quite pleased. As those 188 registered, we released our pre-seminar forms today.  Of course, only as I personally know is typical, it didn't go off quite...

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Anonymous

Lately I find I've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes for both HOBY National and HOBY Maryland.  The kinds of things that most people wil never know happened, just one day they show up and everything is ready for them.  Projects that will never have an official attachment to my name, even if I will know that were the product of my, hopefully good, work. For the national audience, that has meant a lot of social media projects, working to make sure some internal priority lists stay relevant to the field, and often, simply making my voice heard.  Sometimes it's more a philosophy of, if you make enough noise, people start to listen and others it has been simply going with my gut, but either way I feel like I'm seeing positive impact.  I'm not saying people aren't willing...

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Make a Splash

All day I've been watching as my Facebook has slowly been covered in HOBY.  Status messages have been changed to snippets of why HOBY has changed lives while profile pictures have become a colorful sea of HOBY T-shirts.  Fan pages have spread the message, and the pervasiveness of HOBY in even my "virtual" life has become all too apparent. In a move initially led by HOBY Ohio West, today through Wednesday have become HOBY Social Media Splash Days.   It's not by chance all my HOBY friends are doing this, it is a coordinated effort to get a little publicity for what may be America's best kept, positive secret.  I think about my own life, and the friends I know who I don't necessarily give the full HOBY "elevator" pitch speech to, and it makes me realize I can still do more...

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Hurry Up, and Wait

Any alumnus of HOBY Team Alumni could tell you our operations motto:  "Hurry up, and wait."  It's funny how true that is as the calendar year renews that feeling.  From the quiet and lack of activity of December, January is now back at us in full swing.  The expression speaks to how as a Team Alumni you often are faced with about a dozen things that all need to be done at once intermixed with periods of relative quiet and relaxation. This past weekend we had our Winter Alumni reunion.  A group of alumni gathered in Phoenix, MD to meet for some social time and to spend some time with a major disabilities advocate, Dave Ward.  Mr. Ward has a high spinal cord injury, that he's lived with for 35 years, and yet still works tirelessly on behalf of those with disabilities....

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Silent Nights

I don't know exactly how many people follow this blog regularly, but for anyone who does, it may have occured to you that I haven't posted exactly recently.  As we are in the midst of that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it might be simple to assume that I was busy with the typical holiday rush.  However, without trying to sound Scrooge-ish or defensive, for those who don't know, I'm actually Jewish.  For me, this has always meant that while I don't oppose gift giving at this or any time of the year, it's just never been a big part of my life.  I don't find myself ever going out of my way to find gifts for everyone I know.  I simply try and show I appreciate them all throughout the year, and not necessarily with a gift on the holidays. But I say all this...

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Halfway Home

As we enter December, we're now about halfway through the HOBY calendar year:  6 months from the last seminar, 6 months to MLS 2011.   We also have just hit another halfway point:  We reached 50% of our recruitment goal of 201 students.  Team Alumni applications are out; facilitator applications will be coming soon. Program has started moving and kicking into full gear. To think about it though, this is also in it's own way dangerous to our goals.  December is filled with a month of thoughts of holidays, giving, family, and community.  While these are things we hold dear in HOBY, it becomes easy to become "distracted" by our "real lives" and all the responsibilities we have this time of year, places to be, and things to do.   My philosophy?  Try to...

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The HOBY Spirit

Professionally, I had a fairly tough day at work today.  The reasons don't really matter.  What is relevant however in this case is about attitude. I'm the type of person who tries to give 100% and then some to everything I do.  I've never really figured out how to do less.  Why would you bother with something if you're going to give it anything less than your best? In my real job, this is sometimes difficult for me.  I am very committed to it, but I work with other professionals who I won't always feel are giving the same.  I don't question their commitment.  I don't question their heart.  I certainly don't question their character.  But I'd be lying if I told you I never questioned if they had the right attitude. Attitude is so crucial in...

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The Strength in Discord

Last Thursday, Maryland's Corporate Board met for one of our quarterly meetings to discuss where we were at and where we were going.  While the major event in Maryland is the seminar, the Board functions to oversee all events, that they are meeting their responsibilities fiscally, and that they represent HOBY well. While I don't want anyone to think that our meeting was filled with discord (it wasn't), what was perhaps most interesting to me is there were two disagreements during the evening that struck me in the same way that liberals and conservatives might argue in politics:  that there was discussion about what was in HOBY's best interest, a new approach, or a tried and true strategy.   In the simplest sense, what you know works is a good thing, but if you stick...

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Poise and Patience

In my professional life, I'm a special education teacher in a level 5 setting.  Without the lingo, it means I work in a  school exclusively for students with special needs.  My population happens to be emotionally disturbed students. When you tell people that, they have this immediate reaction of, "Wow.  That must be really tough.  You must have enormous patience."  I'm not going to disagree with them that it takes lots of patience, but in reality, I see my job as fairly easy in most regards.  I teach small classes and a subject I love.  I know my kids well, and they know and respect me because I give it to them straight.  There is a very special and important student-teacher relationship that is formed over time with every one of them. By contrast,...

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