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I recently emailed this out to the subscribers of the Fort Dearborn email newsletter.

Fort Dearborn Scouts and Scouters -

With a great deal of excitement and sadness, I would like to inform you of my resignation from the Chicago Area Council.  I have accepted a position as Program Director & Recruiter with the Chicago Youth Centers where I will be in charge of their Summer Camp program at Camp Rosenthal.  I believe that this is a great opportunity and the best next step in my career.

This has not been an easy decision for me.  Over the past two years with the Chicago Area Council, I have learned and I have grown a tremendous amount.  My experiences here have prepared me to be successful in my future positions, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I have had here.  I have been lucky enough to have served in two wonderful districts with some of the finest volunteers that Scouting has to offer.

I leave behind a district that (no matter where new lines may be drawn) is poised for a great deal of future success.  Having been around for only a few months, I cannot take much credit for this, though I’d like to think I have helped as much as possible in such a short amount of time.  Fort Dearborn is blessed to have a great District Chairman in Andy W. and a fantastic Commissioner in John K..  Under their leadership, I am sure that Scouting will continue to grown and improve in Chicago. 

I wish you all the best and I am excited to hear about the many successes I am sure you will have here over the coming years.

A very sincere thank you,

Ryan Yepsen

I am in the backseat of a Buick LaCrosse zoning in on the Illinois border at a blistering 80mph. Rotating between work conversations with my backseat compatriot and the frontseaters, and Wilco on my iPhone.

Right now, Wilco is winning.

We’re on our way home from a 3-day Planning Conference in the Wisconsin Dells’ Great Wolf Lodge. There were far too many taxidermied animals for my taste, though it seemed like a nice place to take the kids.

That being said, I actually really enjoyed the course this morning about the value of meeting people and effectively developing and leveraging those new relationships. Great presenter, easily the most thoroughly prepared of the week.

There is a daunting task facing my peers and me over the coming year. A number of hurdles will have to be jumped during a reorganization of our council and expectations are higher than ever. This is all good, we just need to find a way to consolidate into smaller tasks in order to complete the larger objectives. Afterall, how does one eat the 500lb guerilla in the room?

I am certainly at a point where I must raise my own bar. By district grew by over 7% in 2008, but it didn’t mature
We have more members, with less volunteers to provide quality program. I have to make sure I am out meeting people and trying to find a spot for them in my organization. I have to, or else the majority of those new Scouts are going to miss out on the promise of what we can offer them, the things I consider myself lucky to have had.

Ft. Dearborn, my district, is moving up but if we don’t take the time to put the right tools in place, that can stop very quickly.

Time to change the world. Well, at least the part I control.

The Chandelier Above My Table at the Union League Club

I’d never been to the Union League Club before, though I’d often heard of it’s high-end and historic charm.  Needless to say, I was surprised when my supervisor called today saying that they needed a representative to go to the Union League Club at 5:30 this afternoon for a question and answer session with Chicago Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry.  Awesome.

I was, however, even more surprised when, at 11:08AM, I received a call alerting me to the fact that the event was actually a luncheon beginning at 11:30.  I was at that point, in my apartment which according to Google Maps is 6.8 miles and about 17 minutes from the Union League Club.  Somehow, I made it.

A Boring Picture of a Pilar at the Union League Club

I pulled up to the Club of Chicago’s elite since the late 1800’s in my messy Toyota Yaris and proudly opened the door for the valet, undoubtedly excited at the opportunity to drive such a fine piece of machinery after what was surely an arduous day of parking Benz’s and Beemers.  I stepped into a beautiful lobby where I immediately lowered the average net-worth by a palatable margin.  

I stood around, checked my coat, and stood around some more.  All-the-while trying to give the impression that this was not my first time here and that I knew exactly where I was and what I needed to do next.

After more standing around, I decided to call the other people I know in attendance who directed me to the gathering on the 5th floor.  So I went on up, had a Diet Coke, shook hands with some rich-folk and talked about Governors and Senate-Appointees.  A good time was had by all in the lead up to the lunch and Jim Hendry Q/A. Read more…

Well, another day another nickel. I started work this morning about 6am, right after I dropped Katie off at work.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to waking up at 5am, though I to typically enjoy it once I’m up and moving. The city is awesome as the sun is rising, it’s peaceful. I love driving down Michigan Ave and not getting stopped at every light behind 50 cars.

I’m waiting for my bad luck to hit though. When I parked my car at work, a black cat immediately ran in front of me, you can kind of see it looking all bad-omeny in one of the pics below. Though so far, I remain unscathed.

The hour-plus drive home from Wood Badge was nice, since it gave me a chance to talk to a handful of friends I haven’t heard from in a while. Plus, it was a smooth ride with minimal traffic, always a good thing.

Sadly, I missed the Cubs clinching the division while I was away. But hey, at least it happened, go Cubs! I was upset I missed the Bears game until I saw they blew it!

Well, enough lolly-gagging (is that right? It looks a lot worse types than it sounds, why would anyone gag a lolly?), time to get back to work.

Oh, and I took the pic of that huge crane because as it drove passed me I realize it’s tires were almost as big as my car! That was a bit intimidating, luckily, I survived.

Well, here I am at the 4 o’clock meeting. I actually found a pretty good amount of information between that nightmare of a Bears game and now.

So far, the meeting is going well and our project is coming together nicely.

Katie made our patrol flag, and it turned out awesome!

A Good Old Owl Too

For a bit of a background on what exactly I am talking about, check out this Wikipedia article on Wood Badge.

Well, I am a week away from my second weekend of my Wood Badge training.  The first weekend was pretty cool, although a few sessions were repeats of other training’s I have been through in the past, a number of the classes were totally new takes on things and really taught me some pretty interesting stuff. 

When you take Wood Badge, you are put into a patrol with some of your fellow participants; I am in the Owl Patrol (which is awesome, that was definitely the patrol I was hoping for!).  That patrol is responsible to put together a project between weeks based on an aspect of Scouting. 

Our patrol originally chose to focus on the Scouting uniform, but another patrol jumped on that before we could, so we decided to switch over to disabilities in Scouting.  Essentially, all five of our patrol members will choose a different type of disability and follow a Scout with that disability through Scouting; all the way from Cub to Boy to Venturer.  We will show how a leader can better work with a Scout with these disabilities, how to better adapt their program to the unique needs of these Scouts.  

I am working on Scouts with Emotional Disabilities.  Well, I am supposed to be, at least.  I am currently blogging and watching the Bears game. HOLY CRAP BLOCKED PUNT TOUCHDOWN BEARS!  Live blogging people, who knows what’s going to happen?!  Anyway, back to the matter at hand.  After the Bears game, at 4PM, I have a meeting with my patrol to finish up our project and I currently have NOTHING.  

Really, I suppose all I have to do is google around and dig up some info on emotional disabilities.  No big deal, really, and there is probably even a bit of info out there as to how to work with Scouts with emotional disabilities, all I have to do is compile it and map it to fit the presentation.  I suppose I am just having a procrastination problem.

 Eh, well, it happens.  This blog certainly isn’t helping. But off I go, to cook an oven pizza and then retreat to my laptop and hopefully do some work.