This summer I am going to Ecuador for 12 days to do some high altitude climbing. I am going with a group form my school. This team is made of eight climbers and one of the hardest things about this is that we have just met each other and in under two mouths we will be climbing to over 20,000 feet together. So how do I tie this back to my life in Scouts? Trust and self-understanding will be key to making sure we have a strong and safe climbing team. Trust as many of you know must be at the core of everything we do, without that our rope teams will never make it the top.
How is trust earned in such short time? What my team chooses was to do was to go into the field at least once a week to climb, run or work on hard skills. I feel that the best way to from trust is through being put in situations where trust is forced. It could start as doing a trust fall and then move to pulling me out of a crevasse.
Why self-understanding is so important to team development? If you do not understand how you are going to handle different situations from dealing with hard advisors to working for a goal with little sleep. If you want to be able to lead others fully then a leader needs to understand themselves first.
So I ask each of you to think about how you are forming trust between you and those you work with, and then take time to sit in a quite peaceful place so that you can gain better understand who you are and what you want in life.
Leadership is Love
Fred Gross
2010 Western Region Chief
The Western region has lost a great Arrowmen. It is with great sadness for so many members of the Boy Scouts of America of which he was a proud and dedicated member for 75 years, and the literally thousands of boys whose futures he found it his calling to help shape over those many decades, that we note Esten passed peacefully and humbly after a very brief illness in the Whittier, California home which he shared with his beloved Midge (Gloria) for over 58 of their 63 years of marriage. Gloria and his two sons, Travis and Tim were with him as he began his "adventure" to see what's "on the other side". It was a "quest" of which he spoke often, contemplated for several years, and now no doubt, pursues with the vigor of a new life and a freshly pressed Boy Scout uniform, compass in hand.
The Spring 2010 Mustang newsletter is now available! The Mustang is the Western Region's official newsletter publication for lodge, section, and region leadership. Download the latest as well as past issues from the Mustang resources page.
DALLAS—Fred Gross has just been elected as the 2010 Western Region Chief at the Order of the Arrow National Planning Meeting in Dallas, Texas.
Fred comes from Yah-Tah-Hey-Si-Kess Lodge, Great Southwest Council #412. He is a Vigil Honor member of Comanche Chapter and Eagle Scout of Troop 57 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fred was previously the Section Chief of Section W-6E.
Congratulations, Fred, from all the Arrowmen of the Western Region. WEST IS BEST!
Congratulations to the other newly-elected 2010 National Officers:
The Western region has lost a great Arrowmen. It is with great sadness for so many members of the Boy Scouts of America of which he was a proud and dedicated member for 75 years, and the literally thousands of boys whose futures he found it his calling to help shape over those many decades, that we note Esten passed peacefully and humbly after a very brief illness in the Whittier, California home which he shared with his beloved Midge (Gloria) for over 58 of their 63 years of marriage. Gloria and his two sons, Travis and Tim were with him as he began his "adventure" to see what's "on the other side". It was a "quest" of which he spoke often, contemplated for several years, and now no doubt, pursues with the vigor of a new life and a freshly pressed Boy Scout uniform, compass in hand.
The Spring 2010 Mustang newsletter is now available! The Mustang is the Western Region's official newsletter publication for lodge, section, and region leadership. Download the latest as well as past issues from the 
