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 what it is any person does.  No matter how bad things are, you often have to muster up the inner strength, the fortitude to push through.  You can't simply give up.  You put on your best face, you take your knocks, get up, and "get back on the horse."  When you don't, you potentially let others down.  When you don't, you perhaps even serve as a bad example.

I think the thing I love about HOBY most is how rarely I see bad attitudes.  When my fellow volunteers are working, I could ask them for anything, and I know it's as good as done.  It doesn't matter what needs to be done -- how potentially monotonous, boring, gross, bizarre, or unusual the task is -- people know they are serving a larger purpose and they go out of their way with a smile on their face to help you make it happen.  People are invested in your success.

But, this in turn goes so much further.  Their good attitude makes things better for everyone.  Their enthusiasm and energy carries.  Their smiles and their heart shine for all to see.   It makes everyone around them want to give that much more.

And then, when all is said and done, there are the thank yous.  You'll never struggle to hear people who just want to thank you for the good work you've done.  People genuinely appreciate what you've given, and they make sure you know it.  People respect that you've given your best effort, and they want to make sure it doesn't go unnoticed.

Finding such energy and positivity in the people in your life can be a rare thing.  It is a beacon in what can often be the more difficult and trying days of life.  And it's not just the conference:  these people are there long beyond as friends.  Friends who share this common bond with you, that is known in the vaguest sense only as HOBY, but that is embodied in thoughts, words, and actions that form a bond that anyone would be lucky to find if even only once in their life.  Once that HOBY spirit has filled your soul, it's all you can do but to want a little more.

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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 to it too long you become stagnant.  New strategies offer opportunities for even greater things, but they also come at potentially great risk or sacrifice.

In this particular case, the first issue was about our recruitment.  HOBY International has a program in place to allow potential alternate students to attend the seminar along with their primary selections.  Maryland has not typically participated in this program, but it was brought before the Board about the possibility because our participation would help increase our recruitment, outreach, and inherent financial incentives.  At the same time, it could decrease diversity in the seminar because of who could afford to participate, and it could change the seminar experience for all.  It also potentially puts greater strain to make sure there are adequate volunteers.

The second issue was about the money Team Alumni are asked to donate to participate at $180 to pay for their room and board.  There was a time where they were not asked for this money -- their place was paid for.  However, it was at great cost to the seminar.   The cost was brought on when HOBY Maryland was financially struggling.   However, now that we are not, are we potentially losing students who would be TA otherwise because they cannot afford the $180?

It wouldn't be appropriate for me in this forum to comment about the Board's decisions, and besides, that wasn't the point.  The point is that the discussion was good for all of us.  It reminded us -- reminded me -- of why things don't just happen.   Why I can't just make arbitrary decisions as LSC.  Why we have "checks and balances."  And it also reminded me that in the path we have chosen for each issue, what the other side is looking for in their concerns -- it gives us the opportunity to address those concerns as they are happening.

Leadership isn't always making everybody happy.  It's about doing something and trying to get a critical mass to follow you.  To work towards the goals you have set out.  They don't have to agree with what you're doing, or how you got there.  In fact, you may even have to push them outside of their comfort zone.  In this sense, together, only then might we achieve the true potential.

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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, for yesterday's alumni reunion, our alumni organized an event working with KEEN - Kids Enjoying Exercise Now.  These students were much more developmentally disabled -- youth across the age spectrum who in many cases had a mental age less than half their physical one.  Ask me about a challenging job, and this was it.  I worked with two young men over two different sessions.  One was age 20 and spent the better part of an hour easily overwhelmed by his surroundings, and at best, content to watch passing cars outside.  He barely spoke, and would repeat the same series of sounds over and over again.   The other was an 18 year old who behaved much like a 3 year old.  He enjoyed tossing a ball and being pulled on a scooter.  I never heard more than a dozen words in his vocabulary.   These were just two of the many disabled young people who came to KEEN yesterday to get some exercise and enjoy some physical and social interaction.

But to help them there were our HOBY alumni.   And while I won't claim it was our largest reunion ever, it was a wonderful insight into how special it can be to watch one person help another.  Not only did our alumni genuinely go out of their way to be helpful and good "coaches" to their "athletes," they did it with heart, poise, and patience.  As I watched our alumni perform in some cases under some very difficult circumstances, they did it with grace, and they showed why they were the leaders selected from their high schools.  They did it with a kind of patience that I can only sometimes wish to have in my day job.  And they did it wearing their HOBY t-shirts with pride, representing all the good that can come from just a little volunteerism.

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Application

With yesterday's release of Team Alumni applications, I thought I would make a comment or two about the process of becoming a TA and, perhaps even offer a few tips to the application.

As I've mentioned before, the process to join TA really began this summer:  who showed to the Summer Reunion and NPR event?  Who has helped plan the Fall Reunion coming up next week, and who will be there?  Who came to our program year kick off meeting in October?  Who is now helping with recruitment?  You don't have to be able to say "yes" or "I did" to all of these questions -- they're just pieces of the puzzle.  And we want to be able to say we have the complete puzzle when we're done.  Let me state it now for the record, and this is incredibly true:  there is no "formula" or point system for choosing Team Alumni.   The process has both subjective and objective components.  It's the only fair way.  We have to balance who is contributing with the skill sets each individual will bring.  We have to balance the time they have given to HOBY with the time they have given to their community because of HOBY.  I teach science and math for a living, and even I know you cannot simply just put a number to everything to evaluate which is greater.

So, what of the application?

One:  Honesty.  If you're checking off every box because you think you're going to impress us, you're not.   We've seen that before, and can tell who is trying to tout themselves, being cocky, or showing off.  Trust me, humility goes a long way.  Personally, I'd much rather have someone who has a firm grasp on what they know and what they don't know, than someone who thinks they know everything and can do anything.  I admire the person who says they can do anything -- but there is a difference between saying I can do anything right NOW, and being able to do anything once given instruction on how it needs to be done.

Two:  Professionalism.  I recognize we have high school students who are filling out the application, not professionals, but we hope and expect they will treat the application with the seriousness of a real job or college application.  That legible, not perfect mind you (trust me, mine own I recognize needs work) writing does count for something.  If you can't do that, than take the time to type it.  That you need to read the instructions carefully:   it says COUNTY not Country; rank your top 5, not give a 1 to 5 value for every possibility.  Little things add up.  Don't forget the Code of Conduct.  Don't forget your photo.  And most of all:

DON'T TURN IT IN LATE OR THINK WE'LL GIVE YOU AN EXTENSION

You've had two months to complete this.  That's more than enough time for an applications of this size, for a job you want, that requires so little writing.  Procrastination is your business, but when it affects others timelines, you shouldn't expect that they'll just grant you a free pass.

Three:  Be Yourself.  You were selected for HOBY because you're a great individual.  Let that person shine through.  Everyone will be coming to this team with something different.  In HOBY, about 80% of folks are extroverts, 20% introverts.  But that doesn't mean we don't want introverts even though they're rare (trust me, I'm one).  It takes that diversity to make sure our team run efficiently.  We need people who want to be in front of the crowd, and people who want to be working behind the scenes.  We need people who like to write, and people who would rather talk.  We need people who are creative and we need people who understand structure.

All that said, we'll take time over the following weeks to put together that diverse team -- and then the work really begins.

The selected individuals will have to keep working on recruitment and they'll have to raise $180 or more to pay for their expenses.  They'll need to come to meetings and training, and there will be a lot of hard work in between.

Yesterday, I reflected on my own HOBY experience and the fact that when I joined there was no application.   I created the first one to help create competition in becoming TA.  It was 5 pages of forms, with just a page or two of supplements.  I was only allowed to take 12 on my staff.  Today, the application is only 3 pages plus a signed code of conduct, but it's got 9 pages of supplements.  We'll allow for 25 individuals.   The point is still the same:  who wants to be here the most?  Who believes in the purpose of this organization so much that they want to give what they learned to others?

Who wants to continue the HOBY Ripple Effect?

The Team Alumni Application is available at http://www.hobymd.org/2011taapp.pdf

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In the beginning, and in the end

As a minor preview for the handful of you who actually read this, we're about to release our Team Alumni applications for the year. We also happen to be exactly 200 days from the Maryland Leadership Seminar.  When you put it like that, it's kind of scary actually.

Helping Tracy get the TA application ready though makes me reflect on my own journey to Seminar Chair, something I haven't yet talked much about here, and at this point, has been somewhat even lost in the time that has past.  I thought I might share with you all now.

If you ask me about my own seminar year, 1996, I don't remember as much as you think I would.  Talking with fellow alumni, I actually think I remember my own less than most people do.  I used to say that my ambassador year was the best ever, but it's funny how after you've done15 seminars, they all start to blend together.

I remember my facilitator (whose name and face I don't remember) was a volunteer who happened to be in the Army, and had to leave less than 24 hours into the seminar.  My group wound up being covered by two Junior Facilitators, Annie and Protik, alumni who worked with us, but have since moved on to other things.  My seminar was in Columbia, MD, at a hotel, and I remember as soon as I arrived there saying hello and thank you to one Ms. Carol Applegate, who unbeknownst to me was the chair of the whole event.  I remember going to the Bell Atlantic facility as a field trip and seeing video conferencing for the first time ever.  I remember Dolf Droge, a former presidential advisor, all practically 7 feet of him dressed in all black with pearl white hair shouting at me that I should read both sides, the Washington Post and the Washington Times. But, ask me about the friends I made, or exactly what I got that weekend, and I'd struggle to tell you.  A lot of it didn't hit me till afterwards.

A few weeks later, I wrote a thank you letter to Carol -- she still has it.  I told her about what I was doing in my school and that I was trying to spread the HOBY "ripple effect" like I was taught.  Months later, the applications for what was then called "Ambassador Staff" were released, or that is, you were told you needed to write Carol a letter at that time, if you wanted to join the staff.  I never did.

Low and behold though, sometime in April I got a phone call from Carol inviting me to staff.  She had saved my original letter and liked it.  She wanted me to join them.  I was kind of speechless -- I thought my opportunity had passed.

I never made it to the meetings -- I just showed up at the next year's seminar ready to contribute how ever I could.  One of the other TAs actually thought I was just another ambassador.  We didn't all have the red jackets TA is now known for, and there were only 8 of us for a seminar of about 250.  Only the WLC kids had them, and I wasn't one of those (much to many people's surprise still to this day).  We got blue jackets instead.  We worked all night long for what was then a four day seminar, out of a hotel room, getting little sleep, and loving every minute of it.

But I never exactly thought I would get here.

Such was my inauspicious start to being a part of the HOBY Maryland staff.  I stayed somewhat active the next few years when in 1999, that year's chair Jon Weinstein (who still volunteers with us a bit) wanted to help us get better at communication, so I built the site a new webpage.   And from there, well, it just became a progression -- junior facilitator -- facilitator -- Alumni Advisor -- Director of Team Alumni -- Vice Chair -- and now chair.

Last year, at the end of seminar, one young man, Hunter, a second year TA, said to the group he wanted my job one day.  I'll be honest, I hope he makes the opportunity for himself to take it.  Because if he does, then we've done our job:  "To inspire and develop our local Maryland community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service and innovation."

I think back over a lot of these 15 years, and much of it passes in a blur.  Honestly, when I recall my seminar experiences now, I think more of memories with special people than I do of specific events.  And I admit, that seems a bit odd to me when you think about the fact that we work all year to plan for an event.  But the event is about the shared experience -- the hugs, the tears, the smiles, and the laughs.   The ambassadors will have their own experience this year, and who knows, one of them may go on to have a journey similar to mine.  And in the end, I hope they do -- because in the end, we'd be a better organization for another new set of hands and another warm heart.

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Re: Recruitment

That title has fortunately been flooding my inbox all week.

Admittedly, it was and is a bit of a gamble to try and put our alumni on the the task of recruitment for the seminar.  It has traditionally been a task handled by a recruitment director, and doled out to a team of volunteers.  However, the reality was that with no director, we couldn't just ignore the large task of recruitment, and we needed to find a way to make it possible.

At the same time, this seminar off season we have done a very positive job of engaging our alumni.  Between a successful summer reunion, and a big opportunity to be on the radio at NPR, our alumni were wanting to be engaged, and have stayed involved as they truly want to return to the seminar to be on Team Alumni. Throw these factors together, and we are currently looking at potentially our largest ever class of applicants to Team Alumni with more than 40 applications.

The direct result of that is that if these individuals wanted a place on Team Alumni, we were going to ask them to work for it.  They were going to have to distinguish themselves.  We only have 25 spots on TA, and that means some are going to have to stay home disappointed.  Being on TA is not just a free pass.

What we have done is I have taken on the task of breaking down the recruitment list.  At 364 schools and programs in the state of Maryland, that's an awfully big challenge.  But, I asked for help from those alumni, and they have responded in force.  Each is taking on at least 5 schools to recruit, and even some alumni who are to old to be on TA still volunteered to help.  Then, throw in a few adult volunteers who have longer lists, and we have put together quite the effort.

It is now a week from when I initially created and began to implement this challenge and we are off to a wonderful start.  But, now the truly hard work of recruitment begins.  Calling and emailing schools is not easy: people at the schools often have no idea what HOBY is, or how magnificent an opportunity it can be.  They don't know if it's worth the $150 it costs them, or if they have the money even if they believe in the program.  They become increasingly difficult to get a hold of, not returning messages, and even flat out ignoring your calls and requests.  Yet, all we want to do is making the lives of their young people better.  You would think it would be an easier sell.

Now all those volunteers must put in countless hours, phone calls, and emails to try and get just a few students to sign up.  And every day, all I can do is give them assistance and wait, as I watch the recruitment tally sheet, watching as each school comes in, one by one.

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