Message From the Captain #17

How about those Shamrockers, eh? The smiles I saw on the race course were so bright that they would have powered a city. A great time was had by a great team.

I think we are at the stage where most participants who recommitted seem to be near or have already hit their fundraising goals. I’ve gotten emails from several you to that effect, although there are at least a few still trying to get there. I think the best case for anyone who completed their race is to continue to ask, and to have a victory party. Keep them cognizant of the reimbursement date, because LLS will not reimburse them after that date even if money comes in. The date varies with each event.

Going forward, because so many mentees are either done or doing well, I am going to work with you one on one instead of sending mass emails. At this point, we have a few Nashville participants, and then those for Tahoe and St. Anthonys. So I am going to depend on you to reach out and contact me about who you are still working with and have concerns about. I am mentoring with the summer team and going through the same issues you all have faced. There always seems to be two kinds of participants: those that hit their fundraising goals and higher with very little help, and those that struggle – often in silence. For the former group, encourage them to become rock stars. For the latter, continue to work with them if they respond to you. I know that is not always the case.

Let me know how I can help. I am glad to meet with you and your mentees and work one on one with you and them. I am doing fundraising right now as well and know it is still a bit tough out there, so we need to leave no stone unturned. But I am also finding that many people will respond if we ask them. Even with unemployment so high, 90% of people still have jobs.

And it is important to remember this one important fact: cancer is not, and has not been, in recession.

Thanks for all you do, and let me know what you need!
GO TEAM!
Art

Message From the Captain #16

Right now, your mentees are in one of two categories. The first, and preferred category, is that of butt-kicking fundraiser. You know the type – they are zipping along, money coming in, no worries. Clearly, they have an incredible mentor!

The second category, though, is of more concern. This would be a mentee who continues to struggle with fundraising. Either their recommitment date has not yet arrived and they are struggling, or they have recommitted but are lagging behind where they need to be to escape having to pay their own money in. This is the group you need to focus on, now and for the next month or so. Try to meet with them one on one if at all possible. You need to see if you can get them to reveal their fundraising plans, and allow you to help shape these. I will be glad to help meet with them and you if you need me to. Just let me know what you need, and what they are up against. For me to get involved in helping you, drop me a line and let me know who you are concerned with – let’s quantify this so we know exactly how many people we are concerned about.

A couple specific ideas that are time dependent, both involving March Madness: One is my hat idea – participants offer to wear the hat of a hated team in return for a suitable donation. I am going to try this one more time in my note for this week. The next idea would be to have some March Madness parties. If their team is out in the cold, and those of their friends are looking strong, especially if they are hated rivals, all the better. They can tell their friends that people can come to their party to watch them suffer. Or band together to route against a common foe. Sell tickets. People can get as creative as they wish – it is a party!

If you are mentoring new participants, remind them about the Fund Raising Clinic for the Summer Team tomorrow night. And remind them about the Summer Team Silent Auction on the 16th.

That is about all from the Captain’s Chair this week. GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message From the Captain #15

Ahoy Mateys! ‘Tis your captain speaking, mentor captain Art, that is! Wow, has it really been 15 weeks since we started this little spring cruise? It does not seem possible, any more than it seems possible that our Spring Team just completed our first event, the Mardi Gras Marathon and Half! Congratulations to our fine Mardi Gras crew. I hope it was a blast.

If any of your mentees did Mardi Gras and are still short of their minimum, it is time to help them make a final push to get funds coming in. At the least, a “hey, I did it!” letter and/or email is in order, stressing that they are short of their goal and could really use the help. If any of their friends told them “I’ll donate later, just remind me,” it is time to let them know that later is now! Another idea – have a victory party to celebrate their achievement. Or have a March Madness party! Wear that hat of a hated rival – like right now, for me, I am not liking Syracuse too much – at that party (for an appropriate donation, of course).

At this point in the season (other than for the new cyclists, Susie), it should be clear who has a good handle on fundraising, and who is struggling. It is time to make sure to offer to help those that are struggling. The next big target would be Shamrock. Anyone doing that race who isn’t at 75% of minimum is at risk of not meeting their minimum and having to pay out of pocket. So it is really important to give these folks a call and try to meet with them one on one, reviewing everything that they have tried, seeing what additional ideas are out there: fundraisers with companies, fundraisers with friends, personal contacts they may have missed. Go back over the on-line TNT Webinar on fundraising and see if that scares up a few more ideas to help them with.

Have any of your mentees been missing a lot of training lately? Even if they are okay with their fundraising, maybe they need some contact from you about how they are doing – just to talk with someone about their experience. Reach out to them, also.

Let me know if I can help with anything. I am mentoring on the summer team, and fundraising myself, but am always willing to pitch in with the spring team of course.

GO TEAM!
Art

Message From the Captain #14

Ahoy Mateys! You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you? Well, how about our first port o’call coming up this next weekend? Yep, the LLS Mentorship will be dropping anchor in the Port of New Orleans, the Big Easy, for the Mardi Gras Marathon and Half Marathon. Don’t you wish we were going? I do! Well, mentor Nicki is going, and running to demonstrate her good health and good fortune at surviving cancer. It is the 13th anniversary of her life-saving bone marrow transplant the day before the race. What a way to celebrate! Congratulations, Nicki! And congratulations to all of the Mardi Gras team!

It was good to see so many of you at the Silent Mile. I really appreciated hearing the stories of our patient honorees. A couple I heard for the first time, and for those that I have heard before, I never fail to get inspired upon hearing them again. By the way, it is sure hard to recognize you cyclists in those helmets and other gear, as you zip by at 25 mph. You make it look easy, other than when you walk in those clickety foot things.

By now, you should have a pretty good handle on dealing with your mentees’ fundraising, and hopefully those that are still on the team are making good progress as well. So I am going to focus on some other mentoring aspects with this email.

** Be There! One of the key duties of a mentor is to train with the team as much as possible. No one is going to be out there 100%, but make sure you are getting out for training in the 60-75% range. Talk to the participants before training, and during if possible. I know for me, with my summer mentees, I am not going to be able to keep up with those that run 100%, and I am going to be ahead of the ones who walk 100%. So I can’t count on actually talking to a lot of my mentees during training. But it is important to be out there with your teammates whenever you can. If you are injured, talk to the coaches about other ways to support the team, such as helping with SAG. The coaches will know better than I how you can best help if that is the case.

** Where Did that Water Come From? My first season with TNT, water and gator aid magically appeared during training. Did it fall from the sky? Did a generous homeless person put it out for us? Did Dumbledore conjure up a spell – Aquas appearicus – and have it magically appear? Well, it turned out that a coach or mentor put it out. As mentors, at least on the marathon team, a key responsibility is to help with water stops. We have had a break from this for a few weeks between cancelled training and revised training schedules, but this will start up again soon – like Saturday. So make sure to share the load with this. As the miles increase, there will be the need for more and more water stops. Cycle and Triathlon teams – I do not know how you handle this, so just see if your coaches need the help.

** Be a Cheerleader! If you can, cheer for your teammates at Shamrock next month. Contact Cate and Amber for details. If you are going to be down for the race, either as a runner or a cheerleader, I have room at a beach condo if you want to stay for free. It is in Sandbridge and so is a bit of a drive – 30 minutes or so – from the race course. I think that Kathy and her husband will be staying there, but there is a second guest bedroom with two single beds available. I’ll be going down Saturday the 20th right after training. Let me know if you want to stay there – first come, first served. Warning – I can’t guarantee I will cook you a gourmet meal, but I will feed you! And you might have to put up with some NCAA basketball on the TV, since that is the second round of the Big Dance that weekend.

** Be a Pal! Some mentees are fine with fundraising, but may want to talk to someone about their experience with TNT, what it means to them, why they are doing it, and so forth. This is particularly likely if they have a loved one who is going through or has gone through cancer. So be accessible to them as a teammate and friend, not just as their fundraising coach.

** Communicate the Mission. Give a mission moment yourself – all of you have done multiple events and there is a reason why. Share that with the team. Or maybe you have a friend or family member who is a survivor and would be willing to talk. Let me know anytime if you want to do a mission moment.

Well, that’s about it from the Captain’s Chair this week. Have a good week. I will try to get out before summer team training Saturday to say hi to the marathoners.
GO TEAM!
Art

Message From the Captain #13

Ahoy Mateys! Batten down the hatches, as we have a bit of a blow coming in tonight! But amazingly enough, the snowy weather for three consecutive Saturday’s missed us this time and at least the marathon team was able to train. Maybe the cyclists and triathletes were able to train as well, although I didn’t see any cyclists out there on the sometimes slippery roads Saturday.

I’ve been away for the weekend and am feeling a bit tired (or maybe it is just the thought of going into work tomorrow) and so am going to keep this note short.

Most of you have let me know how your mentees are doing. If you haven’t but will, I would appreciate that. If I don’t hear from you, I assume that all is well. Everyone but the Mardi Gras team still has plenty of time to complete fundraising. And even that group has time after their event. Anyone who is still short on Mardi Gras should be preparing a final pre-race update and appeal to all potential donors. Actually, any of your mentees who are not sending regular updates are overdue to send one. I always see a spurt of donations when I send an update out, then no or almost no donations until my next note goes out. With my own fundraising this year, I am seeing tighter wallets, and will definitely be sending regular updates out – every two to three weeks – in an attempt to loosen the purse strings a bit.

It goes without saying that if any of your mentees has not sent a letter yet by way of the US Postal Service, then the time is definitely NOW! Offer to help them. Have an envelope addressing party, proof their letter, give them ideas. I sent several sample letters to my summer mentees as well as some other examples. If any of you need these for ideas, just let me know.

Remind your mentees about this coming Saturday for the Silent Mile. I don’t know the time, or can’t remember it, so have them also look out for Cate’s emails.

Are any of you going to Shamrock in five weeks to cheer your mentees on? I plan on being there (to cheer, not to race). Let me know if you want to get together and have a little cheering party down at the beach!

That’s all from Mentor Cap’n Art tonight. Let me know if you need any help.
GO TEAM!
Art

Message From the Captain #12

Ahoy My Mentoring Mateys! Ahoy! Yes, it is your captain once again, Mentor Captain Art that is. Sorry I didn’t reach out to you last night. I was sipping a bit of grog at a Super Bowl Party. And how about that Super Bowl? I bet the part of Team Virginia dropping anchor in our first port o’call, New Orleans, will be in for a big party that will probably still be going on in three weeks. Wow, less than three weeks until the Mardi Gras Marathon? How amazing is that?

Well, Groundhog Day was this past week, and come Friday, I felt I was in some kind of weird Groundhog Weekend redux. It was snowing once again, training was cancelled once again, and by Saturday it looked like a winter wonderland once again. I half expected to see Bill Murray walking down our street, and to hear Sonny and Cher singing “I Got You, Babe” on the radio!

We’ll keep it short and sweet this week. First of all, I heard from several of you last week about how your mentees are doing, but not others. If you are in the latter group (you know who you are) then I’d appreciate that update from you.

Here are some reminders and ideas for this week.

* Remind everyone about the Silent Mile on the 20th. And remind them that it will be at a totally different venue for the run/walk team, so that they don’t end up going back to Byrd Park that weekend.
* This coming weekend being Valentines Day, maybe participants can come up with some kind of Valentine message to encourage people to donate. One of Team Virginia’s most loved people, Emma, was desperately ill from leukemia when she was 10 weeks old, and went into remission on Valentine’s Day nine of years ago. That could be a good message.
* Pancakes? Did someone say pancakes? Well, participants who still need to raise some funds should hop on down to IHOP on the 23rd and do a shift if they can manage it. Cate has sent out details. Raising several hundred dollars from this could make the drive worthwhile.
* The Super Bowl is history, but March Madness will be heating up soon. With all the rivalries, it might be worth a try for people to offer to wear the cap of a hated rival for an appropriate donation. Just imagine a Tarheel Fan wearing a Duke cap, for example?
* It goes without saying that anyone who has not gotten letters out most definitely should. Offer to help by reviewing their letter.
* Are participants copying you on their fundraising emails? It is a good idea that they do, because you can see if you think they need help, and you can remind them if an email seems overdue.

Well, that is about it from the Captain’s Chair this week. I hope I will actually see you (run team) this Saturday. I have a special person to give the mission moment if the weather finally cooperates.
GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message From the Captain #11

Ahoy Mateys! How about this snow? I didn’t realize that the Arctic Ocean was one of the ports o’call for the LLS Mentorship this season, but it sure feels that way. Hopefully everyone stayed safe and sound over the weekend. I am still bummed out that both our big storms this winter came in on the weekend and so we lost no time at work but lost training time. Sometimes Cap’n Art is just like a school kid! My exercise this weekend was primarily shoveling out the walkways of some of my widowed and/or infirm neighbors, so at least I got a good upper body workout out of the deal.

With recommitment past for the Shamrock Team, and the race in four more weeks for the Mardi Gras crew, things are moving right along. There are some of you that I hear from regularly about how your mentees are doing. But I don’t get this from everyone. So if you would, can you give me a brief report about how your mentees are doing? Ideally, it would be good to know (1) who has recommitted (2) how close are they to their minimum (3) what concerns do you have about any of them (4) what plans do you know of for them to close the gap? Please copy Cate on this analysis.

I think that your goal in your note this week – because you have already provided plenty of ideas – is to try to reach out to anyone who is under 50% of their minimum and see if you can meet with them to come up with a plan to get them the rest of the way. Of course if you have some specific ideas to get them, go for it. In particular, are any of your mentees due in your opinion to send out a reminder email? I know that I am (for the summer season). I sent my first note nearly two weeks ago, and I got a flurry of donations, and now one comes in every few days. So it is time for me to send out an update. Human nature being what it is, my note of mid January is now buried in everyone’s in-box. And of course, if you have mentees who have not sent a letter, see if you can motivate them to do this. Even though I personally get a lot better fundraising response to my emails than to my letters, my letters are always good for a half dozen or so donations, and every single donation is important.

Please remind all your mentees about the Silent Mile on the 20th. This is a really good training for everyone to participate in, because they can meet all of the team patient honorees, and also meet teammates from summer and 10K teams, and from the other sports.

With me now fundraising and mentoring for the summer team, I will try not to get confused each week about my captainly duties, and I will still be involved with your team. I also know that especially for Susie, the spring and cycle team are essentially one because of the timing, and that you will have mentees at different stages of fundraising. So there is less urgency for the cyclists to be up on their fundraising – if they are new. If they have been involved all along, then definitely you will want them to have a good bit of their funds raised by now.

Please let me know if you need anything, if you want to meet and review any concerns with your mentees, or just touch base to discuss how things are going. We arrive at our first port of call in less than four weeks! How Cool!

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message From the Captain #10

Ahoy, Mateys! Ahoy! Shiver me timbers but you are a fine crew! Some of you are even pulling double duty by participating with the Summer Team! I hope we have some fine recruits for that effort.

My note tonight will be brief. First, I have been battling a little migraine headache for the day and am not feeling super creative tonight. Second, the NFC Championship game is about the start!

Here is the main idea I had for this week. As experienced TNT participants, and having been successful with fundraising for past seasons, this would be a good time to share the secrets of your success with your mentees. Last year, when I was mentoring, one of my participants asked me what my secret was for raising money. I don’t know that I have any fundraising secrets, and I have seen many, many participants who are much more creative with fundraising ideas than anything I do. But I thought about it for a while, and came up with this note to my mentees last January:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-fundraising-secret.html

Maybe you can think of things you do over and over that work well, your secrets in effect. If so, consider writing your mentees a similar note.

We had a number of participants do great with the auction. That is fantastic! Well done to all.

Do you have any participants who did not recommit? I’d suggest writing them a nice note thanking them for their efforts, and expressing hope that we will see them again for another season. Do you have any participants who appear to be struggling? This is one more chance to try to meet with them one on one and go over their entire plan – what they have done, what is working, what is not, and what other things they could try. Do you have participants who are doing OK but still have a ways to go? I’d suggest a similar course of action, just with less urgency.

I know I may see some of you for summer kick-off Wednesday. I am really looking forward to being back on the training and fundraising circuit again. But of course I will still stay involved in the Spring Team as well.

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#9)

Ahoy, Mateys! Ahoy! This is your captain speaking, Mentor Cap’n Art, that is! I can see the surprised look on your faces. You are wondering: “Why is my captain contacting me today?” You check your calendar. Yes, it is Friday, and it has been all day. A bit of worry flashes in your eyes, and just a trace of fear flits like a shadow over your visage. You start worrying” “Have I done something wrong? Did my captain catch me sleeping on my watch? Why, oh why, isn’t he down in his berth, swilling some grog or doing some other captainly thing? Oh, I am in such trouble!”

Belay that lubberly talk, my mentoring shipmates, er teammates! No one is in trouble! In fact, everyone is working hard to make this season’s voyage successful. With our first port of call - New Orleans - fast approaching, these efforts are appreciated by all. No, I am contacting you today because I didn’t want to forget doing this later in the weekend. As you know, I have joined the summer team and I will be working away this weekend getting prepared to kick off my fundraising campaign with my initial note Tuesday night. And I have tons to organize before that time, thus my early contact for next week.

I call the Silent Auction a success, and a lot of fun to boot! Thanks, everyone. Here are a few suggestions for next week.

First, I know that several of you have mentees that you are worried about. They typically have not raised much money and seem to avoid contact. Keep trying to contact them. Try email. Try phone. See if Cate has other numbers for them. Ask Cate and I to try reaching them, giving us an idea of the problems that you are having. Short of breaking into their home in the middle of the night and waking them up – no, Cap’n Art is NOT recommending this approach – what else can you do? I do know the feeling from past tours of duty as a mentor.

Second, get everyone back on task – if they have strayed from their course – in updating their web page, getting progress reports / reminders out, and also letters if they have not yet done this. I typically send out reminders and thank you messages, written as campaign updates, every two to four weeks when I do Team in Training.

Third, with the NFL football playoffs going on, here are a couple of specific ideas for the season for your mentees:

* Throw a lavish Super Bowl party. Better yet, find someone with a big screen TV and see if they will help. Advertise it as hanging out on the 50 yard line enjoying good food, good drink, and good company with friends. And of course, no one gets into the Super Bowl for free, so sell tickets. Use your imagination – and if you have some artistic friends, use their imagination – to create cool tickets and “sell’ them to your friends.

* Cut my finger and I bleed Philadelphia Eagles green. In fact it really confused my oncologist with my first blood test as a cancer patient! So you may know that the Philadelphia Eagles were absolutely humiliated by the arch-rival Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs. Maybe your mentees have a favorite team that is out of it (or was never in it), but they have friends whose team is still going strong and their friends are lording it over them and rubbing it in a bit. To those friends, they could make a deal: make me a $50 or $100 donation and I will wear the hated cap of your team for a week at work or school.

Well, Mateys, this note is a bit long, and so I will just say thanks for all you do. No need to flog anyone with the cat o’ nine-tails this week! That’s about it from the Captain’s Chair!

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#8)

Ahoy Mateys! This is your captain speaking, mentor captain Art that is. How about this cold weather continuing, eh? Swan Lake was totally covered in ice, a rare event indeed for these parts. I remembered when I moved here from Maine in 1992, I asked the realtor if people ever ice fished here. She looked at me like I had three heads, which I took for a “no.” But I think we could almost give it a try. Although the first time I tried it in Maine, the actual air temperature that morning was -24 F and I have rarely been so cold, so ice fishing never quite caught on with me.

Yesterday during training, a couple of people were talking with me about having a hard time getting started with fundraising. We discussed some ideas, and I also told them to make sure to check the new TNT on-line fundraising webinar. They could not remember seeing that, so please make sure each of your mentees knows about it:

http://bridge.lls.org/tntfundraisingpart/

One person I was chatting with said she knew what to do, just couldn’t seem to get started actually doing it. With recommitment coming up for all events, and past for Mardi Gras, it is really getting critical that people are out there hitting the fund raising trail, doing whatever is most comfortable for them, but some combination of:

US Postal Service letters
Emails and their web site
Door to door visits in their community
Talking to people at church and professional organizations about what they are doing
Fund raisers at work if allowed
Corporate sponsorships
Fund raisers at home and with friends
Fund raisers at restaurants
Car washes (just kidding – ice sculptures would be more like it)
The Silent Auction

Speaking of, I don’t know Cate’s deadline for getting a list of items, their desired minimum price, and value, but I would assume it is very soon. As Nicki can attest, having done a great deal of this a year ago, it is a big job to organize all of the items and get everything set up. Urge everyone to get their lists to Cate, and to show up early Wednesday at Black Fin. And they should tell everyone that they know about it. I hope we have (a) a lot of good items and (b) a great turnout, because it takes both for the silent auction to be a success. Last year, I got nearly 20% of my minimum amount at the silent auction, so they can be really great fundraising venues.

Cate has been sending some great fundraising material in the last few weeks. Between that, the webinar, and your assistance, people should be doing well if they are plugging away at it. Please let me know if you want to get together and chat, or if you want to bounce any ideas off me.

Most of you probably know that I am joining the Summer Team. I was originally thinking Fall and doing the Nation’s Tri, but I really think it is time for me to leave my comfortable captain’s berth and dive into the icy fundraising waters again. I’ll still be working with all of you on the Spring Team as mentor captain of course.

That’s about it from the captain’s chair! GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#7)

Well, Mateys, here we are, entering a really key stretch for the spring season. The next five weeks are so important to our ultimate success as a team on reaching our fundraising goals that I am not even going to try to dilute the message with any nautical wittiness. Here we are in a new year. The holidays, a time when people often have no choice but to slack off a bit, are now behind us. For the next five weeks, the time is here to put our backs into it and make the season pay dividends to LLS and the mission to defeat blood cancers. The next five weeks will lay the foundation for a successful outcome for the remainder of the spring season.

This is a good week to try to touch base with your mentees again, if you were not able to during the last couple of weeks. How are they doing? What help do they need? How close are they? Shamrock recommitment is coming right up, as is the Silent Auction.

Speaking of the latter, it is crucial this week to get an inventory from each mentee about what they have collected for the auction – each item, its value, the minimum bid, and the incremental bid. We will need this information to create bid sheets next week. This is a time consuming process and simply cannot be done at the last minute. As you hear from each mentee, let Cate and I know what they have collected. This is the single most important activity this week for each mentor. The early you can start getting these lists, the better.

I propose having another go at a team breakfast Saturday, obviously concentrating on the marathon teams, but including cycle and triathlon teams if they can make it. Coaches and mentors, what do you think?

I know that many of you know Ed S. He has been a teammate, mentor, patient honoree, and inspiration to so many of us over the years. I returned from a couple of days away to check email today, and learned as several of you have also learned over the weekend that Ed is now battling cancer again. This is his fourth bout with cancer and his second with multiple myloma. This news felt like being kicked in the gut. It is a reminder of how critical it is to defeat these awful diseases. Ed was actually on the spring St. Anthony’s triathlon team but obviously is going to have delay these plans to kick cancer’s ugly butt to the curb once more. Please keep Ed, his lovely wife Leslie, and his other family members in your thoughts and prayers this week, and for the rest of the spring season.

Please let me know if you wish to meet, give me a call if we need to talk.

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#6)

Ahoy Mateys! ‘Tis your captain speaking once again, Mentor Captain Art that is!

Old time sailors say “any port in a storm”, and we sure had a storm this weekend, didn’t we? It was time to batten the hatches and drop anchor in a safe port, just ride out the storm. I think that’s what we all did. Except of course, the cycle team, who put chains on their bikes and hit the road at 6:30 AM yesterday, right, Susan?

The next two weeks will probably be fairly quiet with Team in Training. Please remind your mentees to let the coaches know if they won’t be at training the day after Christmas or the day after New Years. That is really important.

Other than that, people are probably too wrapped up in the holiday season to respond to a lot of fundraising activities. I know I get bombarded this time of year by requests for donations. Given it is the last chance to make a tax deductible donation for 2009, it would be good to at least send out an update to their email list. It is a good time for participants to remind potential donors of what they are doing, and their progress. And at the same time, why not remind them that their donation is fully tax deductible in 2009, even if put on a credit card by December 31 and not paid until 2010?

The other things participants might want to be working on over the holidays is getting donations for the silent auction, and planning fundraising activities for the New Year. In particular, I would strongly encourage the latter. This is the time to plan for the big push in 2010 that will get them to their goal. What have they done so far? What has worked? What hasn’t worked? Are there things that they have been thinking of trying but haven’t yet? Do they have specific activities lined up? Are there businesses they want to approach about fundraisers or donations? How much more do they have to raise before recommitment and how much does that translate to each week? What is the plan to raise that much each week? And I would ask the same two questions for the rest of the season – how much each week will they have to raise to hit their minimum? If you have mentees that are not raising enough to stay on pace, you might want to remind them that every week that goes by, it means raising that much more on average for the remaining weeks.

If you have the time in this busy time of year, offer to meet with your mentees to help them plan. The goal will be to start off 2010 with a firm plan for completing fundraising, rather than starting to think about all of this after New Years. It is a time of year where it is very easy to put all this aside, which means essentially losing two weeks of prime fundraising and planning time.

That is about it from the Captain’s Chair this week. Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, or a Happy Holiday of your choice. And of course, Happy belated Chanukah wishes as well. Let me know if you need help with anything.

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#5)

Ahoy Mateys! This is your captain speaking! Furl the topsails! Reef the mainsails! Set the sea anchors! Shiver me timbers! This weather has been so cold and wet that it makes one want to curl up in the fo’castle sipping an extra ration of grog! But my guess is that at least a few of you and your mentees were out training today in this mess. It seems like for the last month or so, we have had more that our fair share of cold rain.

Recommitment for our first port of call, The Big Easy, is this Friday. So it is really important to touch base with your mentees (if any) for this race and see how they are doing. Recommitment is a big decision for every participant, but one that one each of them can make. You can provide information, encouragement, ideas, and support, but you can’t make the decision for them. Let me know if I can help in any way.

We’ll be having a breakfast after training Saturday for the run and walk teams. Triathlon and cycle team members are free to join us. Coach Vicki will have the best idea when training should end, and thus when people will be going to breakfast. Ask your mentees if they are going to join us. We will need a reasonable head count. I am proposing Kitchen 64 up Boulevard, and would like to see if they can set a few tables aside, ergo, the head count.

After a month of so of the spring season, you should start to be able to separate your mentees into two major groups: those you feel are going to do just fine with fundraising and those you have concerns about. For the next week or so, I would concentrate my efforts on the latter group. What concerns do you have about them? Do they have a plan, and if so, where are they falling short? Are you seeing signs that they are struggling, or even worse, just not doing any fundraising? Are any of them appearing to avoid you? This would be a good time to reach out by phone or in person to meet with anyone that you are concerned about. If they seem stymied, help them pick one fundraising method that they want to try, and motivate them to do that one well. Could be letters, could be their webpage and emails, could be specific fund raisers. It could even be getting amazing items for the silent auction next month, although it would be risky to put all one’s eggs in that basket, since the results won’t be known for another month.

At the same time, don’t ignore your other mentees. While the one’s you are behind on fundraising need the most attention, every participant needs some TLC. Maybe they are fine with their fundraising, but just want to discuss the TNT experience with someone who has been there. Or maybe they have gotten off to a great start, but are not sure what to do next. The great thing about being a mentor is that you have been there before, and maybe experienced or felt some of the things that they are feeling or experiencing. Sometimes what a participant needs most is a smile and a pat on the back, and someone who can relate to their concern.

I am always looking for mission moments to remind me of how important what we are doing is. This week, a chance encounter at work was the source of my inspiration. I wrote about it here:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2009/12/who-do-you-know-with-leukemia.html

Speaking of mission moments, at the marathon training Saturday I have arranged for Faith Eury to come out and tell us about her experience with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. She just finished chemo a month ago, and has had a really tough go of it, with a lot of time in the hospital.

Let me know if you need help, or have concerns. You know how to reach me so if you need me, get in touch!

GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#4)

Ahoy me Hardees! This is your captain speaking, mentor captain Art that is, with another weekly message for you!

It was good to see so many of you yesterday at the fund-raising clinic and social. Thanks to Amy and her husband for opening their beautiful home to team members present and past, and for their hospitality. I know that everyone very much appreciated this. Not only did participants have some fun and get to socialize in other than running clothes and swim suits, but hopefully they learned something at the very interactive fund raising clinic. Thanks for all of the participation by mentors and coaches. I know that Cate and I wanted that. We didn’t want to be the only ones sharing knowledge, as vast and amazing as our store of knowledge is. J

Here are some things to look into this week, and some ideas. I don’t want to keep beating the drum of making sure people customize their page, get notes sent out, prepare letters and so forth. We hit, hard, that last night. Suffice to say, any participant that has not yet done at least two of these three things by now is having valuable time go by. So all that goes without saying.

Picture It! Some of the participants are interested in photos for their web page. I will not be at training this weekend. But maybe a couple of you could bring your camera to run/walk, bike, and tri training, and snap some photos – not just of your mentees but of anyone who wants to. They could be posed, group, or action shots. Or goofy shots, even. The next time I come out, I will bring my camera – beware – but for now, see if you can help with this. The same goes for coaches. Someone put across the idea of changing their web page photo every few weeks, which is a great idea. But you need a supply of photos to do this. If you want an idea on a little bit of an offbeat photo, look at the one of the running shoes in this older blog post of mine:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2009/01/belle-isle-run.html

Go Online! Last week I sent you the link to the new LLS fundraising online slideshow. Make sure participants get this, because there is great information in this. And this includes some background information that participants might want to share with potential donors. I am pretty sure that the current team is the first to have this tremendous resource, so let’s put it to great use!

The Auction Block! Now is definitely the time for people to be collecting silent auction items. We threw a bunch of ideas out there last night, but see if your participants need any more ideas or help.

New Crew! A few of you have new team members. Make them feel welcome, and remind the coaches to introduce them to the veteran teammates. And if you lost crew, consider writing them a short note wishing them well and expressing the hope that they join us again in future times.

Leave no Sailor Behind! Work with the coaches to make sure that the slower runners and walkers don’t get left behind. If you are not training for an event, consider lagging behind to keep someone company. I think that the cyclists and triathletes pretty much stick together during training, but if not, the same principal applies. Training is usually more fun if you are with someone.

Time for an Update! For those diligent teammates who hit the ground running and sent out their initial notes a few weeks ago, it is time for an update and gentle reminder to potential donors. They can discuss training to date, progress in training and/or fundraising, people they have met, stories they have heard: whatever tickles their fancy.

Bon Voyage! For those of you lucky enough to be traveling for extended periods this month, just keep your mentees in the loop and load ‘em up with ideas in advance. If possible, check in by email with them during that time. And have fun! Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Holidays of your choice.

Mission Moment! Here is a personal one. This Wednesday marks seven years in remission for me. There is rarely a day that I don’t reflect with tremendous gratitude for not only still being alive, but healthy as well. And I know very well that a lot of things went into my survival. Things learned by doctors in the past. Patients who didn’t make it, but along the way, things were discovered about ways to treat these diseases. Money raised to deliver research. Dedicated researchers. I am thankful for life, and for what each of you and all participants in TNT and Light the Night do everyday to work for better and more humane cures. I am one of millions who is living proof that we are making progress with solving the mystery of these terrible blood cancers. So, THANK YOU!

We are heading along with fair winds and following seas as we cruise through the spring season, approaching our first port of call, New Orleans, in just a couple more months. Please contact me if you have questions or need assistance with anything. Thanks for all that you do.

GO TEAM!
Art

Message from the Captain (#3)

Ahoy, my mentoring mateys! Ahoy! Here is another message from mentor captain Art!

I hope that each of you had a great Thanksgiving. I am thinking that I will need to run about 60 miles to burn off the calories that I have consumed in the past week. ‘Tis the season to gain weight if one is not careful.

It seems like we are sailing smoothly along so far. Many of you copy me on your weekly notes to your mentees, and everyone is doing a great job. I have not gotten fundraising reports, but have heard of a number of participants who are doing great with their fundraising. As noted last week, it is especially important with the Mardi Gras folks for them to get off to a fast start.

In addition to being the season of gaining weight, this is also the time of year when many participants will have “shore leave.” Just remind them to let the coaches know if they will not be at training during a given week. Likewise, let your mentees know if you won’t be around for a while.

From a mentoring perspective, this coming Sunday’s fundraising clinic at Amy’s home is really important. It is at six bells, er, 3:00. If you can at all make it, please do, and be prepared to speak up with your fundraising ideas. And please remind your mentees about the importance of attending this event. Fundraising to generate money for our mission is the backbone of Team in Training, and participants will need every edge in this continuing down economy.

Speaking of bad economies, I am attaching a couple of documents in case they are useful and you wish to share them. One is ideas for fundraising in a challenging economy, and the other is 25 fundraising ideas.

A few other dates to remind people of are December 3 for reviewing fundraising with Cate one on one (they should contact Cate directly for this); December 12 for the shoe clinic at Three Sports (marathon team); December 19 after marathon training for a team breakfast (venue to be decided, cycle and triathlon teams are welcome to join in); January 12 for the Silent Auction at Blackfinn.

By now, every one of your mentees should have their web page customized and emails sent out, and hopefully be underway with their letters. If they have not, this should be your number one priority to get work with them on. You should also offer to meet with them and review their fundraising plans.

We are now nearly 4 weeks into the spring season from kickoff. It might be a good time to just touch base with each of your mentees one on one. How do they feel about their experience so far? Do they have any concerns or anxieties? Are there stories they want to share with you or other participants? Would they like to present a mission moment? How are they feeling about training and their coaches? Of course, you should encourage them to discuss any concerns or issues in this area with their coach. Although we often think of mentors as “fundraising coaches,” in recent times, I have been thinking of mentors more as “TNT experience coaches.” You have been through TNT before, and your insights and experiences could be keys to helping a participant who is having a problem or concern of some kind.

I’ll pass on a brief mission moment. I am not sure how many of you know Rachel Barach, who was a teammate of mine on the 2008 Arizona Marathon Team. She has since moved to California, and become the mother of twins. Recently, Rachel told me about the little son of one of her closest friends. His name is Jordan, he is two years old, and he was just diagnosed with acute lymphocitic leukemia. Can you imagine having your little child have to go through this? Or can you imagine being two years old and having to go through this? A.L.L. in children is now fairly treatable, but there can be lifelong side effects from the long and difficult treatment. As your participants go through the hard work of training and fundraising, maybe they can think about Jordan and what this little fellow and his family is going through.

Let me know if anyone has questions or needs help with anything.
GO TEAM!
Cap’n Art

Message from the Captain (#2)

Ahoy, Mateys! It’s Mentor Captain Art, with my weekly message for you. I more or less missed this the other week, because I was in Michigan.

I hope that all is shipshape as we continue on our great spring voyage. I see from Cate’s updated rosters that we have gained considerable crew over the past few weeks, which is tremendous. In fact, at the joint training yesterday for the foot and triathlon teams, we had a really good turnout. Now it will be our job to keep everyone navigating properly on course to hit their fundraising minimum. This is always important, but especially so during these continued tough economic (and fundraising) times.

So, what are some things you can chat with your mentees about this week? Well, I’m assuming that you have already talked to them about customizing their web pages, getting letters drafted, and getting emails out. And I assume that you have offered to review letters and emails if they need help, and likewise made suggestions about their web pages if you deem it necessary. Several of you have shared your notes to your mentees with me, and they have been excellent.

If you were at the run / tri training yesterday, you heard Nancy’s very sad mission moment about the young student at her school who died Friday from leukemia. I think it is worth discussing this in your emails to your mentees this week, even though many participants were there. A lot of time with TNT, we emphasize the fun parts of our journey together – the teamwork, the fun of training together, the sense of accomplishment we all feel from completing our races. We often get mission moments from lucky patient honorees who have survived their incredibly difficult journeys through the valley of cancer. So when we hear a story about this wonderful teen-ager dying and missing out on so much of life, I think it is important to remind our participants about the serious side of Team in Training and how important is the cause for which we all work – to find humane cures. If you were not there and so don’t know about this girl’s story, you can contact Nancy. I’ve also written a short post about this girl on my blog that has some of the details:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/2009/11/like-candle-snuffed-out-too-soon.html

What is the most important group of run / walk mentees to concentrate on right now? If you said “Mardi Gras”, you just earned an extra day of shore leave! This is because they have such a short time until recommitment, and indeed, until their event. If they are new to TNT, it is going to feel daunting at times to raise 25% of their minimum in just over a month. So my suggestion is to pay special attention to these folks if you are their mentor. This trip to the Big Easy is going to be a fantastic experience, and we don’t want anyone to miss out by getting discouraged early with fundraising difficulties. So let’s help each of them jump into their fundraising. Of course, if you are a cycle or triathlon mentor, you don’t need to worry about this.

Remind your mentors about the fund raising clinic at Amy’s home in two weeks. They will get a lot of good information there, and it will definitely be worth their while.

One thing that participants can focus on with their fundraising is that potential donors can make an end of year donation that can still go against their 2009 tax deductions. But because people are besieged with similar requests from so many worthy charities at this time of year, it is very important for your mentees to remind people of this in their notes.

Finally, this is the time that people should be contacting businesses for donations to the silent auction in January. Now, I know there is a lot going on with everyone right now – the holidays, end of semester stuff for anyone involved in school. So like everything else in life, people will have to prioritize the aspects of their fundraising campaigns. There probably isn’t time to do it all, which is why that fundraising plan for each participant is important.

I hope each of you has a great Thanksgiving. I know that I have a lot to be grateful for, and I suspect that each of you do as well. Please let me know if I can help you with anything. You know how to reach me.

GO TEAM! Full speed ahead!
Art

Message from the Captain (#1)

Note - this is my first Mentor Captain message to my spring team mentors.

Ahoy Mateys! This is your Captain speaking, Captain Art of the LLS Mentorship, that is! It’s time to weigh anchor, hoist the sails, and set the compass for more TNT adventures! Ports of call will include New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Tampa Bay, Nashville (hey, we’ll have to navigate up the Cumberland River, so look sharp), and Lake Tahoe (we’ll need to keep a keen eye out from the tops on that voyage to not run aground).

Yes, that’s right, I will be your mentor captain this season, and I promise to be no Captain Bligh. There will be no need of mutiny as we work hard to extend our bounty of good health to others. I am looking forward to interacting with each of you as we work with our new recruits to turn them from landlubbers into seasoned Team in Training seadogs, helping them to have an amazing TNT experience while raising money for a great cause.

By way of background, I have done four events with Team in Training, all on foot, starting in 2005. I mentored in two of those years, and I also mentored an additional season when I was not racing or fundraising. I know first hand that it is a lot of work, but very fulfilling. And, being a 7.5 year Hodgkin lymphoma survivor, I also know first hand how important the mission is. I am not yet signed up on a 2010 team, but plan on it. Maybe even the spring team – I am looking at options and vacation plans, and will go from there. My easiest option will be another foot race, but I am trying to think outside the running shoes.

If each of you can email me back that you got this message so I know that I got your email address entered correctly in the ship’s log, I’d appreciate it. Also, please let me know your preferred phone contact, and maybe an alternate number as well.

Right now, thinking back to our own TNT experiences, you should be welcoming your participants to the Team, and encouraging them (and helping them if necessary) to get their on-line fundraising pages set up, initial notes sent out, and to work on their letters. This continues to be a tough fundraising environment, although we know it is very possible to meet and exceed the minimum fundraising requirements. The earlier people get started the better. LLS has done a great job in recent years allowing people to start with fundraising before the team even kicks off, and if people take advantage of that, it really works in their favor. If people hit their minimum early, it is so much less stressful on them when it comes to recommitment time. It gives them a chance either to relax and focus on training, or to keep pushing ahead with fundraising and exceed the minimum amount.

Some of you have mentored before, others not. I would really like to hear from each of you about how I can be helpful to you. This is a new role for me, so I want to be helpful, and not create unnecessary work for you. I am depending on each of you to let me know. I would love to meet with each of you in small groups or individually – or all at once for that matter, in the unlikely event that everyone schedule agrees – to discuss the season ahead, any concerns you have, and so forth. So one thing that would be helpful is when you reply to this note, give me some dates we could potentially meet.

Coaches, I am copying you on this first email. Please let me know if you want to be copied on future ones. Or maybe Cate will say – “copy the coaches!” I am not sure.

As far as contacting me, email works well. This address is fine, as is racn4acure@comcast.net. Both get forwarded to my work email. My home phone number is (804) 555-5555. And just a few days ago, I got a newfangled piece of technology called a “mobile phone!” My mobile number is 804-555-5555. So, there is no need to use Morse code or climb high in the yardarms with a semaphore flag to communicate with me. I’ll be sending out an email to you every week, unless I am away. And I will also post those emails (excluding any personal information) on my blog:

http://racn4acure.blogspot.com/

So if you are ever awake at 2AM, desperately searching for a note from me, thinking “Where, oh where is that incredible gem of wisdom and wit from Cap’n Art?” – fret not! Just go to my blog, and about halfway down on the right rail, you will see the labels that I have used to organize my posts. Click on the “Mentor Captain” label, and all of my posts on that topic will display. (Questionable) Wisdom found, problem solved, sleep coming.

I’ll be at the November 4 information meeting, and also at Kick-Off. I hope you will be there as well – come up and introduce yourself if we have not met yet. Thank you for mentoring, thanks for making a difference, and thanks for racing for a cure! I’m looking forward to the voyage ahead, and hoping for fair winds and following seas! Anchor’s aweigh!

GO TEAM!
Art