RC Post Summit-Update (July)

Greetings Region 3!

We’ve just enjoyed a fantastic Summit in Irving, TX – with a great deal of thanks to the USS Diamondback crew, and others, who made it not only possible but a huge success. I’m talking about $4000 donated to our charity hospitals kind of success here. I’m talking about just shy of four grand sitting in the region operating funds levels of success. I’m talking about a serious amount of fun that was had, and 65 faces seen success.

But it was more than just numerically successful. It was a gathering of family. It was a huge amount of fun. From the singing and improv acts of Friday night’s Marine Mess, to the ‘who done it?’ lunch, or the fantastic panels (I know I learned enough to figure out what my next uniform will be!) and the culminating events of Saturday night – a great meal, a fantastic auction, and just getting to enjoy time with everyone again. Maybe the IC this year really has the right theme… Summit is always a family reunion – even if this one was held on the holodeck!

Back to the topic of success, one of the things we, as a whole organization, fail to to do is realize the real scope of our impact. We focus on local things; on chapters, on members – but often miss the opportunity to roll those numbers up and really see just how much SFI does.  As RC – I hope to change that; but we first can stop and pat ourselves on the back for the great work done here. No where else are you going to get 65 average folks, of average means, getting together, and come out with $4k in charity donations over 2 days – out of their own pocket! It just isn’t comparable to anything else, aside from SFI’s IC… and we compete with or exceed those numbers here in just one region. So well done R3, well done!

As I said, I do hope to really capture the impact of SFI, all of it, much better. Too often, especially when the topic of HQ comes up, we focus on the negative. How things are not perfect, or not running on time, or any other number of complaints – valid as they may be. We forget to realize that the top level of the organization is really just there to facilitate the combined efforts of the whole – and no matter who is in charge up top, it is that whole that is worth being proud of. It is the whole, the membership, the people and their efforts that should make it very easy to sell that question “Why SFI?”. If someone asks me today, “Why SFI?” I am going to point to these numbers – numbers I know are very incomplete. Numbers that are not capturing the other efforts each of our chapters, just in one region, really do. We’ve started to – with the RC cup, as a means to track those efforts, but we need to do this even better, and get those numbers to everyone, regularly. So that we all can both be reminded of just how significant SFI is, and be able to relay that information to the public; be them prospective members, or business partners and venues we may wish to engage with.

This is going to be the next piece of “FLEET First”, which at the end of the day is a branding campaign, as far as interfacing with the public is concerned. But it is also our own reminder to ourselves that the larger whole has a big impact, and that our efforts roll up into it, and that it is worthy of being very proud of all of it.  

During the CCO meeting of Summit, we also discussed staff roles. The results of those conversations is what services chapters actually want from R3 staff. To that end, I have done away with the Zone Leader position. It was simply a job that wasn’t working how I, nor chapter CO’s wished – through no fault of the members filling those posts. Instead we will have an Event Coordinator (and possible subsequent helpers, as we learn the workflow and task load of this new post). They will be charged with mapping, literally, events that chapters and members may be interested in (in their geographical areas), helping coordinate efforts if that is desired, and assisting with that joint FLEET First branding.

We will also bring on staff members to help with other projects as needed. The first being someone to help me with that quantification and compilation of efforts. The exact title for this role is still somewhat fluid (Flag Lieutenant, Aide De Camp, Quantification Czar…who knows?!), but the task is to help build this program, and document it, so that our successes can be repeated, and any shortfalls we encounter avoided, when we push this up toward HQ – and we will push it forward. The role will require communication with chapters, and members, sourcing data already submitted (MSRs) and some number crunching, packaging and delivery to other staff members. Really – we’ll figure out how to do it together, and it should be a pretty fun job (I think).

 

If you are interested in either position, please email me (rc@region3.org) by the 27th of July.  

We are also standing up a dedicated board for the Regional Relief Fund, to organize, document, and adjudicate any future relief disbursements. That was announced earlier this week to the CCO and general list/Facebook group, with instructions/deadlines to apply for the two roles needed for that.

A lot came out of summit, and a whole lot went into making it a great event that yielded so many good things. It makes me excited to see where the region is headed, and I really look forward to being a part of this growth, and discovering who else is going to step up and help get us there. What new events, programs and tasks will we have to showcase just how much SFI really matters.

 

Jeremy Carsten
Regional Coordinator,
STARFLEET Region 3

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.