F3RVA
Always 70 and Sunny
F3RVA
Always 70 and Sunny

F3RVA Town Hall

4

We had our first RVA group meeting after COVID-19 Shutdown. Below are the notes from the meeting. We will have Parking lot discussion points that we can cover in a future meeting. The purpose of this town hall was to get the feedback from everyone in attendance and anyone in the RVA region may read the below notes. This is what transpired below:

Discussion on AO’s:
Corned Beef:  – 33 AO’s, maybe the Summer Tour will help us determine which may no longer be viable?
Labrat:- If you start an AO, it’s up to you to determine whether it’s still viable- Litmus test should be if you’d feel embarrassed if an out of town or FNG guy showed up
Gypsy:- We can also look at Big Data to follow numbers and determine viability
Flatline:- There are enough AO’s and PAX that we could just have guys take ownership and run with it


Round Table Discussion:
Shakedown:- Love F3RVA and feel it’s doing well the way it is in spite of Pandemic weirdness- Patience and unity are central, and convo worthwhile if it helps- Let’s try to expand the ways we represent F3RVA on Twitter/etc to connect with more folks
Wilson:- It’s all about You-vs-You, and if you want to make change, do it- Growth is happening where the need is, which is where the PAX live- What’s the end game for F3RVA? Where are we going? What are our goals?
Nancy Lopez:- If numbers are low, it’s up to the regulars to boost numbers- Would love to see more of the community service – like cemetery clean-up that Doublemint was Q’ing
Marmaduke:- Let’s pull together and get stronger together- Wants to get the PODCAST up and running (reach out if you want to help!)
Garbage Plate:- See more guys stepping up to Q and pushing the PAX with harder challenges/fitness
Gomer Pyle:- Love it, and while we don’t need to grow, it would be a sign of health- How can we connect with, support or partner with some of the other RVA workout groups?- We have a LOT of christian guys, and it can seem exclusive- There are no AO’s East of Richmond – what can we do to be a part of those communities?
Bluemoon:- The spice of F3RVA is the variety of PAX and AO’s available- Does everyone that joins F3RVA get some insight into the availability of the other AO’s?- It’s important that if an AO is on the map, it needs to be regularly Q’d and well attended
Mudface:- It’s not that we need to grow, but that there’s more people out there that need F3RVA!
Bodos:- We tend to inhabit homogenous networks, so F3RVA tends to grow with guys of similar culture/community- How can we invite and connect with other communities, and how can we change our culture to be inclusive?
Don Draper:- We all get something different out of F3RVA – sometimes to Q, sometimes to attend- The F2 accountability and encouragement is what gets me out of bed- How can we share the KoolAid with guys who haven’t yet joined?- How can we share the passion we have to help enhance our quality of headlocking new guys – If new guys are inviting new guys, have they been indoctrinated sufficiently to share the core principles?
Fireman Ed:- His M is asking about if the FIA can happen for our Region – good testimony of how awesome F3RVA is- We’ve moved toward more Hot Potatoes as we’ve had more AO’s – is that a good thing?- How can we retain the FNG’s? Is there something better we can do to shepherd these guys to stick with it?
Spit:- We need to look at someone being responsible for each individual AO- If nobody signs up to Q, or the Q no-shows, then that guy takes responsibility- If an FNG shows up, that person has the responsibility to welcome/educate/integrate the FNG
Chaplain:- I would have quit F3 if I hadn’t had guys follow up with me – so I think that’s important
Gypsy:- Our mission is National with well established “best practices”- The lack of structure weakens the model- How can we ensure F3 can plant/serve/grow the RVA community?
Phonics:- The mistake in an expansion is not having someone living IN that community- The leadership needs to be local- Have always enjoyed the unique challenges posed like Old Glory – can those be scheduled?
Faceplant:- Q fatigue is real, so we need better coordinated efforts to share the opportunity/responsibility to Q
Fresh Prince:- F3 is what we make of it – what we put in, is what we get out
Boberry:- More structure would be helpful to bring F3 out to new communities- When I first posted, had not Rosie reached out and followed-up with me, I may not have returned
HoneyDo:- Let’s be INTENTIONAL – what is our strategy?- I’m a living testimony that F3RVA works. There are men like me out there who also need saving.- Where can we have the most impact if we’re expanding? How do we structure that to happen?- How can we leverage the men and systems we already have in place?
Snuff:- Growing the group sounds ambitious- There’s a personal growth that happens in F3 where we have mutual accountability and encouragement- We all need to think how we individually can be stretched for the sake of others
Hitchhiker:- What makes a good leader? Having Followers – so if nobody is following, change the leader- F3RVA is attractive in the flexibility to choose when and how any PAX steps up to do more
Doozy:- We have an 80:20 problem …our PAX just isn’t showing up- We can start our growth by helping current PAX to be invited to participate/invest/Q- We can do a LOT better by having assigned individuals at AO’s to appropriately handle an FNG
Wojo:- Love that F3 welcomes you whatever stage of life you’re in- We need to extend our reach into other communities, but it’s gonna take a coordinated effort
Circle K:- Recruiting/Expanding is an accountability on yourself- CSAUP’s may be the secret sauce to both strengthen PAX relationships and recruit FNG’s
Mousetrap:- Heart for the FNG’s – but there’s a problem with recruitment/retention- How can we ensure FNG’s feel welcomed from the first day they post, so they don’t feel like they have to fight their way to the inner circle of an exclusive group?
Bone Thugs:- The personal accountability provided by F3 is the reason I turned my life around- We can save lives if we get this right
Flatline:- If you have not read it, you NEED to read “Freed to Lead”- If you want changes at your AO, take charge and make it happen- If you want to strengthen relationships, most times it takes getting into others’ sandbox
Tryhard:- Let’s consider a POC (“Point of Contact”) for the different AO’s, someone who will help properly welcome any FNG’s and can step up to Q if needed, or encourage others to Q where appropriate.- There could also be a POC for each Nano-region, to help facilitate CSAUP’s and other inter-Nano F1/F2/F3 events
Bleeder:- F3 is the light in this world – how can we do better and expand the light?- We’ve got to be intentional if we’re going to break into other communities
EFHutton – He lost Power to his house, however sent a text in summary likes how we operate in our nano regions and really enjoys the Saturday workout where everyone comes together from the other Nano regions. This group is organic in its development and I can work out as much as I want to workout, I can Q if I feel compelled to Q, if it’s a hot potato, no big deal, there is enough self motivated guys that you will get a good work out.

Corned Beef – Enjoy the brotherhood of F3, want to learn more of what we do as a group and stay involved. Appreciated everyone being able to have input in this town hall. Please reply to this backblast of any additional comments and let me know if there are any corrections and I will fix it ASAP. Thank you Tryhard for taking the notes of this meeting. Have a great evening everyone. Cheers….CB!


PARKING LOT ITEMS:- 1.)AO’s having someone take responsibility-

2.) Get repeat Challenges scheduled: Murph, Ghost Flag, Old Glory, etc.

3.) Podcast – can we revive this?

Corned Beef took us out in Prayer.

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About Author

I grew up in Roanoke, Va. Class of 1985 Cave Spring High, class of 1989 VMI Civil Engineering. Worked for Turner Construction in Jacksonville, Miami and Cincinnati, Moved to Richmond, Licensed Class A contractor, and work for Westminster Canterbury Richmond managing their major expansion for the next 4 years. I am married to a Librarian Betsy (UVA grad) and proud father of two awesome teenagers George (aka Hash-F3) and Lucy.

4 Comments

  1. Swirly (F3 Corporate) on

    Man, sorry to have not been able to attend this meeting fellas.
    Some excellent comments in here for sure.
    I look forward to seeing all of you in the gloom !

  2. Tryhard – Thanks for transcribing. Corned Beef – Thanks for moderating and writing it up.

    Lots of discussion happened in the chat – maybe that could be transcribed here as well. Some things of note I remember from the chat were Circle K saying he’d head up a CSAUP and I’d help him. Someone mentioned that FNGs need sponsors or people to show them the ropes. Lab rat said it was doing an FNG a disservice to not do that for your FNG. I said I always do it for mine and whenever a new guy comes out they get jumped on by guys welcoming them and telling them about the sites, social media etc. I’ve never seen an FNG in the wind. Never in the over four years I’ve been here.

    One thing I did not get the chance to mention last night was the conversations that I was a part of during the grow ruck a couple of years ago and hearing other regions complaining about site Qs and how miserable that scene was. Nobody else wanted to Q, etc. Doozy had a different story related to him by a friend but that was not what Offshore, and I (along with others) were hearing. Tread carefully and my caution would be to, if we go that way, to make it 100% voluntary – but then again, isn’t that what Gomer is doing at Curahee and Tryhard is doing at The Forge etc.. this group won’t take kindly to being told what to do and when they have to be somewhere.

    HRs site Q program was mentioned as a success. I reminded folks in the chat that they, even though they are a bigger geographic region, only have 17 AOs. We have 33. Do we really need new redundancy? I know that expanding into new areas like the East End is growing (and I plan to be a part of that) but another AO near existing AOs when we can’t get enough guys sounds like a too many AOs problem to me not a not enough Qs assigned to AOs problem.

    I heard someone say that we only had 30 guys present last night and that others didn’t step up. First, is this your first experience with volunteerism? Second, Bull crap. People have things to do and on top of that some of the biggest most consistent leaders in RVA just decided that they didn’t want to be part of it. They keep leading workouts and bringing food to the less fortunate and helping to train addicts and alcoholics to run and other stuff they do but decided to not participate in the political theatre that they perceived was about to go down. Maybe to keep the peace. Maybe just to opt out of the politics all together.

    Anyway, the chat might have some more info to share if you want want to take a look. Thanks Corned Beef for keeping things moving.

    Not sure my comments were captured accurately but that’s why I never talk to reporters anymore.

    I started by saying that it made me nervous that this organization, F3RVA who never holds meetings felt the need to hold a meeting in the first place. I still feel that way even though I agree we had some good fruitful discussions.

    I kept hearing how well we do things organically and that we are great at what we do but that we need to change that way to be more like others. Which is it?

    Love you guys. Have a great day. Reach out to someone outside the upper middle class white christian demographic like Bodos and Gomer said and let’s expand this thing that is free and open to all men. SYITG ????✌?

  3. Very sorry I missed this Zoom- got stuck on a work emergency.

    Looks like lots of great passion and ideas. Good stuff. I look forward to re-engaging when I am back in town in August. It might be baby steps but I’ll be back.

    Miss you guys and miss the gloom. See you soon.