BYU MBA's and Soldiers in Iraq

I may spin back into BYU MBA information from time to time. It was a great experience and I loved my time there. After spending two years with the same bunch of people, going through academic struggles, births, marriages, and hours of foosball, you tend to create deeper relationships. I currently have a friend, Dana Tucker http://danatucker.blogspot.com/, who had to leave the program early because he was called into active duty with the Army. He is a Major and is currently running one of the Iraqi police training facilities. Several of my other friends took jobs with Microsoft in Seattle in their HR Leadership Development Program called TRAX. I am in a similar program for Amazon.com, also based in Seattle.

My program includes three, 10 month rotations. My first is in Fernley, Nevada where I work as an HR generalist in one of their largest fulfillment centers. At this time of the year and for the rest of the year, I won't be spending much time at my desk. We have about 900 full-time Amazon employees, however we are in the process of bringing on between 1400 and 1600 temporary associates in order to handle the increased volume we get between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm already feeling the effects of the increased workload. My wife and I have four children and I feel like Amazon moving toward Christmas is like my wife moving towards delivery. The building is getting more painful by the day with more arms and legs in an increasingly cramped space.

I'm the new Scoutmaster in Fernley. I am an Eagle Scout but ironically enough I hate camping. As such, I'm not surprised that this is the second time I've been punished with this calling. That being said, the boys I have are surprisingly fun. My 12 year old son Christian is among them and this will give me a good opportunity to jump start his scouting journey. I feel like my mother earned about 18 of the twenty something merit badges I was awarded, so now it is my turn to earn them as they are being awarded to my son. :-)