Meeting the Crew Series

With 3-Day SF Bay Area just around the corner, our FaceBook page will start profiling members of the Camp Logistics team. Check out our page and become a fan. It's a place to learn about folks, get additional pics during and after event, and find out other neat things going on with Camp life! Go to www.facebook.com/CampLogs

Life Should Mirror Camp Logistics

People often comment that life on the 3-Day is how life should be. Unfortunately, when Monday rolls around, we forget some of the awful stuff we left behind the Thursday before. However, I think as crew, we should all mirror our 3-Day lives in the real world. Take for example, Camp Logistics. I think this should look and does resemble my life in reality. You drop in to work hard in order to positively change the lives of many people. Sometimes, it's smooth running and other times it's organized chaos. However, in the end, we wrap it all up and leave the place better than we found it. Life should be like that as well. I want to be able to look back or have others reflect on behalf that when I was alive, I worked hard to make a positive impact on loved ones, friends, and the people I associated with. I won't have always been perfect. And when I pass to a better place...I want to go knowing and feeling that the world was just a little better because I did something about it.

You can almost determine someone's character on 3-Day by how they fundraise

I'm often reminded in real life how people demonstrate their character towards each other and I am always comparing that to the character I witness on 3-Day. I once heard and now paraphrase that we ultimately see a person's character when they are challenged. Do they lash out? Complain? Wallow in the challenge? OR do they step up and demonstrate a commitment to meet that challenge in the eye and put every ounce of effort to accomplishing the goal? I have seen people with amazing character on event and then I have seen people with so-so or lackluster character as well.

As a crew captain, I have the privilege of encouraging my team to fundraise and over the last eight plus years, I have started to formulate a hypothesis that the level of commitment, engagement, and character demonstrated on 3-Day can be correlated and determined by the corresponding level of funds raised.

For example, in my experience and reflecting back, the folks on my team who have raised $0 for event typically showed a less than desirable level of commitment on event. Furthermore, these folks also included whiners, complainers, and challengers to authority. They were often late to meetings on event, late to rise in the morning, and could not be found when needed. Worst of all, these folks would have an excuse for everything. "Fund raising is not a requirement for crew." "Why do we have to help them?"

On the contrary, the people who raise a significant amount of money (~$300 or more) had high levels of commitment. They were the first to agree to pitch in. They participated in fund raising events. Most importantly, during event, they remained highly engaged and open to anything.

Now there are some responsibilities incumbent upon the captain. First, you must lead by example. Don't expect things from your crew if you will not do the same. Second, you have to engage the team and fire them up. Remind them that this is a fund raising event. While crew is not required to fund raising, you can easily position the fact that it costs money to run the event and for every dollar raised by crew, it helps offset event expenses. Third, reach out to the newbies who have never crewed or walked before. You may find several diamonds in the rough who just need the help to jump start their fundraising. Finally, put forth some challenges to your crew. Start a friendly competition with other crews or provide incentives to your top fund raisers.
Challenging your crew will give you leading indicators as to how they will perform on event.

My final thought. You won't be successful in getting all your crew to be superstars. You can't inspire someone who isn't passionate about what they are doing.

Share your thoughts and observations. I can always use reference points and other ideas!

Supporting Women's Health Awareness and Early Detection - Thanks Angela!

I am happy to announce that I have a winner in my iPod Shuffle giveaway! Angela Leon, colleague and friend, stepped up last Thursday and made a wonderful donation to the cause. In addition, she picks up a brand new iPod Suffle and 25 chances to win an Apple iPad.

More importantly was Angela's reason for donating. While she read my posts about the contest, the donation was in support of women's health awareness and early detection. In my interview with Angela, she mentions, "...this is very preventable." Angela's connection to breast cancer is distant compared to many I know and I think this she fortunate. Angela, however, participates at local race events and has met many other women who have had breast cancer. She has thought about signing up for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure with a friend and hopefully, we'll see her out on event in the future. In the meantime, THANK YOU Angela for your wonderful donation!

Need a tax deduction for this year and an iPod?

It's never too early to think about tax time. Throughout the year, you will be presented with opportunities to make charitable donations. Since you are reading this blog, please consider this one of those times! Your donation will help go towards breast cancer research, prevention, and awareness. In addition, I will sweeten the pot by throwing in an iPod Shuffle for the first person who donates a minimum of $125. My crew is also hosting a fundraiser. For every $5 you donate, you will receive a chance to win a new iPad!

Donate today by clicking on the donation banner on the right or click on this donate link

Fund raising is so important, I am giving an iPod Shuffle away

TODAY only, I am giving away 1 iPod shuffle to the first person who donates a minimum of $200 to the fight against breast cancer. In addition to that, the winner will receive an entry to win an iPad for every $5 donated!

Consider a donation of any size however, as the fight against breast cancer is too important. Your contributions will go towards research, awareness, and prevention of this deadly disease. Please help, having breast cancer is no longer a certain death sentence. That's all due to the donations that have helped over the last 20 years.

To donate today, visit my donation page!

The no ZERO balance challenge!

Do you think fund raising is tough? I will say it's not easy. However, it's a lot harder to fund raise when you don't try. As a captain you are the model by which your team will follow. Will everyone follow in your example...maybe not. However, you certainly don't inspire any action if you don't exhibit the values you want you crew to follow.

So here's the challenge. After welcoming your crew to the team, make it the first order of business to get everyone to self donate to their account. $5 is the minimum, obviously they can donate more. Even if they are opposed to fund raising, get folks to donate $5 to themselves. I think you will find that even the most staunchly entrenched will come around and if not, others will take the challenge to heart and start filling peoples accounts who have ZERO balances.

Let's ALL start with this! In my next post, I'll go over a simple program to raise money in 7 days.