"Elevator pitch" (draft)

Project COPE gives units and individuals the opportunity to discover their personal strengths and weaknesses through games and challenges. Once people have found their style of leadership, they can practice using that style and learn to mitigate shortcomings. Leadership can be taught in the classroom. Project COPE is the "lab" where learning occurs.

Opportunities

1. Spring 2013 Training Session brochure is out! 15-17 March 2013. This is going to be challenging! How much of the training can be done outdoors? Let's find out!
2. The attached spreadsheet resulted from searching the NCAC site with "COPE". Many sites sould be deleted, and some updated. The link for Camp Howard M. Wall is very, very interesting.
3. Please keep in touch, let me know what opportunities arise. Especially if you would like to lead a sub-committee for promotion.

History

1. University of Scouting. 2012-02-23.Lynn Kaltwasser helped me present the session, based on the stack attached to this page (Click here to open). His help was GREATLY appreciated. I had a tri-fold poster on the Goshen/Camp Snyder table in the hall (no "midway"). I left the extra copies of the presentation, an extra sign-up list, and some black/white brochures on the table, intending to take them to my car during lunch. They were gone by the time I got back! I had some great discussion about COPE centered on the following idea: "COPE is where you practice leadership training, to find what works for you." The American Heritage Girls said they'd be calling. We (committee) have a challenge from the local Muslim community; to develop and deliver preliminary-COPE sessions (ice breakers, indoor initiative games) to get Crews through the forming/norming/storming phases prior to getting on the course. Who wants to help.
2. I'm looking fowared to telling you all about the chat I had with Howie Liebmann on 2013-02-12. And you should see the cool stuff he sent me! Even better than that, I've got his phone numbers, e-mail address, and standing invitation to ask him any question I may have about COPE. All started with my asking about changes to the 2013 standards. Real game-changing stuff!
3. Camp William B Snyder program innovation meeting, 2012-02-03. 1400 hrs. Okay, so you have to have had a Facebook account to see the notice. And it was on SuperBowl Sunday. But it was fun to spend a couple hours of kicking around ideas. We didn't miss the game, either!
4. Please make copies of the attached brochure (in Public File, below), and pass around. We need to make one for Goshen, too.

Background

For reasons I cannot remember, it never occurred to me as a Scoutmaster (1999-2004) that Project C.O.P.E. would mitigate the biggest issues I had:

1. How to teach "followership" (we had good programs for leadership, but Scouts who were not in leadership roles tended to look to leaders to do all the work in making the program successful);
2. How to facilitate everyone discovering their personal style of leadership;
3. How to get the Scouts to become effective members of high performing teams.

I recall being made aware of COPE at the Fall 2008 Venturing Rendezvous at CWBS. But the Venturer I was helping (my daughter, Cassandra) wanted to spend her sessions doing other Venturing activities (e.g., geocaching). I gathered more information at the 2009 University of Scouting. I "got into" COPE when Cassandra noticed she could attend COPE Instructor Training the weekend of 30 Mar 2009, so we both signed up and have stayed involved. The dismantling of the Committee following the summer of 2010 came as a shock when I attempted to arrange a camporee for Colonial District with a COPE theme the fall of 2011. As a result of that failure, I accepted the responsibility of being the Chairman of the Committee, and subsequently went to National Camp School (NCS) in June 2012.