relay goodness, part deux

the '08 relay season is in full swing...and i'm loving it.

spent last weekend up in seattle for the division training task force planning weekend. it's my second year on the task force. it's so different than what i've done before for the american cancer society. it's a group of 15 peeps from across the 12 state area - we design the trainings for the relay for life volunteers in those states. last year, we redesigned the breakouts for the event chairs and the team development chairs. the changes were so significant and successful that other divisions are modeling their training after ours. we developed a really sweet event chair toolkit that put a ton of resources at the fingertips of the event chairs across the division.

this year - we're changing up the fall leadership summit even more. we're also starting to revamp the relay universities (where there are 20 similar trainings each fall in the division for the relay committees) and the team captain universities.

what i love about this group - we make serious progress. we met from 7:30 am until dinner, and again the next day. we divide and conquer - and there's such a good balance of experience, enthusiasm, and love for the relay and the society as a whole. nothing is off-limits, and everything is decided so that our decisions serve the volunteers as best we possibly can. very little personal drama or challenges. each of us has a different background and/or specialty - and that really helps to serve the group as a whole.

as part of the task force, we're occasionally called on to "train the trainers". tonight, i'm putting the final touches on a workshop that i'm teaching on saturday morning in portland. it's a workshop on conflict resolution - and it's designed for the relay councils from both the sw washington/vancouver area and the portland area. a few of my favorite people head up the councils down there, and it will be so much fun to see them.

while i'm on the topic of relay...here's a few worthwhile links:

for relay volunteers (with some cool podcasts on survivorship):


for team captains:
team captain toolkit

for everyone:
the fundraising site for the sprouffskes
(let it be known that a super cool raffle is coming in just a few days)