A Successful 2023 Workshop! Mark your calendars for next year!

Thank you to everyone who joined us at BLW last week! The BLW committee is grateful for all of your enthusiasm, caring, and positive energy. This year's theme was LeaderSHIP: Make Waves - and we hope everyone took home some great ideas, stories, and memories.

Mark your calendars: Next year's workshop will take place April 3-7, 2024! Our committee is already starting the process of planning for 2024 - theme coming soon!

If you use Facebook, please like our official Facebook Page and join our Facebook Community, too! That way you can keep up with all of the BLW news and conversation all year round.

Bill leading song circle, singing Part of the Rainbow

Five Pounds of Possum

Registration is open!

The BLW committee is preparing to host the 77th edition of Buckeye Leadership Workshop March 22 - 26, 2023 at Recreation Unlimited. Registration is live now and we encourage everyone interested in attending to register early!

Can't make it to workshop in 2023? Find someone from your home community to attend in your place! Our past workshop attendees are our greatest resource for promoting the event. We rely on your word of mouth advertising to fill attendance to capacity - so please help us make BLW 2023 another successful event!

A flyer with workshop information is being mailed out early next week.

2023 Featured Speaker

We are excited to share that Annie Frisoli will be the featured speaker at BLW 2023. Annie is the founder and CEO if Creating Community, LLC. At BLW this year, she will be leading a session titled “Purposeful Program Design.” Annie has a Master’s degree from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Recreation Management, is a Certified Festivals & Events Executive (CFEE), is certified in Foundations of Design Thinking, and has a Train the Trainer Certification in Experience Innovation. She has 25 years of experience leading workshops, teaching in a university setting, and helping organizations build their teams. We’re thrilled to have Annie join us for BLW 2023!

Registration is open!

It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for! Registration for BLW 2022 is NOW OPEN! There will be limited spaces this year due to COVID regulations, so we recommend you get signed up right away. Check out the great 2022 session offerings!

If you have any questions or difficulty with registration, please contact our Registrar, Dave Kalkbrenner.

Jim Cain to be the featured presenter at BLW 2022

The BLW planning committee is thrilled to announce that Dr. Jim Cain will be joining us at the 2022 workshop as our featured presenter! Teambuilding Guru Dr. Jim Cain is the author of 25 best-loved books filled with team and community building activities from around the world. His real-world in-person train-the-trainer workshops are legendary in the adventure-based learning community and his virtual activities are used around the world.

Jim will be leading two sessions at the 2022 Workshop:

His morning session is The Teambuilders Toolbox (Workshop fee = $100). This ‘make it and take it” workshop will allow you to build your own collection of powerful teambuilding props (and take them home with you). Based upon the content of Jim’s latest book to be published in summer 2022. Join in, and perhaps you will be included in the book!

His afternoon session is Re-Building Unity, Community & Connection in a Post-Pandemic World. Teambuilding Guru Dr. Jim Cain shares his favorite ways for re-building, re-connecting and re-engaging audiences in positive and productive ways. You’ll get to take home your choice of 3 of Jim’s resource books at the end of the session!

We hope you will join us at the 2022 Buckeye Leadership Workshop to learn from Jim and all of our other wonderful facilitators!

BLW 2021 CANCELED

After a great deal of deliberation, the Buckeye Leadership Workshop committee has decided to cancel the in-person event for BLW 2021. There are simply too many concerns, including the heightened risk to everyone at the workshop, the ability of our committee members and our usual audience to attend the event safely, and ever-changing health and safety guidelines for a group of this size.

The BLW committee did not come to this decision easily, and does not take it lightly. We know the genuine love that so many people have for Buckeye Leadership Workshop. The planning committee shares that passion for all that is BLW.

Rest assured, BLW is not going away. We are putting together plans to stay connected with you through social media updates, Facebook Live sessions, direct mailings, and/or prerecorded podcast teaching segments over the course of the upcoming year. Stay tuned for more information about BLW 2022!

We think this decision is in the best interest of registrants and BLW based on the information available at this time. Thank you for your support and understanding. Please take care and stay safe.

On behalf of the BLW Committee,

David Kalkbrenner, Registrar
Buckeye Leadership Workshop

BLW 2020 CANCELLED

We want to share with our community the steps we are taking in the midst of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak, and how it affects all of us with regard to the upcoming Buckeye Leadership Workshop. The executive committee has continued to monitor the quickly-evolving situation over the past few days.

After a great deal of deliberation, and following the lead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Ohio Department of Health, and various public institutions (including Ohio State University and Ohio 4-H) regarding in-person classes, group meetings and events, we have come to the difficult decision that it is in all of our best interests and for the overall well-being of the community to cancel the upcoming workshop.

Please know that the BLW Committee did not come to this decision easily and does not take it lightly. We know that you all have made plans and arrangements to come to workshop, often at no small expense. We regret having to make this decision, but feel that it is in the best interest of registrants and BLW based on the information available at this time. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding as the planning committee evaluates and responds to this rapidly-changing and unprecedented situation. Please take care and stay safe.

To end on a positive note, Buckeye Leadership Workshop 2021 is March 17 to 21, 2021!

If you are registered, please check the primary email on the account for more details.

Sincerely,

BLW Executive Committee

Chris Cavert announced as Featured Presenter for 2020 Workshop

The BLW planning committee is thrilled to announce that Chris Cavert will be joining us at the 2020 workshop as our featured presenter!

Dr. Chris Cavert is an internationally known educator, trainer and speaker and recipient of the AEE Karl Rohnke creativity award and the NCCPS Master Facilitator and Trainer award. He has been working with groups of all ages for more than 25 years. Chris is the author of over a dozen books related to activity-based experiential group development. He holds an undergraduate degree in physical education, a master’s degree in Experiential Education and an educational doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction. As an educator Chris focuses on how to use team building activities to enhance social emotional learning and develop pro-social skills within groups of all ages. For more information about Dr. Cavert and to access loads of team building activity resources, visit FUNdoing.com

Chris will be leading two sessions at the 2020 Workshop:

His morning session is Portable Team Building Activities. In this hands-on, get-up-and-move-around experience you will learn to lead a wide variety of ice-breakers, ground-based activities, and problem-solving initiatives, including low elements, that are super-portable, utilize versatile props easy to find or create. These team building activities work well with middle school age participants and older. Be ready for a lot of new activities, as well as some tried-and-true variations of well-known favorites. Chris will also integrate facilitation tips, front-loading techniques and processing ideas for the activities presented in the program. All facilitator experience levels are welcome.

His afternoon session is Purposeful Program Design for Team Builders. This program is full of tools used to teach and practice purposeful programming for team building experiences. You will learn how to use the 'Activity Determination Scale' (ADS) and the “F.U.N.” Program Design (FPD) model to blend activities together on a macro and micro level. This experience will also include considerations for educational roles, activity formations, props, transitions and processing techniques to become a purposeful programmer. All facilitator experience levels can benefit from this hands-on, interactive program.

We hope you will join us at the 2020 Buckeye Leadership Workshop to learn from Chris and all of our other wonderful facilitators!