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By MARK MILLER
Almost two years in the making, the Wells County Leadership Academy is gearing up for its first classes this fall.
The concept for the academy, which will offer a series of classes that will be aimed at enhancing the leadership abilities of local people in local businesses, churches and organizations, was conceived in late 2006 amid some casual discussions between four local women who are in positions of leadership.
Tamra Boucher was wrapping up her second year as president of the board of directors for the United Way of Wells County. She and executive director Pamela Beckford were trying to fill some seats on the board for several members who were being rotated off.
The names of potential board members, the pair quickly found, were people who were either serving on other boards, or had served before on the United Way board and other community boards. Several new names the pair contacted expressed interest but felt uncomfortable or unqualified to serve.
“It quickly became apparent that we need to develop more community leaders,” Boucher relates. And that conclusion only confirmed a concern that Beckford had had, and in fact had been having conversations about with Wells County Chamber of Commerce manager Suzanne Huffman and Wells Community Foundation executive director Tammy Slater.
“The three of us had discussed this issue off and on for over a year,” Slater says. “But the credit really needs to go to Pamela for getting us together and basically saying ‘Let’s do something about this.’”
The three recruited a dozen others to what became the Wells County Leadership Task Force: Boucher, Leon Gerber, Alan Gunkel, Travis Holdman, Julie Wood, John Whicker, Roger Scherer, Rick Singer, Bill Horan, Juli Merkel, Shellie Miller and Mark Miller began meeting to explore possibilities. A grant from the county foundation enabled them to hire a professional facilitator to help move the process along.
Early in their monthly meetings which began in the spring of 2007, the group realized that effective leadership training would need to go beyond the scope of just serving on local non-profit boards.
“In order to continue keeping Bluffton and Wells County as a vibrant community that employers seek out, it is vital that we offer development opportunities for individuals that will benefit them, and also their employers,” Beckford has said.
Meanwhile, one of the task force members, Holdman, was also serving as president of the Huntington University Foundation, which was exploring the establishment of a new Center for Leadership Studies (CLS) at the nearby college. Mostly through his efforts, the budding Wells County Leadership Academy became a pilot project of the budding CLS and had input in the writing of the course curriculum by nationally-known leadership author Dr. Tim Elmore.
The task force met with Elmore in early November, 2007 to discuss the curriculum format and content.
Elmore performed a two-day training event in May with approximately 15 Wells County volunteer trainers who will lead the various sessions of the academy.
The initial class is slated to have their first session in mid-September. The class will meet once each month (with the exception of December) through May, 2009.
“Several other communities have done something similar,” Beckford said, “but they are mostly geared to getting younger business people better acquainted with the details of their community and encourage them to serve on non-profit boards and committees,” she said.
“This is much, much more than that,” she continued. “We want to provide a program that helps people improve their careers and helps them improve their company.”
“It’s much more in depth,” Slater added. “It’s a skill-based approach to leadership.”
Informational brochures for the fall classes were recently mailed to Wells County businesses and organizations. Applications for the first class, which will be limited to 20 participants, are due by August 1.
As a pilot program for the CLS, “we get the benefit of a huge amount of resources at little or no cost,” Beckford said.
“Most local companies simply cannot afford to send their employees away for this type and quality of training,” Beckford continued. “So that’s been one of our main goals: to offer convenient and affordable access to quality leadership training that will benefit that person and their company.”
“And that will, in turn, benefit the community,” Huffman added.
The local academy is working under the umbrella of the Wells County Chamber of Commerce. Companies or individuals who want to get information are invited to contact the chamber at 824-0510.
In early June, Tim Hartigan, a locally-based business consultant, agreed to be the facilitator for the academy, working on all the details that are necessary to launch the first series of classes.
“We’re really pleased to get Tim into this position,” Beckford said. “Tim’s skills and abilities are a great match for doing the ‘nuts and bolts’ work involved in getting the academy off the ground.”
“One thing we’ve heard is that these classes are being targeted at young people,” Slater said. “It’s really targeted to anyone of any age who wants to enhance their effectiveness in their company or their church or in any organization they’re involved in.”
The first class of the academy will be determined by the middle of August with the first session scheduled to meet on Wed., September 17. The plan is to have a monthly session of approximately three hours on the third Wednesday morning of each month from Sept. through May, with the exception of December.
“This will take a commitment by the student and the company to make that time available,” Beckford said.
“With us being a pilot program and our relationship with Huntington University, we feel like our course will have a high degree of credibility,” Huffman said. “And Tim Elmore’s record speaks for itself.”
Elmore is the founder and president of “Growing Leaders,” a non-profit organization created to develop emerging leaders.
Elmore has taught leadership to such corporations as Chick-Fil-A Inc., HomeBanc and Gold Kist, and also has presented programs on hundreds of high school and college campuses. His background includes a 23-year experience working alongside best-selling author and speaker Dr. John C. Maxwell.
In addition to the “Habitudes” series, which he used as the basis for the academy’s curriculum, books that Elmore has written include “Mentoring: How to Invest Your Life in Others” and “Nuturing the Leader Within Your Child.”