Leadership opens its arms to new class

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

CHRISAWN

Leadership McMinnville kicked off another year with a retreat at Rock Island State Park over the weekend, according to Chamber of Commerce president Lea Chrisawn, who coordinates the Chamber’s involvement with the program.

Leadership McMinnville has been around since the first class in 1985-86, according to Chrisawn, and has pretty straightforward goals.

“It’s a program designed to introduce individuals to what it takes to run a community,” Chrisawn said. “They learn about economic development efforts. They learn about our infrastructure, like what kind of transportation do we have. We learn about the agricultural community. A lot of people know about our nurseries, but they don’t know that much about the cattle industry, which is a very substantial industry in this community. We show them tourism. We talk about that and how it is an economic development tool.”

The group also learns about local government and how it functions, the health care industry and charitable and service organizations.

“We just show them every aspect of the community,” Chrisawn said.

The program’s steering committee, with about 12 members, tries to organize a class with representatives from a variety of disciplines.

“We don’t want a whole segment that’s just bankers,” Chrisawn said. “We don’t want a whole segment that’s just educators. We have different varieties of careers. We have engineers, we have bankers, we have human resource people.”

This year’s class even features a homemaker. Chrisawn is also pleased with the age range. This year’s class is made up of people ranging from 23 to 56.

“We’re looking for people who are interested in finding out about the community,” Chrisawn said. “We’re looking for people who are interested in becoming leaders. This is the most important aspect of our program.”

Leadership McMinnville also satisfies a requirement of the state’s Three Star program, which is an added benefit.

“One of the required components is to have an adult leadership program,” Chrisawn said, “and ours has been around for a long time.”

Though the program serves many purposes, Chrisawn says the main goal is to promote leadership.

This year’s Leadership McMinnville class has 19 members who, after the initial retreat, will meet 11 times during the year and complete an assigned project. The program costs $450 per individual per year. For more information, contact Cindy Rogers at Homeland Community Bank at 507-1422.