Our May meeting was a good one. With the addition of Dinghy (Commz CoQ), Doi (Weasel Shaker) and Mueller (2nd F Co-Q), it had a refreshing feel to it. Thank you to the three of you for taking a leadership role for our region. When you post with one of these guys, thank them for their commitment to our F3 Community.

The meeting started with a couple updates from Castaway on Commz. Our SLT is working with the PAX that created PAXMate in CARPEX on utilizing this for Churham. PAXMate is an add-on to Slack that allows us to effortlessly monitor PAX numbers, FNGs, and to generally monitor trends for the region through Slack. We don’t have an implementation date for this, but we will continue working with our CARPEX brethren to get this going.

In other exciting Commz news, Castaway is compiling, and looking for contributors for the first edition of the F3 Churham Newsletter. Titled the Pulse, the newsletter isn’t intended to replace Slack or the Website, but a monthly email sent to subscribers that goes more in depth on regional news, and features that we typically don’t have a forum to discuss. You can expect to see a “PAX of the Month”, a list of monthly FNGs, AO Spotlight of the Month, as well as a regional calendar of events, and notable events (Shovel Flag hand offs, AO Anniversaries, etc.). He’s already hit up the SLT to contribute content, but he is also looking for other PAX that are interested in stringing together 300-500 stories. Please connect with Castaway if you’re interested in adding.

We have some great stuff coming for the summer, with two monthly challenges, and Dad Camp in August. June 1 kicks off Beach Body Biceps. On the challenge channel, there will be a new sheet to track the number of curls you do each day. In July, we’ll follow up with the second annual burpee challenge, tracking the number of daily burpees. While we haven’t come up with a challenge for August yet, it does mark the annual F3 Dad Camp at Camp Seagull! Mark your calendars for August 18-20. This year, our region has been tapped to lead the full camp workout on Saturday morning, we’ll be Qing roughly 300 PAX! This is a highlight of the year for me and my 2.0s. We’ve also tagged September’s SLT meeting, likely September 6 for an open SLT meeting. Originally slated for May, this Spring has been busy and we weren’t able to put in the time required for a successful event. Be on the lookout for more information related to this meeting in the coming months.

We wrapped up the meeting with a hearty discussion on several very general points related to the region including; How well are our PAX holding each other accountable to post? What is the current culture of Churham, and how connected are we? And finally, are we communicating effectively to such a large group? Each of these questions in and of themselves is a heady topic, so we didn’t come to a conclusion, but we’ve committed to continuing discussion on these topics in the coming months. During the conversation I also shared a slide deck that was presented to Nantans a few weeks ago. Several PAX in other regions have moved away from a traditional centralized regional structure to a more distributed model that groups several AOs together, sometimes even in the same location within the same week. I’m not sure whether it is right for us, but it was a good discussion that offered a different perspective.

Gentlemen, F3 Churham isn’t about me or the SLT, it's about each of you, it's about the connections that are built through shared pain in the gloom. Sure the workout makes each of our bodies stronger, but the real growth is what happens between us. Look around when you post tomorrow or the day after, who is missing that was there last week, last month, last year, and reach out. Pull him back into the mix, if he has an F3 name he is partially your responsibility, just as you are to the guy standing next to you, or the guy calling cadence. Once you start watching out for the men around you, then you start seeing the community, you start seeing the bigger picture. With that bigger picture in mind, you start to act on what is best for your friends, your fellow PAX, your community. It's then that you realize that you are leading, you’re leading a community, you're a man, you work out, you’re feeling invigorated, and you’ve accomplished our mission.

I appreciate you and the PAX that are around you that have chosen to lead. Please consider filling in a Q slot, stepping into being an AOQ at your favorite AO, or even stepping onto the SLT. It's your leadership and attendance that has made Churham what it is.

See you in the gloom…