CR Nation

Well, I must apologize for the unnatural silence recently. There is really no excuse beyond a lack of especially notable CR activity during the summer months. That pattern has been broken, however, by the Wisconsin-Iowa Leadership Summit held at the Maquoketa State Park in Iowa last weekend. It was too far for me to drive, (don’t think folks outside the Midwest were invited anyway), but several tidbits have filtered in to us that provide a nice summary.

State chairs Dane (Iowa) and Lora Rae (Wisconsin) led their respective states in planning and hosting the campout/training that began Friday afternoon with the early arrival of Zach Howell and continued through a full day’s activities Saturday to Sunday morning’s gradual departure of the other attending states (including Jon Ratliff with a crew from Missouri and Lauren Fakes with an Indiana contingent). The training session lasted most of the day Saturday and included talks from Zach, Jeremy Hagen, former Iowa state chair Greg Baker, Dane, Lora and others, as well as some general discussion and Q and A time.

High points:

Food and drink was abundant. All took full advantage of the fact. All were dubbed great Americans in the spirit of conservative fellowship. This may or may not explain the midnight group who went out for a jog after the festivities Friday night, led by an Indiana gentleman said to be training for a marathon.

Saturday’s events were crowned with afternoon cave explorations in which Iowa held their own but Missouri got really dirty. (Wisconsin and Indiana exercised discretion and served more as support staff.) Mr. Hagen seemed to have some experience in spelunking and was outfitted to the teeth. The honorable national chair came less prepared but was game for most of the trek. All the appropriate Boy Scout skills were on full display around the fires both evenings, and I understand the ladies were appropriately impressed.

For more details, feel free to consult Dane’s more official report here. Kudos to these states for hosting a uniquely creative, not to mention adventurous, event. Might be a little rough for my taste, but you can’t say those Midwesterners aren’t tough!

Hey everybody, glad to be on board, and thanks so much to the CR Nation team for allowing me to chime in sometimes. My writing time is fairly limited, so bear with me, but I will look forward to feedback from you guys on the accuracy/applicability of my thoughts!

In a sad but fascinating example of teamwork and responsibility, yesterday morning an airplane carrying 247 passengers was landed safely after the death of the captain mid-flight. See it here if you hadn’t heard. News stories often spark my thinking toward life lessons to be drawn and applied in other areas:

So what would you do if something happened to your pilot mid-flight? Say your chapter, or even state federation, is getting ready to hold a big event, and something happens so that the fearless leader can’t be there, or maybe even can’t help finish with planning and set-up. Is your organization of such strength that you could carry on anyway, with at least a reasonable contingency plan?

Many CR networks, especially at the chapter level, end up depending almost entirely on one or maybe two people to be the driving force. This is why so many clubs fade and even die when one strong leader graduates or transfers. Too many chairs focus most on recruiting new faces to the neglect of developing potential in current members.

With the fall semester looming in a couple of months, what attitudes are you cultivating to prepare your chapter or state for success? As a “regular CR”, do you try to stay in the loop, helping out with events and activism drives, maybe brainstorming new ideas? Or do you generally wait for orders from the top before getting to work? If in a leadership position, do you have a transparent and cooperative style, delegating often to encourage initiative from people who could be your greatest help if given some ownership?

Simple pointers for building a stronger team:

DO talk a lot about what is going on and how everybody can participate

DON’T give positions or titles without keeping those people active and involved in planning and decisions

DO practice transparency of operations even when it’s annoying

DON’T forget to build value into your younger colleagues for the long-term benefit of all concerned

What experience do you have in building strength into your club? Any suggestions of chapters or state federations you’ve seen who have it figured out and could maybe offer further advice and guidelines?