Guest Lecture Series!

Our leadership team started a guest lecture series on Sept 6 with Officer Chip Amati (Jake's dad!) visiting our studio. Sergeant Amati spoke for about 40 minutes, entertaining one and all with stories and information about being a police officer in Woodstock. Beyond the smiles and laughter was a larger message about leadership, about putting yourself on the front lines as an example to your followers, to not be afraid to do what you'd ask others to do for you.
There are plenty of different leadership styles - some involve working from the planning headquarters, some demanding that you be in the front lines. Officer Amati made a good argument for the latter, explaining how it works for him and the men under him. Thank you once again, Officer Amati, for a great talk!

This last Saturday, we had another guest lecturer although this one was via DVD. The late Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" is one of the most inspirational speeches of all time and our S.T.O.R.M. watched the first hour of it - and we've got about 15 minutes more to watch this coming Saturday. Mr. Pausch is worth a Google - and there are several YouTube videos of this lecture (some more edited than others). Sadly, he passed away from cancer this last July - certainly not unexpectedly as the "Last Lecture" explains - but the world is certainly a better place for his short 47 year visit. He talks about the reasons for "brick walls" that seemingly keep us from our goals, he talks about the importance of childhood dreams, he explains how, sometimes, when concentrating on one lesson we find we've learned an entirely different one as well - something he calls a "head fake". An amazing man - and we're lucky to be able to learn from him.

And there will be more lectures - both live and DVD - coming up in the next several weeks! (As well as more projects - that involve more DOING than sitting!)