During his year as American Leatherman 2000, Dean Ogren traveled extensively, assisting event producers and simply being social. Dean served as a Judge for Mr. Louisiana Leather, Mr. Dixie Belle, Mr. Ottawa Hull/M Quir, and International Mr. Drummer. Pantheon of Leather’s 1999 Midwest Regional award-winner, Dean has been active in the leather/SM community for over twelve years. For the previous two years, Dean has been head of International Mr. Leather’s on-site office, while he continued to work directly with the contestant host staff. That won’t be his role at IML this year, though: he will be walking across IML’s stage seeking to be International Mr. Leather 2002. Chicago’s Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame inducted Dean in 1998, recognizing his many volunteer labors of love on behalf of: The NAMES Project, Open Hand Chicago, AIDS Walk Chicago, Habitat for Humanity, the Special Olympics, United Way, City of Chicago Department of Public Health grant review, and political activism. In 1996 Dean was nominated for the prestigious Jefferson Award, a national volunteer recognition award.

At Tribal Fire, Dean is pleased to be presenting two workshops. His first will relate to the volunteer service that he has participated in over the years, giving practical ins and outs of how to become a superstar in your own community activism way. The working title is, "How Can I Make a Difference". The second workshop will hopefully be presented with his sashwife Paula on some Leather Contest information that might not always be top on your mind, whether you are producer, judge or contestant. Paula's daughter is expecting so Grandma may miss this event however, the working title with apologies to Paul Harvey is "Leather Contests…..And now you know the rest of the story."

bio current as of 4-1-02

2002 Presentations:

Volunteering 101 - “How to be codependent and add Value...Community Volunteering 101.” How to get started, thoughts of what makes it valuable, resource information.

Contest Workshop - “Tragedy tomorrow, Contest tonight! Contest Workshop from soup to nuts a beginning primer”. Thoughts from the contestants and productions point of view and suggestions of how to’s from producer to titleholder.