Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

What's Happenin'

Leadership Nevada County is in the final planning stages. Presenters are being contacted and locations secured for a premier leadership and community training program. Already we have received a number of applications in the office and many more have been picked up. People are beginning to understand the importance of preparing a pool of people who will be able and willing to move into community leadership positions.

The program will last the entire 2001 calendar year. The participants will spend one full day a month studying issues and organizations in Nevada County. Over the course of the program the participants will visit 41 different locations with 38 of those being in Nevada County. Approximately 70 different presenters will share information on their respective organizations or on leadership skills with the group. The class of 2001 will receive in-depth information on around 55 organizations that work in the County. You can quickly see that people who participate in the leadership program will receive a well-rounded education that will prepare them for service in our community.

The scheduled programs are as follows: Opening Retreat, State Government, History, Health and Human Services, Leadership Skills, Local Government, Business and Economic Development, Law Enforcement, Cultural Diversity, Quality of Life, Education, and a Graduation Banquet. In addition each participant will be involved in a group service project that will benefit the community.

To ensure that people have the opportunity to participate and interact with the presenters and with each other the class size is limited to 15 participants. However, we are not just taking the first 15 who apply. Leadership Nevada County is dedicated to training a diverse group of people so that all population groups in the County can have effective leadership. For this reason an anonymous committee appointed by the Bard will select 15 participants from the pool of applications. Some individuals will be deferred to the Class of 2002. This is not a reflection on the participant, but rather an attempt by the committee to make each Class as diverse as possible. Diversity will be based on the following things: gender, race, age, geographic location (living or working) in the county and length of residency in the county (living or working).

The cost of the program is $100 per participant. The Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, the Nevada County Industrial Development Charitable Foundation and Entergy are current sponsors. Several other organizations have been approached and are also interested in sponsoring the program. These groups are helping keep the direct cost to the participants down.

If you are interested in the program you can get an official application form at the Partnership office, 116 East Second. Applications are due into the office no later than November 15. The selected participants will be announced in December. For more information feel free to call me at 887-6208.