In the time since HOBY I have let this blog slip a little – ok, a lot – but I’m sure you can all relate as you went through your own HOBY exhaustion.

Coming off of an inspiring Friday evening with Keynote Speaker Houston Kraft we dove right into Saturday morning by talking about Press Releases.  Our HOBY Washington friend, Sean Maginnis, joined us via Skype from Lafayette, LA where he works as a reporter for KLFY.  Sean explained to us how a press release can make or break attention your project may get from the media.  After a quick Q + A session we were running behind due to some Skype difficulties.  [...]

Day 2 started early when we welcomed local business leaders to our morning meal.  Despite the hour we had great conversations with leaders from science, non-profit, law and business.  The guests and students had great conversations and the students really impressed our guests.  Next stop was the theater where Co-LSC Jordan talked about Group Leadership before the groups headed off to their next challenge.  After Jordan spoke the students were informed that some “toxic waste” had spilled and they must [...]

We had a great day that began with arrivals at 8 AM and is still going for many of us staff.  We have already made new friends and been exposed to new ideas.  Some of the highlights from the day include over $700 raised for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation during our Leadership for Service project, learned about post-high school options in the Life After High School Panel, learned some OUTSTANDING cheers and held the very first flash mob held by [...]

Most of our staff has arrived and we have successfully retrieved our first amby from the airport! I’m very excited for the arrival of the rest of our students and to share little snippets from the seminar.  Check back regularly for pictures and stories! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates throughout the day!

For those of you who have attended HOBY Washington recently, Eric Martin needs no introduction. For those of you a little newer or older, you may need some history. I’ll let him do the tough stuff, but you can find the short and sweet version right here.

This is the time of year that I have come to recognize as the point where HOBY stress really starts to set in. The worrying increases, the fatigue begins and the patience wears thin. This also happens to be National Volunteer Appreciation Week which is a great time to recognize my amazing planning team.