National Leadership Seminar

Josiah and I had the chance to attend the National Leadership Seminar this past weekend, November 16 - 19, 2006 in Fairfax, San Francisco. It was an awesome learning experience. It was taught by the regional and national leadership of the Order of the Arrow, BSA. It was incredible. It had young men teaching concepts of leadership which are normally taught to executives of major corporations, ideas such as situational leadership, a concept I learned about at the Food Industry Management Program, USC, Go Trojans! The young men who planned, taught, and delivered the program were all no older than 21. It was just inspiring to be in the presence of young men who were so gifted.

Tom and I had the opportunity to take 4 young men from our lodge to be taught at this seminar. I was impressed by their maturity level as well. They definitely already had down one of the concepts we were taught that weekend, "You need to walk as you talk," which is leading by example. I know this seminar will definitely benefit our lodge, Tatanka Lodge.

The picture is of the 4 young men from our lodge, the national and regional chief, l to r, Josiah, Brian, Sean Murray, National Chief, Cody, Nathan, and Kieran Thompson, Western Region Chief.

This is definitely the learning experience of a life time.

Mt. Gleason

I had the opportunity to go camping and hiking over the past weekend, Oct 28-29 at Messenger Flats. I went with my sons Boy Scout Troop, 373. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go but I had a great time nonetheless.

I hiked 2.5 miles roundtrip up to the summit of Mt. Gleason, 6,500ft. The view from the summit was incredible. On the way up on one side of the ridge is the rich forest then on the other side is the Mojave Desert. It is a great lesson in climatology. The next morning I took the Scouts on a hike up to the summit where we had a Scout's Own Religious service. It is always inspiring to have a religious service in the wilderness.

Later this month, Josiah and I will be traveling with 3 other Scouts and 1 Scouter to Northern California to attend a NLS, National Leadership Seminar, for the Order of the Arrow. Josiah and I will be learing about leadership issues and characteristics.