Vacation
I’m off to San Francisco Friday for to visit family and attend Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s National Conference. I’m really looking forward to seeing my family and recharging. I’m really dragging (as you can tell from my lack of posting-I have 6 pages of draft posts, but haven’t been energized to edit them and post them). I’m keeping my promise to use up all my vacation time this year, as opposed to past years when I would leave at least two weeks on the table.
The conference looks good too. Jim Collins (Good to Great, Built to Last) is the keynote speaker. Last time he spoke at the conference, it had a large impact on our organization. His advice to get the right people on the bus from Good to Great truly influenced how we have built a great staff. I’m hoping to meet Amy Jussel from Shaping Youth who is presenting at the conference as well.
BGCA usually puts on great conferences. Preparing for the conference reminded me of a post from The Artful Manger who has some ideas about how to structure conferences to do a better job of engaging attendees.
Hi Joe, Amy Jussel here of Shaping Youth…I just presented with Dr. Ann Tipton, (adolescent pediatrician) at THIS event on “The care and feeding of your preteen; Helping Them Develop Healthful Habits and a Positive Self-Image” yesterday, via Kaiser Permanente and the Lucile Packard Children’s Health Foundation/Preteen Allilance, not the Boys & Girls Club…though maybe next year!
Here’s my post about it: http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1449
Looking forward to finding a way to connect with YOU in person while you’re out here though, as your work inspires and we need to team in some manner! I will e-mail you my cell to add to your working vacation…(glad I’m not the only one that falls in that category)
p.s. Did you see my article on the virtual world Dizzywood that might be teaming with BGC S.F. to test w/their after school program? http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=1408
For Earth day the kids’ avatars planted trees online (eco-deforestation of the virtual world) that the Arbor Day Foundation matches offline in the real world!
Cool concept, hope it takes root with the BGC/S.F. crew among some other outdoor/active engagement ideas I’d like to ‘feed’ them via Shaping Youth. See you soon. –AJ